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November 22: Masterclass on Game Development

Games aren’t just for kids. Whether in school or at the office, an effective game can help motivate, train or educate. Game mechanics – the “rules” and technologies that support a game experience, can be used to support social networking, competition, and personal achievement. And games are increasingly being used to reach out and engage with customers.

During this Masterclass on Game Development, guest host Dusan Writer will take us behind the scenes with a panel of guests and look at how games are developed. What IS a game, exactly? How do you develop the rules, stages and rewards in order to make a great game? What technologies do game developers use to display their games? What are the advantages/disadvantages of immersive environments like Second Life? How does a game developer deal with ‘emergent behavior’? How are games ‘monetized’ and what are the new models and decisions that game developers need to make? (Freemium, pay-to-play, subscription, etc.)

By exploring the process of game development, we’ll help brands, teachers and businesses think about the role of games in their organizations and provide a snapshot of the types of decisions that game developers make in order to create compelling experiences that lead to outcomes.

Our panel includes game developers across a range of platforms:

Oni Horan is one of the developers of the successful Logos collectible card game in Second Life. Logos combines a traditional card game similar to Magic with the immersive properties of Second Life, and has become a popular past time for users of the virtual world.

Colin Nilsson is one of the lead developers at MadPea Productions, a Second Life “Destination” that attracts players to its mysteries, adventures, puzzles and social games. MadPea provides points to players, sponsors Grid-wide hunts, and has launched products and community events that make it a “go-to” game destination.

And finally, Tony Walsh is a global thought leader on game development and transmedia and is the founder of Phantom Compass. Noted as a thought leader at the intersection of games and culture, Walsh appeared in the 2008 game culture documentary “Second Skin,” is an occasional media commentator, and has been cited in such publications as Wired, Discover, Utne, and the Harvard Business Review. He presents several times yearly to audiences internationally on such topics as sex and gaming, the role of marketing in virtual worlds, and documentary games. He is on the advisory committee for the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival’s Screenburn game conference, Interactive Ontario’s 2010 iLunch series, and is a program advisor to George Brown College and triOS College.

Join us for this Masterclass on game development on Monday November 22nd at 12 p.m. Pacific.

You can join in through our main stage in Second Life, or watch a live video stream of the event on this page.