RPG Design Panelcast

Recorded at Metatopia 2019 Presented by Jason Walters , Mark Diaz Truman , Brennan Taylor , and Christopher Tang . Distribution And Fulfillment presented by Jason Walters, Mark Diaz Truman, Brennan Tylor, Christopher Tang. The ways to get your game into the hands of players are always shifting, but our experts can walk you through the three-tier system and the various alternatives to it.

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Jim McClure , Kenneth Hite , Cat Tobin. This panel is designed to help you establish the best way to present your game to consumers. From Elevator pitches, to focus points, to mechanical highlights, we will cover what is most important in getting people to buy into your game. Attendees should be prepared to discuss their game project as part of a group, and...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Jason Pitre, Rob Donoghue , Darren Watts and Joshua A.C. Newman . Alien Worlds - Xenobiology and Speculative Zoology.  Fictional alien biology and ecosystems are fascinating. From the implied phylogeny of James Cameron's Avatar to the Alien's Xenomorphs, exploration of alien biology is a fascinating topic worth exploring for your science fiction, post-apocal...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Kenneth Hite In this year's installment of "Ken Thinks About Stuff Out Loud", I look at the structural patterns of mythology. Are there actually structures of myth, and if there aren't, can we pretend there are? How can we take real-world myths and make them game material? How can we translate one myth system (that of the "standard fantasy world" for example...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Jennifer Gutterman , Maury Brown , Shoshana Kessock . At every milestone in our lives, we have used games or game mechanics to entice learning, reward progress in development, train for work or career preparation or use games for entertainment and relaxation. This panel will discuss how games are used in education, in teaching, and applied to game design edu...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Philip Vecchione, Senda Linaugh and Alex Roberts. Let's talk about integrating safety tools into your design process from the foundation. Yes, the x-card is valuable. Let's talk about design that builds the next generation of tools in from the beginning

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Juliet Meyer , Raymond Bruels , Chandler Copenhaver . Kickstarter can be amazing for creators, but there's a lot of other things around them that will help you find success. Learn how to market and plan for a Kickstarter, and what five things you should have in place long before the launch.      

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Shoshana Kessock , James Mendez Hodes . Religion has held sway across the world in various forms, and its influence has molded everything from how we live our everyday lives to the laws we make and the entertainment we consume. We will take a look at how real world religious ideologies have impacted the games we create, how they influence the worlds we build...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Eric Simon , Shoshana Kessock. History is more diverse than we think. Whether you're developing settings that are close to real history or highly speculative alt-history, there's always room to expand representation by highlighting real people and experiences. Let's research together in this interactive workshop!

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Steve Segedy , Christopher Badell , Mark Richardson , and Cat Tobin. Once you've created a game, what are your options for getting it out into the world? Come ask questions and find out about printing, distribution, and fulfillment options for independent designers and small publishers. We could also include discussion of Kickstarter, BackerKit, contracts, l...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Jim McClure. This panel will cover the art behind using game mechanics to influence player behavior. The panelist will dissect mechanics from published games and discuss how these mechanics influence play, and what lessons designers can learn from them.

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Jacqueline Bryk , Kate Bullock , Hamish Cameron "Beyond Bright Lights: Doing Cyberpunk Differently".  Much of cyberpunk focuses on the heroic outcast: the usually white male hacker or delivery person or shadowrunner bent on twisting the system for himself. Most of these stories take place in massive, crowded cities -- so why is it so rare to see any other na...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Brian Neff , Kiva Fecteau Crunching the Cardboard - Tabletop Analytics and Feedback". Playtesting and gathering feedback is the first step. The next step is to figure out what to do with the data you've collected and apply it to your design process productively. We will talk about how to discern which data should change your path and how.

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Kate Bullock , Kelvin Ortega , Jennifer Graham-Macht . Our panelists talk about how to be good playtesters. Learn how to hear the questions being asked and answer with useful feedback. We all want to give helpful criticism; learn more about how to do that.

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Brandon Leon-Gambetta , Miguel Angel Espinoza , Mark Diaz Truman , Alejandro Guzman Vendrell , Jennifer Gutterman . Join us for a celebration of Latinidad and an opportunity to come together as a Latinx community. This panel of Latinx game designers come together to discuss what it is like to write, play in, and run games while Latinx.

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Sam Saltiel , Elsa Henry , Avonelle Wing , Eli Eaton. Queer Erasure: Queerness is not a monolith. Queer game design is not immune to erasure, and by examining the state of currently available and celebrated games (and games) that address queerness, we can explore ways to expand our narratives to include the entire glorious rainbow.

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Brian Neff , Darren Watts , Cat Tobin .  There are a lot of people who will say that full-time jobs don't exist in the Gaming Industry. That is wrong. There are tons of ways to make a career out of making games. It involves working long hours and probably being underpaid, but they exist. Here's how to look for them, and how to prepare for them.

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Jack Parra , Lissanne Lake , Scott Bowmanchester How To Work With Artists: This panel will touch on the process of how to find and approach artists, negotiate the contract, and then successfully work together. It's important that publishers get an artist's-eye-view of things so they can better understand what we do, the process, and the time involved and pla...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Melissa Lewis-Gentry , Beth Rimmels , Christopher Tang . Marketing Is More Than Social Media. While social media is an important tool for marketers to use, many companies confuse it for the whole breadth of a marketing. Hear expert marketing professionals talk about what marketing departments should be doing for game publishing companies.

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by presented by Rach Shelkey , Jacqueline Bryk. Honobono games. Heartwarming games. Pastoral games. Roleplaying games that focus on finding excitement in mundane situations and reinforcing positive emotion spaces go by several different labels. How do you design for uplifting gameplay? What impact do these games have on players? Our panelists will explore RPGs...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Randy Lubin. A Stage Gate Approach to Game Development:  A stage gate approach involves developing multiple ideas in parallel, starting with one sentence pitches. Each round of the design process advances to a higher fidelity pitch, rule set, or playtest and each round you cull a subset of the potential games. It's a highly effective method for generating a...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Christopher Tang "Getting Started With DriveThruRPG". Let's talk about how to interact with DriveThruRPG, some of the nitty gritty process but also the general principles to bear in mind and some of the things many people do not know like the details of the OGL, basic copyright law, the availability of Community Content programs, etc. Also taking audience qu...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Juliet Meyer , Raymond Bruels Marketing 201: Creating Content around Your Brand/Product. You've got a brand/product and you've got all the social media channels and a website. Great. Now what? Learn how to create consistent content for your brand/product that will resonate with your audience. This class covers Twitch streaming, social post scheduling/generat...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Juliet Meyer , Raymond Bruels Marketing 101: Creating a Basic Marketing Plan. This is a basic course in marketing your brand and/or your product and helping you know the difference between the two in terms of tone and voice. Which social media platform is best for you? How should you measure success? Do I need a website/Facebook/Instagram/Telegram Channel/Su...

Recorded at Metatopia 2018 Presented by Julia Ellingboe and Brand Robins . Approaching Allyship from a Genuinely Intersectional Perspective. There's no formal roadmap to being a "good" ally. It's easy to scratch the surface and stop moving, because you've challenged your own paradigm. That's not enough. Let's brainstorm tools and tactics for guiding allies towards functional engagement.