Week 6 Review

Amanda Torres

Prof. Charlie Williams III

IS - Texture and Lighting

3/29/2014

 

"Using GDC Talks to Craft a Grand Celebration" - Heidi McDonald 

 

 This was a blog about a highly creative wedding event which took place at the GDC conference. The designers said that because it was going to be public that most likely it was going to attract major attention. Due to this they were inclined to put what they knew as designers and what they had learned at the con to use, in order to show off their design chops. --Because of this Heidi says that it became very theatrical but then again most wedding have some form of theater in them, being that each ceremony requires its one props, lines, character and costumes. 

 

As a starting point the couple fleshed out a list of "design goals" for their weddings. They wanted to change how their guest experienced and viewed weddings, making it fun for them in stead of boring. Also because it was an open invitation wedding they wanted to make it so the whole event spelled out who they were and give strangers a sense of familiarity to them. They also wanted to be more inclusive of the event by design. The entire wedding was designed around certain lectures or game design advice they had received from renown designers, such as cinematic director Dave Feltham lecture on "Emotional Journey: BioWare's Methods to Bring Narrative into Levels". By adopting this to their ceremony they created a seriousness arc which would bring a serious note to an event filled with humorous moments. They also took notes from Sid Meyers, Dr.Jane Mcgonigal, the #1ReasonToBe campaign, as well as Amy Jo Kim and Tim Schaefer.

 

Due to this their ceremony encompassed many symbolic figures that pertained to the triumphs of the industry as well as symbols of some of the industry's more controversial subjects such as women in games and inclusiveness for LGBT. Guests were also given the power to vote on who'd be included in the wedding party and depending on who they chose would effect how the ceremony proceeded and concluded.