Last March, we at the People's Republic of Interactive Fiction busted our brogmoids to run a series of IF events at PAX East. We ran an IF Hospitality Suite throughout the weekend; it turned into a sort of IF mini-convention within PAX. (See this post from last year.)
Following that success (and a similar event at PAX Prime in September), we are once again making plans for PAX East 2011.
We're still setting things up. But it looks like we're going to have two rooms this year, in the Westin Waterfront hotel. (That's adjacent to PAX's new convention center.) We'll have the now-standard IF Hospitality Suite, open noon-midnight Friday, noon-midnight Saturday, and noon-3pm Sunday.
We'll also have a function room in the Westin -- not as large as the PAX function rooms, but big enough for a decent crowd. (Thanks to Dave Cornelson for arranging this.)
So what's planned?
Two events with IF people are confirmed on the PAX schedule. (These will require PAX badges to attend.) These are not specifically about IF, but we'll certainly talk about IF in some way:
How to fund your game development project with Kickstarter
- (Friday, March 11th, 12:30pm-1:30pm, Cat Theatre)
Whether you're a seasoned game designer or just starting out in the field, independently producing and publishing a game can be a huge undertaking! More and more, game developers are turning to Kickstarter.com as a place to not only raise funding for their projects, but as a unique way to build fan support and reach out to new communities. Founded in 2009, Kickstarter has grown into the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world. (Cindy Au, Andrew Plotkin, Joshua Newman, Evan Balster)
Interactive Drama: Dialogue as Gameplay
- (I don't have the time yet)
(Jonathon Myers (mod.), Stephen Dinehart, Evan Skolnick, Emily Short, John Gonzalez)
We're still working out the events that we're running, in the two IF rooms. (These will not require a PAX badge.) We will certainly have:
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A Speed-IF (gamejam-style, write an IF game in one afternoon)
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Collaborative play of an IF game (yet to be chosen)
Still in planning:
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"Setting as character in narrative games" (panel discussion)
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An IF writer's workshop
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"Reading stories from the crossword" (panel discussion on narrative through puzzle)
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Superfast introduction to Inform 7?
For more information, check out the IFWiki page which we're using as a planning board. Feel free to suggest panel ideas there. And if you're interested in participating in any of these events, please comment here, or on the wiki, or send me email (erkyrath@eblong.com).