To view the webinar schedule please download this PDF.
Webinar #1 - Community Town Hall Gathering with Rosalind and Alex
23/09/2024 6pm NZT
In this webinar, POWER Up! Organisers Alex Matthews and Rosalind Cervante discuss the upcoming activities for the week, the structure, goals, and background behind POWER Up! as well as open up for Q&A.
Webinar #2 - The Joy of Rapid Prototyping with Rox Flame
23/09/2024 6:30pm NZT
Hi I'm Rox Flame, a seasoned business owner and artist from New Zealand, now based in Melbourne, Australia, with over 25 years of experience in interactive media. My portfolio spans everything from video games to immersive websites, Kiwiburn theme camps, and even interactive digital party toys! Rox’s specialty lies in blending the digital and physical worlds through boundary-pushing art. I bring a wealth of creativity and innovation to the POWER Up! Game Jam party and am ready to help participants explore new frontiers in game design.
Webinar #3 - Rich Durham
24/09/2024 6:00pm NZT
A jam-oriented framework for cohesion of narrative themes , mechanics, medium, with a dash of game on-boarding heuristics, from experience of making 40+ games across mediums and scale.
Rich Durham has had diverse game design work over the last two decades. From digital audio adventures, transformational games for social good organisations, games for street festivals, museum activations, large events, TTRPGs, and hobbyist strategy games for tabletop.
Rich is a regular speaker and workshop-runner-er at games, academic, and learning industry conferences, in NZ and abroad (and online - that's a thing that happens). Finally, in his role at the University of Auckland Rich works in the leadership of the faculty of Creative Arts and Industries to shape teaching and learning improvement, and - yes - smoosh in playful design and games. Oh, and game design research.
Webinar #4 - Rick Stemm
25/09/2024 6:00pm NZT
Rick Stemm is Design Manager and Narrative Director at PikPok, two roles he originated. A writer, designer, transmedia artist, and speaker, Rick takes most pride in his community presence, connecting with fellow game devs, leaders, students, academics, artists, and more, helping to uplift the growing New Zealand games and creative industry. If he doesn't already know you, he would really like to.
Webinar #5 - PikPok Narrative Team
26/09/2024 10:00am NZT
A PikPok team *drumroll* Sarah (she/her) - Sarah Daymond is a seasoned storyteller with over a decade of experience captivating audiences. Her love for games and writing led her to become a Narrative Designer at PikPok, where she focuses on designing engaging stories for mobile games. Outside of work, she’s an avid LARPer, tabletop gamer, poet, novelist, screenwriter, and theatre enthusiast, and is constantly exploring new ways to bring stories to life.
Stacey (she/her) - Stacey Wellington is a Senior Narrative Designer currently working at PikPok, Wellington. Before joining the games industry, Stacey worked in libraries and museums, having completed an MA in Classical Studies. She aims to combine story and design to achieve emotional impact, even for players who ‘don’t care about story.’
Mike (he/him) - Mike Boyes is a Senior Narrative Designer with a decade of experience in game development. His career spans over thirteen titles, most notably as a narrative designer on the award-winning Into The Dead 2. Mike's passion for storytelling goes beyond writing and includes directing voice actors and cutscenes while working inside the talented narrative team at PikPok.
Isabel - I’m Isabel Londoño Díaz, from Medellín, Colombia. I studied Literature from 2018 to 2022 and interned with the gaming company Wizard Fun Factory, which PikPok later bought. After working as a QA tester for a year, I became a Narrative Designer at PikPok Medellín in Colombia.
Webinar #6 - Casey Lucas-Quaid
27/09/2024 6:00pm NZT
Using her deep experience within the games sector, in this casual fireside chat Casey shares her experiences of how to be creative within time and resource constraints, of NZ/USA culture differences, working across time zones, how to confidently embrace new challenges even when not everything is known, and opens up for Q&A with the audience.
Casey Lucas-Quaid is the Senior Community & Engagement Manager at Dinosaur Polo Club working on Mini Metro and Mini Motorways. A fifteen-year veteran of the games industry, she has also written for titles such as Magic: the Gathering, Darkest Dungeon II, and edited over 100 graphic novels in her time in the comics industry
Webinar #7 - Sami Habib
27/09/2024 6:30pm NZT
In this webinar, drawing on his years of experience of facilitating game jams, Sami talks about how to get the most out of a game jam experience and the social opportunities for collaboration it provides
I'm Sami Habib! I've worked in the game development industry for almost 7 years, as a programmer at PikPok and now as technical lead at Big Adventure. I've loved games all my life and think game jams are a great way to creatively express that enjoyment!
Webinar #8 - Theme Announcement, Let the Games Begin
28/09/2024 6:00pm NZT
Another 'Town Hall Gathering' on Discord, this webinar will announce the theme for the jam and briefly cover again the event logistics over the weekend (how to find a team if you haven't already, how to engage a mentor if you need, how to seek help, where to find learning resources, timeline for the jam and other event details).
There will also be a Q&A section at the end to clarify any questions you may have.
