Power of small games talk 20-30 min ("smaller games")

[droqen]

First: power of small games is not really a topic yet, it's not clear in my mind... I want to have a sharp angle about something I can actually talk about.

[droqen]

"mini talk on the scope and the power of small games"
"include one slide or section of [my] presentation that highlights [my] approach to networking"

[droqen]

Maybe I can use the latter half of my technique to consolidate these separate elements into a single element? I should include details about the audience..

[droqen]

Okay, defining the context plainly:

Deliver a talk about the scope and the power of small games (20 minute talk + 10 minute Q&A) to a group of autistic adolescents aged 14-22 who are interested in pursuing careers in the tech industry.
- A lot of them come in with really really big ambitions never having made a game before.
- Highlight my approach to networking.

This is a career talk. I feel like I'm in a happy and comfortable place regarding this stuff right now, which is good.

[droqen]

Alright, let's do my list-merging thing...

...

scope of small games, power of small games, really really big ambitions, networking, adolescents, careers.

learning how to do things, meeting and connecting with like-minded peers who think about things in a way that inspires you, talking about small games, sharing small games, finishing small games, telling people you've finished games, loving the work, connecting over the work.

connecting, learning, sharing, moving on to the next thing, connecting by sharing, learning by connecting, wanting responsibility.

making complete things that you are confident about, connecting over those things with people who care.

the power of small games is completeness and connection.

[droqen]

let's bring in those overtones you get in small games of control and perfection and efficiency

[droqen]

The most visible games tend to be on the larger side; we can call this the Games Industry. Even if you're familiar with indie games, many indie games might still created by teams of 10 or more people. The advice I've heard is that you want some sort of manager or project organizer for every 4 people in your team, so that's already two and a half people not directly working on the material of games.

Why does this matter?

Well. If the idea of making games sounds good to you, it's probably because you played a game and thought, "This is fun, but..." followed by some very interesting-sounding game ideas. Some games are moddable, which means you can access the code and make changes to it and make your own version of that game, but in a lot of cases people will take this totally reasonable way of thinking and wrap their game ideas up in shapes of the games that they're mostly exposed to, which are games made by tens if not hundreds of people with likely a lot of experience and time.

Thing is, those game ideas are the raw material of your creativity, and the rest is a lot, A LOT, of work, just to make something that someone will recognize as A Normal Game. Not a good game, not even a mediocre game, just a game.

Here is the power of small games: If you let go of the idea that the 'ground' of your ideas matter, and that it's more about the beautiful little nugget of creative thought and novel play at the heart of them that matter, then "What if Breath of the Wild had a more robust photography system?" becomes "What if I made a small game about photography?"

You can explore this idea all on its own, in a tiny form, a minimal form, which does not involve building someone else's game that you didn't actually care to make anyway.

And when you show someone this minimal game you're not going to be worried about: Is the combat good? Is it Zelda-like? Are my characters interesting? And so on and so on. No, you're going to get to worry about the very heart of the idea that you wanted to work on in the first place: Is this one activity I designed interesting?

[droqen]

what is the nature of a 20-minute talk? i don't rightly know. a conversation is a thing that goes on and on forever. i think a talk is a conversation that finishes well. it's a crafted conversation, a curated one. the structure of a 20-minute talk ought to be wandering out in many directions for 10 minutes, then pulling things together for 10 minutes. it is the structure of my expanding/retracting process.

completeness and connection in small games.

personal expression, coding without stressing about architecture, telling someone 'i made this', seeing something that someone made.

expressing one idea without worrying about a whole structure, practice, ownership, connection about over and through ownership, individuality, responsibility, peer relationship based on taking responsibility, learning to finish something.

have you ever made something that you thought was perfect?, my experience struggling to express an idea in a group setting, a peer group of people who mainly make and finish things, having something that is all yours that you cannot defer onto someone else, no matter how large any project is composed entirely of smaller projects.

Windows 95 startup sound Brian Eno quote, small games as a building block that teaches what it means to create anything, small games as fun toys that help express and understand game design.

a small game is a building block, an example, and a jewel.

[droqen]

a building block, a rough sketch, an example, a jewel

[droqen]

as building blocks, small games are code prototypes, alpha versions, first levels

as sketches, small games are whiteboxes (or greyboxes), gamefeel prototypes, memories, practice

as examples, small games are game-system studies, reflections, playable explanations

as jewels, small games are conversation pieces, beauties unto themselves

[droqen]

Made slides, gave 1st iter. of talk. I am giving it 1 more time, but moving this to "completed projects"

Feedback from 1st iter. of talk (very positive)

re: just the slides

Love this presentation:) It's clear and wise and simple, like poetry.

re: the talk

They really loved talking with you : )

We're having a debrief meeting with the staff and everyone is raving about your talk!

everyone really loved it ❤️ . . . it's so valuable for students to hear about this