Leading game designers from every corner of the discipline will once again gather at NYU for the PRACTICE: Game Design in Detail conference, taking place Friday, November 15 through Sunday November 17 at 19 West 4th Street in Manhattan. PRACTICE is an annual event that takes a close look at the concrete challenges of game design, bridging dialog across industries, genres, and disciplines.
The conference is specifically designed to facilitate a high-level exchange of ideas among professional game designers, encompassing lectures, panels, social events and play.
This year marks the third in which NYU has hosted PRACTICE, and continues the tradition of drawing a wide range of expert speakers, including videogame veterans such as Warren Spector (Thief, Deus Ex) and Soren Johnson (Spore, Civ IV), tabletop gaming greats such as Rob Daviau (RISK: Legacy), and indie upstarts such as Michael Brough (868-HACK, Glitch Tank). The program will also feature Susanna Liu both discussing the design of hip-hop dance battles and running a dance battle live at the conference with B boys and B girls from the NYC dance battle scene.
“Game design is a complex multi-threaded discipline, and PRACTICE is a unique opportunity to understand and refine what we do when we design games,” said Frank Lantz, chair of the NYU Game Center. “Where else can a console developer discuss level design with a tabletop RPG writer? Or an iOS developer debate economy balancing with collectable card game designer? The gaming world is made up of fascinating, diverse people who are typically generous with their knowledge, and PRACTICE provides a great platform for sharing experiences.”
PRACTICE will also feature a variety of interactive panels and sessions, embracing a wide range of subject areas, including the following:
• Interactive story guru Emily Short and the design leads behind The Walking Dead dissecting the construction of narrative choice;
• Designers of League of Legends and Assassin's Creed comparing strategies for player behavior analysis;
• A high-energy "open mic" session where any conference attendee can present a work or idea in progress for discussion and feedback.
Speakers at this year’s PRACTICE include the following:
• Michael Brough
• Keith Burgun
• Cecilia Dolk
• Martin Ericsson
• Rob Daviau
• Soren Johnson
• Morgan Kennedy
• Susanna Liu
• Brad Muir
• Davin Pavlas
• Jake Rodkin
• Emily Short
• Quintin Smith
• Warren Spector
• Sean Vanaman
• Robert Yang
All events will be held at Lecture Room 101 at 19 W. 4th Street, between Mercer and Green streets. For more information or to register, visit http://gamecenter.nyu.edu/practice.
About the NYU Game Center
The NYU Game Center was established in 2008 at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts to explore the design and development of games as a creative practice. The program offers both a two-year Masters of Fine Arts (MFA) program and an undergraduate minor in game design, and will soon offer an undergraduate Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) degree program. In fall 2013, the Game Center became part of the NYU MAGNET Center in downtown Brooklyn, creating a multidisciplinary hub incorporating engineering, computer science and education in order to further the Game Center’s mission of establishing New York City as a center of innovation in the growing field of game design. For more information, visit http://gamecenter.nyu.edu.