Docs
====

two pager, bible, review copy,

two pager
review copy - investors, quick feedback
  one page minimum
bible - everything (really)
documentation - included in bible, general documents

At least your parents had a basement
====================================

consoles are generally a premium entertainment device

consoles getting further away from lowest 20%

android developers earn 7% of what iPHone devs do

f2p performing better on android than iphone

80s: apple 2 $4575
90s: 1992 PC $3065
now: student rec sys $4000 ( 18X hours )

$1trillion ($1e15) in student debt
  better for portfolios than sub prime were because of limited bankruptcy
  debt financed education direct money from the lower classes to the world
    of fincance, essentially taxing the poor

iterating games on what the top 10% like could be disastrous

your company won't last with a "luxury development focus"

something with zero tension can still be a game. some people have really
stressful jobs and don't want tension in their games.

Indexical Storytelling
======================

What has happened? What was left behind?

Portal, the cake is a lie. Environmental storytelling.

TTD:: Test Site Arena. Car Parts embedded into environment.

Demonsouls. If you die, you leave a bloodstain for other players. If you step
on it, you can see a ghost animating the last few seconds of their life.

Detective Work.

Signposts and Tutorials.

Player's trace: Persistence of the world

Stealth games. You don't want to leave evidence. Pull bodies to hiding place.
Footsteps. Misleading Indices, thrown items.

---

How can the player leave traces?
Who can see those traces? Players, Nonplayers?
How does leaving traces affect gameplay.

Aquamancy:: cargo manifests, travel logs, carried by.

Hidden Object Games.

people's history of the FPS
===========================

"Doom" happened.

Myst and Doom are both first person games. Two different views of games. Both
were 1993 and disruptive. Myst pushed cd. They weren't though of competitive.

"Doom clone" used as descriptor for first three years after and replaced after
by "FPS".

Doom Mods.
  Alien: Total Conversion
  Fist of Doom
  ChexQuest

The Ship (Total Conversion). Kill your target and take theirs. Lot of bots in
the game, users would copy the mannerisms to appear like bots.

TF2 Achievement maps -> TF2 Achievement Troll Maps. Death Cats.

Trends. Team Cooperative mods. Art mods. Military vs Terrorist mods. Map mods.

Art Mods. Dear Esther. Radiator.

Mods meant: a way to "break in", cmmentary, a "default audience".

Minecraft Mod Community. Holy Mind-Fuck Big.

Indie FP Games
At A Distance. Fotonica. Hockey. MirrorMoon. I Can't Find My Glasses. Unmanned. Perspective. Cities of Day and Night. Trauma. Trip. Kairo. Proteus. FRACT OSC. Dirac. Memories of a Broken Dimension.

"What happens if you take out the shooting?"

Mod scene had a proto-indie scene of engine tech argument.

the "mod" "died" because engines became cheap and able to sell end product.

indie fp game scene is HUGE and Advanaced.

Game Dev History? Tech/Engine? Distribution model? Geographic Location?

starting a videogame arts org
=============================

The Hand Eye Society ( Toronto )
- to help people create games
- to connect gamemakers with each other and with an audience
- to foster diversity in game creation and the public perception of games

- fighting the social stigma that games are only killing hookers and soldiers

- Programmed game culture events with the energy of a book launch, art gallery ...

Torontrons - classic arcade cabinets filled with Toronto games. F2P (literally)

TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival)
  Comics vs Games. Comic artists and game devs working together.

"videogame arts organization" together suprises people into conversation

Not a Indie v Corporate thing while Indie do have a greater chance to risk to make the art kind of thing.

Membership available to anyone contributeing 10 hours to a community vg project.
  pay after 10 hrs (25/hr, arts admin wage)
  give people small things to do, then biggr

Strong partnership with TIFF opened availability to present modern day indie
games in arcade cabinets in the lobby of one of TIFF's building.

Funding. Indies funded each cabinet. $1000 each. Indies kept them. They are
very heavy.

Incorporation:
  for TIFF Nexus funding, incorporated as a not-for-profit
  don't do it til there's money on the table as it's either costly or boring
    and stressful

    look to see funding availability and change of receival before considering
  adds $3k/yr to pay for accountant/ins.
  we chose not-for-profit to distinguish from a business approach but this has
    additional onerous requirement
  it does open up possible funding, but it's still not easy to get: they've
    never had operational

  there is a lot of credibility you can get from just calling yourself an
    organization

Funding:
  never be dependent on a single funding stream
  never be an org that exists to continue existing
    slow growth (organic?)

Partnerships:
  find small ways to work together first
  with larger orgs: more money, more paperwork, cultural diff
  with smaller orgs: commit ot consenus ...

Difference Engine:
  teaching game making to women

  conflicts: mostly where we made decisions without consulting participants

    all-women/homogeneity? all under-repped group will be sensitive to power
      dynamics -- key thing for future DEI iterations

All-Powerful:
  have to appear as all-powerful to funding bodies
  increasing transparency: board members online, meeting minutes

  first annual general meeting. setting by-laws, how can someone become a board
    member. deciding rules, (like games? huh)

  permeable to people who haven't been there from the beginning

procedural generation: Easy Money
=================================

verification is a very simple process
guiding generation is way more complex
1/50 maze rejection

analytics
- player story summed to the end
- stored game story by event

controlling level tone and difficulty individually during progression
alter the game to suit a player
  explorers will get bigger levels
  people dashing to the goal, generate smaller levels or generate a goal near
    the start, or throw in more mines

Easy Money started with 100 levels. Scaled back to 25 after seeing (through analytics) that players were quiting after 10 levels when there were 100 total.