If you’re looking for the most challenging game of the year, look no further than GloGo. In GloGo, you become the ball. Navigate through three dimensional levels and complete them in the shortest time possible. Can you do it? Earn your place on the podium with at least a Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum!

It’s all about the visuals! Game industry artists share how they found a foothold, their favorite tools, and their unique approaches to making art for games (and even making games as art).

Scott is the UI designer/developer for Krita – a free and open source painting application. He is the author of “Digital Painting with Krita 2.9” and has been featured in magazines such as ImagineFX. He has been involved in the St. Louis game development community since 2009 and has done more game jams than he can count. He holds a bachelor degree from Purdue University in computer graphics technology. Scott is employed at Swank Motion Pictures as their UI designer/developer.

This talk will cover the approach the Baker Street team took towards building The Baker Street Experience, an audio-only adventure based around the character and world of Sherlock Holmes that mimics classic choose-your-own-adventure books while matching the quality of audio plays from the golden age of radio. Covering the project timeline, this talk will examine the design decisions the team made to build narrative environments and settings, and to accommodate the current limitations of the Amazon Echo/Alexa Skills Kit and similar “smart speaker” platforms.

In particular, focus will be given to how the team constructed a believable soundscape using specific audio cues and effects and allowed players to explore and immerse themselves in the narrative. Likewise this talk will dive into how building a cohesive audio experience with fully-voiced prompts was a key factor for immersing the player within the game. Finally this talk will also examine past and current games in this new narrative space and look at emerging innovations as developers strive to build exciting and original audio experiences with the Echo and other audio-enabled devices.

Magic meets mystery in Echoes of the Fey, a series of detective stories in a world of high fantasy. Made in UE4, The Last Sacrament is the next full installment. Sofya’s loyalty grows divided when politics clash over the town’s water system. Her childhood love, who also happens to be the Emperor’s daughter, seeks Sofya’s protection from mysterious threats. But a ruthless politician seeks a fifth drop of Eszther’s Sacrament — the consumption of which is the greatest heresy against the Krovakyn Church — and he will go to any lengths to ensure that Sofya delivers it to him.

Gather your friends together for an entertaining and surprisingly informative evening of giving whimsical, randomly-generated presentations! Laugh out loud together as you do your best to explain the link between a balanced breakfast and beard care. After your friends try to convince you that desserts really are the best way to treat illnesses, follow up with any questions that crossed your mind. Finally, give the presenters feedback, including how relevant the topic was to your interests and how devilishly handsome they looked during their microtalk. Act prepared (even if you don’t feel it), and remember to silence your cell phones!

Details TBD.

Use your celestial powers to move objects in the world and bring back the great animal constellations of the world.

In the US, there is no one “Privacy Law” to provide clear and consistent guidance to game developers. Instead, we have a patchwork of state and federal laws that offer broad protection but can sometimes be unclear or confusing from a compliance perspective. In particular, since there are so many laws covering so many different things, it’s easy to lose track of changes. Knowing where the basics of the major privacy regulations that impact game development, and some straightforward first steps you can take, is important for any company working or selling games in the United States.

How do you make a board game when all you have is a laser? How do you make a video game alone? How do you make a card game from scratch? Come learn about the risks and challenges of working alone, what working “solo” really means, what’s possible and what isn’t, and when and how to inevitably ask for help when you inevitably need it.

Few things interest kids more than planets and dinosaurs. Since it was an asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, it’s clear that in the game of life, the planets have won. Unfortunately, in the game of learning, all science tends to suffer. In this talk, Dr Gay discusses how how fun and addictive games can be used to get people of all ages playing with science, and how games can serve as a stepping off point to doing and learning science with NASA data. The presented game, EarthMatch, highlights our own planet Earth, and gives players dizzying space-based perspectives on familiar places like the Pyramids and our own Mississippi River.

Peanut Butter and Jelly. Macaroni and Cheese. Sonic and Tails. Some things just work better as a team, just like game developers and content creators. We have a lot to learn from each other, so we’ll hear from some creators about how we can team up with each other most effectively.

Game development is hard, and most developers end up doing much of the work themselves. In this presentation and Q&A, Ross and Tom will cover the non-development basics of starting from scratch: Incorporating your business, social media, protecting your work, gorilla marketing, and many more topics!

A Steampunk adventure board game where players take on the role of an airship captain, flying their vessel around the world and earning reputation. Captains can complete missions, pirate other vessels, and search for aether crystals to be the most reputable captain!

Recovery from serious injury or illness is not all fun and games, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their place! When presenter Jeff Spenner’s wife was nearly killed in an auto accident that resulted in a severe traumatic brain injury, he was adamant that he would not lose his gaming partner. With the encouragement of his wife’s doctors and therapists, he started using games as a form of unofficial therapy – for the both of them. This presentation will cover the effect of gaming during rehabilitation with a special focus on their use for cognitive recovery.

Speaker: Adam Coster, Butterscotch Shenanigans

Our lives are a sequence of decisions, but how do decisions even work? In this talk, Adam Coster of Butterscotch Shenanigans takes us on a mental adventure through the science, philosophy, and psychology of making decisions in life, business, and games. You’ll leave with a better understanding of yourself and the world, and freshly empowered to use the uncertainty of life to your advantage.

Play any instrument with your voice. Explore and create music with only a microphone. Simply sing or whistle to control any music software as if you are playing the notes by hand. imitone is intuitive, instant, expressive. It’s revolutionary audio technology in a tool anyone can use to learn, to create, to play. It is designed to enable.

imitone translates your voice into MIDI, the language of digital music. As you sing into your microphone, imitone’s unique technology will detect musical notes and instantly play them on a virtual keyboard. This can be used to control almost any music app or digital instrument. imitone also understands humming, whistling and most instruments.

Making games is hard, but keeping up with life while you’re making games can be even harder. As independent creators, how do we find a balance between launching a great game and keeping a happy home? Hear from game professionals about their experiences juggling games, life, and everything in between.