Arcadia Day: 12-4pm saturday 2nd Nov 2023
Arcadia Day 2024 at Hapworks Dundee (7 Castle Street, Dundee)
In this drop-in multi-station workshop, you’ll be able to experience a range of game-making activities from exploring tabletop games to crafting zines to playing with free online tools! Completely free, everyone is welcome with no prior experience necessary. We will provide all the equipment, paper, pens, etc.
In making it up as we go along, play a tabletop game about changing the rules and inventing new ones.
Craft your own mini zine that takes readers on an interactive adventure simply by turning the pages to make different choices.
Contribute to a collaborative pixel art story game using bitsy and see it evolve throughout the day!
Arcadia Night: 7-10pm saturday 2nd Nov 2023
Arcadia Night 2024 - Hapworks (7 Castle Street, Dundee),
An evening of micro-talks from game developers, makers and thinkers, as well as games exhibition and a performance by Henry Pullen! Arcadia Night is an inclusive and safe space and all are welcome from professional game makers to students to people with an interest in games. Get inspired! Play exciting games! Enjoy live music!
PROGRAM
Speakers
Emilie Reed
Em Reed is a writer/researcher based in Glasgow. Their writing spans traditional prose, interactive fiction, and zines, and their research relates to the preservation and display of interactive art and DIY practices. Previous nonfiction work has appeared in Real Life, The Serving Library Annual, and Murdered Futures: A David Cronenberg Zine. Their debut novel, More Bugs, was published this year by Knight Errant Press.
Corey Brotherson
Corey Brotherson is an award-winning Birmingham based Freelance Writer, Editor and Creative Consultant who has built a 23-year career in the videogames industry writing for over a dozen companies, including PlayStation, King and Apple. He is the Narrative Designer/Writer for the in-development adventure game Windrush Tales, worked as Lead Narrative Designer for Surgent Studios' Tales of Kenzera: Zau, and became a full member of BAFTA in 2022 after two consecutive years as a BAFTA Game Awards judge.
Caitlin May Smith
Caitlin is a game developer and digital artist working at Bit Loom, a small team making wholesome games in Dundee. At the moment she works as a generalist in both 2D and 3D and mainly focusing on UI. She likes making cute, friendly stuff and experimenting with different styles and ways to render things and her favorite digital medium is vector art.
Claire Morwood
Claire is a self-taught game designer, programmer and artist. She is currently working on Asterism, an interactive music album video game set in space.
Abbie Lochrin
Abbie Lochrin is a third year Computer Arts student at Abertay University, specialising in 3D prop and environment modelling. She is also the co-founder of Abertay's Women in Games Society, a new society which aims to help promote equality for women in the games industry and in education, while also providing a safe space within the community for women to meet and chat about games and their interests. Abbie has also recently become an ambassador for the official Women In Games organisation, and hopes to continue to help support and encourage those in the community who wish to help promote equality in the industry and education- whether they study games or not!
Steph Richard
Steph Richard is a Computer Arts student at Abertay University in her third-year of study, specialising in visual development. A proud ambassador of “Women In Games” advocating for equality and recognition for talented women in the industry, education and beyond. Steph is the co-founder of Abertay’s first ‘Women In Games’ Society, where she actively works alongside like-minded women to foster a welcoming, supporting and empowering community for Women who are in games education - or who just like to play!
Mel Frances
Mel Frances is a game designer and writer. She creates live and digital experiences that are interactive and responsive, often inviting people inside a story, question or a system to ask how things could be different. She is Co-Artistic Director of Produced Moon, a Creative XR Lab based in Scotland.
Feliks Jakimow
Feliks is a game developer that doesn't shy away from trying something new. His interests involve electronics, sewing, computer hardware, and games. He is currently working on a space scene visualisation tool at the University of Dundee, with previous experience in developing games for good and student politics. He is looking to combine these experiences into something new and interesting, while exploring various concepts along the way.
Eliza Ralph
PhD Researcher in serous games for conservation and environmental sustainability. Founder of a creative games and software company focusing on social impact. Experienced technologist, software engineer with a passion for the life sciences.
Sara Missaghian-Schirazi
Sara is a Creative Producer, Director & Writer with a background in Factual Television. She is currently a freelance Development Producer at Red Sky Productions, and the Industry Lead Producer for a soon to be announced AHRC funded AR series at the Glasgow School of Art School of Innovation and Technology.
Andy Truscott
Andy Truscott is a sound artist based in Fife who releases music under the moniker Kinbrae with his twin brother Mike. Their sound is a mixture of brass, synthesisers, percussion and field recordings, heavily influenced by their environment. are interested in the intersections of sound, place and image, using a combination of these to explore and highlight the themes in their work.
José David Gómez
José David Gómez was born in Quito-Ecuador 35 years ago and he moved to Scotland 6 months ago. He works for Abertay University as a Social Researcher for the GAME-ER project. José is specialized in interdisciplinary ethnography and his research includes the social, cultural and technoscientific dimensions of how we experience and shape time, the interaction of large infrastructures with ecologies and territories, and the social value of innovation.
Games Exhibition
Still Life (working title) - BitLoom
Still Life is a chill game that makes you the artist! Take painting requests from folk on your little island then arrange still life scenes for them. Finally choose a paint style to see your artwork come to life before adding it to the gallery. Relax, paint and unleash your inner artist to surprise the locals and yourself!
Anthology Of The Killer - thecatamites
Collection of short comedy-horror games, set in a beachfront town whose only economic product is themed serial murder.
Bean to Me - Jordan Brown
Use strange and magical beans to bend the rules and chain together absurd synergies in a wild twist on the ancient game of Mancala!
Lowtek Lightbook - Lowtek Games
A magical adventure where you play the game on a physical popup book through projection mapping. Play a range of minigames through projection mapping.
A Watched Pot Never Boils - Very Evil Demons
Manage your sightlines in this reverse-stealth puzzle game, because nothing cooks while you're watching! Plan and execute the recipes perfectly to please your strange & impatient clientele. But be warned! Your kitchen equipment is sometimes shy, sometimes mischievous, and sometimes watching...
Performance
Henry Pullan
By day Henry Pullan is a composer/developer at Bit Loom but by night he's writing instrumental guitar songs that combine Percussive Fingerstyle with Math-Rock.