Thursday, November 30, 2023

Crafter Con is The Game Crafter's very own game design convention. Its focus is on education to make you a better game designer. It features a track of seminars and workshops with industry experts. As well as a play testing room where you can work out some kinks with other designers 1 on 1.

Schedule

During the main schedule, there will also be a separate room open and set up for play testing. So if you are not interested in one of the seminars or workshops you always have something to do. This room will remain open until midnight.

Session Descriptions

Pitch, Self-Publish, or Print-on-Demand - Considerations, Strategies, and Best Practices for Each

So you've got a design you believe the world should play... what's next? In this session, we'll discuss weighing the options of pitching to a publisher, self-publishing your game, or doing a print-on-demand model. With each approach, we'll explore the benefits, risks, challenges, and best practices. Audience ideas, questions, and experiences will be requested throughout, so come with all of the above!

Jon Spike is a former high school English teacher turned Instructional Technology Coordinator and instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has designed many unique games for education and released Gamestormers, his first commercial board game, in March 2023. He teaches a course called Video Games and Learning for future game designers and teachers, and will be releasing his next game, Doomscroll, in 2025

Prepping for the Playtest Quest

Learn how to manage your potential playtest adventurers experience from first contact to final feedback. Avoid common pitfalls to make the most of each playtest.

Nicole Fende, A.S.A. is the designer of the game Body Be Gone, founder of Tesseray Games, and has successfully coached small businesses for over a decade as The Numbers Whisperer®.

Building Games by Hand - Tips and Tricks for Self-manufactured Games on Etsy and Kickstarter using TGC

I've been building games by hand for years - Presented are my top tricks and tips to navigate the self-manufacturing route to selling games on Kickstarter, Craft Fairs, Tradeshows and even on Etsy, with emphasis of using The Game Crafter.

Chris Rossetti is an Accounting Professor at Binghamton University and Co-owner of Rampage Games LLC. He enjoys all things gaming, SCUBA diving, Lego building, Yo-Yo slinging and the occasion NHL Game!

Game Design and Publishing: 21 Pro Tips and Shortcuts

I’ve been a game retailer, worked as a game developer at a major publisher, licensed games for publication, kickstarted games, and designed 130+ games from idea to completion. These are my 21 best tips and tricks, distilled for you to learn and use.

Jonathan Leistiko is the primary creative force behind Invisible City Productions. Invisible City Productions launched in January of 2000 and released one free print-and-play game every month 'till December 2009. From February 2015 to July 2015, Jonathan released seven more free games. As of December 2020, Invisible City Productions has 121 free print-and-play games. Almost all of the free games released by Invisible City Productions were designed by Jonathan and are indexed on BoardGameGeek. In 2010, he co-published Inevitable, a dystopic board game set in a future not much bleaker than our own, along with Jeremy Bushnell. Inevitable is notable for being the first successful board game on Kickstarter (Oooh! Fancy!).

Making a Random Pack of Character Cards using Component.Studio and TGC

Using the magic combination of a complex spreadsheet, component.studio's card designs, and TheGameCrafter's Random Card feature, this presentation will walk through two different examples of creating random card packs for sports simulation games. The same techniques could be used for RPGs, dungeon crawlers, and other types of games that could benefit from a unique-set-per-box approach on players, characters, monsters, etc.

Matt Worden is a Minnesota-based published game designer with one "game of the year" award and one successful Kickstarter campaign ... so far. He was an early adopter of both TheGameCrafter and Component.Studio, joining each early in their first years of operation. He has self-published 9 games through TGC over the past 12 years, with more on the way.

Beat Rulebook Writer's Block with AI

Like most game designers I dread writing the rulebook. Learn how to use AI to create a first draft of your game rulebook. We'll cover AI prompts, how to iterate effectively, and how to edit your rough draft into a usable form.

Nicole Fende, A.S.A. is the designer of the game Body Be Gone, founder of Tesseray Games, and has successfully coached small businesses for over a decade as The Numbers Whisperer®.

Pre-Press – Preparing your files for Long-run Printing

From programs, printer requirements, and file creation, to the last steps like manufacturing proofs. The goal of this guide is to get your files to your printer with the fewest back and forth as possible, so you can print as quick as possible.

Alisha is a long time Illustrator and Graphic Designer in the board game world. She is also a published game designer both self published and with a publisher, with two personally successful kickstarters and a ton of successful kickstarters of her clients. She pride herself in being able to take her clients from an idea, to a printer as both their artist, graphic designer and consultant.

AIn't Going Anywhere: AI, The Law and Game Design

Image and text generation tools (like Midjourney and ChatGPT) are all the rage. We will explore the legal unknowns of using these tools and why they will change the way we think about the game design process.

Mike Wokasch is an attorney and board game designer. He successfully Kickstarted and then licensed his game Starving Artists.

Porting Board Games to Digital Platforms

Are you thinking about commissioning (or undertaking) a port of your board game to a digital platform? Maybe you just want to know more about the process. Martin Grider will discuss all aspects of this kind of thing, including the questions you should be asking (http://chesstris.com/2021/04/10/features-and-considerations-for-digital-board-game-conversion/) as you consider a digital port, as well as an overview of the possible platforms with consideration to their various advantages and drawbacks. Hopefully you, as a game designer (or potentially a game publisher) will take-away an enhanced understanding of software development, particularly as it applies to games. There will be plenty of time to pick Martin's brain with questions at the end of the session.

Martin Grider, an experienced software developer and board game designer, has worked on a handful of digital ports of board games to various platforms, including mobile, desktop, and the web. Martin releases his own games (including digital ports of his board games) at his game studio, http://abstractpuzzle.com. He has been blogging about his process and game designs since 2007 at http://chesstris.com.

Room Layouts & Maps

Crafter Con Seminars

The Crafter Con Seminars will be held in room KO. If you come in the main entrance you can get there by taking an immediate right on the 4th floor. It will be open from 8am until 10pm.

Crafter Con Play Test Room

The Crafter Con Play Test Room can be found on the second floor in the Hall of Fame Room. It will be open from 8am until Midnight.