F*** It, We Ball: Creating Your First Indie Video Game
In this talk, Lodestar director and main artist will walk you through their journey in creating their first game and reflect on the trials and tribulations faced. Lodestar started as a simple visual novel for a game jam. However, through the team's collective passion and hate of deadlines, the game (and timeframe) grew, becoming an hour-long thriller with voiced-out characters, multiple endings, and original art and OST.
Masha Che (Lodestar director, writer & producer)
Masha is a freelance storyteller and event organiser. She works between the gaming and film industries, currently assisting the Professionals department of Cinekid Film Festival, having previously worked for Lemming Film. Separately from that, she develops short films and DIY games, while her background goes back to journalism.
Kico (Lodestar main artist)
Kico is an art student from Rotterdam with a passion for storytelling. They specialise in character design and concept art but illustrate all kind of things. Kico thinks video games are the perfect art form for communicating something to your audience, because it forces the audience to participate and empathise.
For everyone itching to make their first story-driven game, this is an opportunity to learn from other people's mistakes and successes. The Lodestar team will talk about the production and organisational processes, as well as share some WiP and BTS materials. While this talk might be the most useful for students and junior specialists, it can awaken a pleasant nostalgia in seasoned professionals as well.