Saturday
Bit Boards Kickoff
Come one, come all! Bit Boards is Live! Join us for our opening address. We will highlight some of what is coming up, explain what to expect in our Interactive Convention Map, and more.
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Arrive promptly! Events start as soon as we are done here.
Saturday the 24th
12pm EST - 12:30pm EST
Art Direction for Games 101
Introduction to art and UI design for games. Come learn how to produce aesthetically pleasing art assets for games on a budget and scary deadlines. This talk includes multiple concepts and styles of art useful for games from start to end. As well as samples of those types of art and examples of how current games employ different styles successfully. Game art doesn’t have to be difficult and definitely not tough to produce!
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ZOOM PASSCODE: 914829
Saturday the 24th
1pm EST - 2pm EST
Tips for Running a Small Scale Kickstarter Project
I've organized and ran 7 successfully funded Kickstarter Projects. During this presentation, I'll discuss tips, lessons-learned and guidelines that I've gathered over the years. If you're looking to launch your first Kickstarter project, this talk will help you get started and will hepl your project be successful.
This presentation will cover everything from prototyping to testing to preparing your Kickstarter project page, to delivering the project and how/where to sell your product after the Kickstarter project has ended.
Saturday the 24th
2pm EST - 3pm EST
Q&A w/ Anthony Wallace: Sports/Gaming Artist
Canadian Artist Anthony Wallace has created amazing pieces of art for multiple different genres over the course of his career. Whether you've seen his art with NFL's New Orleans Saints, or his creations with the Jim Henson Co., or his latest endeavor into the gaming world with Little Nutters: the Card Game, Anthony's artwork always leaves audiences smiling and wanting more.
Join the 30 minute panel as he showcases and discusses his art, how his designs and ideas are inspired, and his current work in the gaming community. He will also be answering any questions for aspiring artists or developers who are looking to hire an artist for the first time.
Saturday the 24th
3pm EST - 4pm EST
Using games as a starting point for real-world impact
Throughout his career Sam worked on rockets, drones, turbines, energy storage, and even electric flying cars – but he never imagined that a board game would be next.
Sam created Solutions, a board game of hope & action for the climate. The game has been play tested on over 600 individuals and has already inspired meaningful real-world impact.
Sam will talk about the design decisions he took to make Solutions a meaningful game.
Saturday the 24th
4pm EST - 5pm EST
What We Do: How Moves Make the Narrative
The tools the players are given to interact with the world are maybe the most essential tool out there when it comes to building a memorable narrative. I mean, that's just my opinion but I think it's a good one. Or at least one worth listening to a casual presentation about. Let's talk about Moves and Choices! Let's talk about Flavor! Let's talk about making sure that players have no choice but to interact with your world and setting in the best ways possible!
Saturday the 24th
5pm EST - 5:30pm EST
Sunday
Making a Board / Video Game Cyborg: The Ultimate Organism
Board Games are amazing social experiences. They literally bring players together around a table, focusing them on one another in the here and now. In our modern age of instant gratification and ubiquitous screens, that's more valuable than ever. Unfortunately, these games often have hugely complex rules and hundreds or even thousands of pieces, costing hours to learn and play.
Video games are amazing escapes from the real world, quickly immersing players into other worlds and challenges. They teach players as they go and are often super fast to pick up and player. But, they focus players on a screen, not one another, forcing even multiplayer games to be insular experiences.
I believe the future of games is to combine these two experiences together to create the ultimate experience: a Cyborg Game. Much like Robocop, these games take the humanity and connection from board games and the streamlined ease and efficiency of video games. In this talk, I will discuss how to avoid going too far into either direction, and what pieces of each medium are best to use when combined.
Sunday the 25th
1pm EST - 2pm EST
Games for Social Change
How to can we use the power of games to change the world! What does that even mean? All too often trying to make a change sucks and is frustrating. Games are fun! Can those powers be merged or will the universe implode if you try to mix it?
Sunday the 25th
2pm EST - 3pm EST
The Building Blocks of Tabletop RPGs
Dungeons and Dragons is ubiquitous in the tabletop RPG space, but it represents a very narrow band of what is possible in designing an RPG. Many look to Apocalypse World and Powered by the Apocalypse to design a game that's not like D&D, but there's so much more that can be done to make a game that is truly unique. At the very core of every game are two things: How you resolve character conflicts, and how you handle character progression. This talk breaks down the many ways you can use dice, cards, and chips to evoke the right feel for your game, and the benefits of making characters follow a class, versus a loose archetype, versus a completely a la carte talent system.
Sunday the 25th
3pm EST - 4pm EST
PonchoBoys Play Marvel United
The PonchoBoys take on the Marvel United Infinity Gauntlet challenge and fight for our universe's very survival. Marvel United is a fast paced, action packed, card game miniature hybrid that we get to play out own story and we want to bring you along for the ride.
Sunday the 25th
4pm EST - 6pm EST
Bit Boards Closing and Happy Hour
What a terrific event! What an amazing convention! Truly one totally unlike anything we've ever seen!
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At least that's what we hope you'll be saying.
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Join us to close out Bit Boards and have a few laughs. BYOB!
Sunday the 25th
5pm EST - 6pm EST
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