Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Eric Whalen, Rob Hebert, Steven Long, Debbie Moynihan. "Contract Literacy 101: Whereas & Therefore & Beyond" The majority of game designers will need to sign at least one contract prior to completing their game. This panel will improve your literacy and familiarity with the structure of contracts, as well as explain some of the standard contract terms you ought to be prepared to encounter. The information should be relevant to designers, artists, and publishers alike.

RPG Design Panelcast

Episode 307: Contract Literacy 101

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jason Morningstar, Jabari Weathers, Brennen Reece.  Art Direction: From Designer to Director to Artist. A game designer, an art director, and an artist who recently worked on a project together will talk about the project (Bully Pulpit Games' "Dead House") from each of their perspectives - how they collaborated and communicated and perceived both the brief and the final output. 

Episode 306: Art Direction Case Study

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Will Sobel, Beth Rimmels. For better or worse, traditional RPGs have a reputation for crunch and complication that can be scary for new players. How can designers and publishers make their games less imposing both in substance and appearance? 

Episode 305 : Lowering the Barrier to Entry to Trad RPGs

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Curt Covert, Melissa Lewis-Gentry, Jason Walters, Isaac Vega. How do you present a game to playtesters without biasing them, but getting what you want from the test? How do you present that same game to a publisher differently? How do you present the game to fans at a show to get them excited enough to buy it? Some things will be identical, others will be custom-tailored to the audience and what they care about (or what you want from it). And there are multiple versions of each.

Episode 304 - Pitch Perfect

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Olivia Montoya, Donna Prior, Avonelle Wing.   Discord. Itch. Twitch. If you blinked and suddenly your peers sound like they’re talking about new horsemen of a very minor apocalypse, we’re here to help you catch up. There are a plethora of new(ash) platforms available to empower your gaming experiences. Avie’s here as our token dinosaur, while Donna and Olivia bring the knowledge

Episode 303: New Tools for Old Hands

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Pamela Punzalan, Vince Smith, and Alastor Guzman.   Much of the dialogue relevant to the tabletop gaming industry and the communities that form around it is centered around the United States of America. Many know that creators from all around the world exist, but few understand just how different their contexts can be from the status quo. This panel seeks to bring multiple voices from beyond America together in order to discuss these differences, and provide some nuanced insight on how the America-centered industry informs their own contexts and communities.

Episode 302: Shores Not Quite Undiscovered

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by James Wallis, Cat Tobin, Kieron Gillen, Jacob Jaskov. We all know how certain games feel in play and how they make us feel, but as designers and critics we don't have a set of words to describe it. Do we need an experiential vocabulary of play, and what would one look like?

Episode 301: Games, Gamefeel and Umami

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jacob Segal, Justin Ford, Ian Hart. Systems like Forged in the Dark are designed with mechanics that deliberately support player agency. When paired with external safety tools, these agency-focused mechanics are intended to foster safer play culture and richer experiences. Our panelists will discuss what we mean by "player agency" and what these mechanics look like and how they work.

Episode 300: Crafting Game Mechanics to Support Player Agency

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jason Pitre, Zedeck Siew, Sinta Posadas. Non-player characters are vital to tabletop and live action roleplaying games. They provide companionship, contrast, resources, information, and dramatic conflict with the players. They are the avatars of the setting, and the best tools that a GM has at their disposal. In this panel, we discuss how games can be designed using NPCs as a key mechanism of play. 

Episode 299: NPCs as a Design Elements

Recorded at Metatopia 2020 Online Presented by Kitty Stryker, Spider Perry, Avonelle Wing. We will talk about practical actions you can take to be better prepared the next time you have the chance to speak up. It might be addressing a micro-aggression at the game table or shutting down a bully who wants to make somebody feel small in an online setting, for example. These aren't easy things and the skills don't always come naturally. Our panelists will talk about practicing phrases and learning to overcome the social conditioning that perpetuates "isms

Episode 298: Becoming Better Than Well Intentioned

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Anne Ratchat, Spider Perry, Misha Bushyager, Mids Meinberg, Pamela Punzalan. For all the merits of the genre, it is not an exaggerated statement to say that horror is the least accessible genres in analog gaming. Between mechanics that require physical ability, the habitual use of monsters whose descriptions sound uncomfortably close to home, and the widespread misunderstanding of how mental health and mental illnesses work, a large swath of players are alienated before the game even begins. In this panel, we will use the recurrent inaccessible themes in horror to explore how one can build a more accessible game from the core mechanics out. 

Episode 297: Accessible Core Mechanics and Horror

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Heather O'Neill, Timothy Grant, Brian Quinones, Jack Berkenstock. This panel of game designers and therapists will discuss their journey to design RPGs for use in therapy as well as the overall benefit of using roleplaying games as a therapeutic tool. What games have they used in the past? What worked, what didn't? How did they modify games for therapy sessions?  

Episode 296: RPGs for Therapy

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jeeyon Shim, Meguey Baker, Jason Morningstar.   Understanding the natural world as an active participant in games and design shifts our engagement with environmental justice and enriches every aspect of our work. Join this panel of game designers with backgrounds as adventure guides, outdoor educators, and naturalists as they discuss the various ways integrating the natural world positively impacts their design and community work in games. Attendees will learn tools to understand the more-than-human community around them in ways they can weave into their own participation in games, whether as players, designers, or organizers.

Episode 295: Integrating the Natural World

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Gabriel de los Angeles, Sen-Foong Lim, Brian Quinones. Using concepts from education theory is a natural and obvious way to improve game design practices. Our panelists will talk about how to apply an understanding of how people learn and engage in play to your design process to create more immersive, satisfying designs.

Episode 294: Applying Education Theory in Games

Recorded at Metatopia Online 2020 Presented by Jason Morningstar, Sungil Kim, Taka'aki Ayukata, Steve Segedy. Asian game markets are booming! Come meet two publishers who are actively licensing and translating English-language properties for their own countries and beyond. Join us for an informal conversation with and between publishers from Japan and Korea. 

Episode 293: Publishing in Asia

The best recorded panels and seminars about analog game design and publishing. Sponsored by Genesis of Legend Publishing and Metatopia.

hubhopper

RPG Design Panelcast

hubhopper