The clock is ticking - there’s one week left to save 50% on 5 top PocketGamer.biz MasterClasses! Don’t miss out on gaining essential knowledge and developing your skills. These are deep-dive sessions run by acknowledged experts, which will help you improve your game development skills and help you run more effective games businesses.
On June 8-10 we have insightful sessions designed to help enhance your skills and knowledge. With Zoom classes and half-day online lessons, they give you a practical hands-on guide into specific aspects of game design, all accessible from the comfort of your home office.
Today we wanted to let you know that there's just ONE WEEK left to take advantage of our fantastic Early Bird offer where you can save 50% on full price tickets, before prices hit full price.
- BOOK NOW: Building a Game Pitch: From Concept to Doc
- BOOK NOW: Mastering Data For Engaging Game Design
- BOOK NOW: Cognitive Science and a UX framework to Improve Your Game
- BOOK NOW: Designing for LiveOps Success
UPCOMING MASTERCLASSES
Tuesday, June 8 (10am - 1pm UK)
MasterClass: Building a Game Pitch: From Concept to Doc
Fuelled by a childhood of unforgettable industry-defining games, Arran’s eight-year long career in the games industry has allowed him to work across a wide variety of genres, project sizes and responsibilities, from Sea Of Thieves at Rare to the top-grossing mobile game Yahtzee With Buddies.
Currently employed as a Senior Game Designer by Mediatonic, Arran continues to help teams create life-long, memorable experiences for a new generation of players- and play all the games he possibly can!
This MasterClass is designed to equip participants with new skills and knowledge on how to write user-friendly, well-structured pitch documentation that strikes a strong balance between level of detail and upsell. You can expect to learn tips and advice that will ultimately culminate in the creation of the first, and possibly most important, page of your own pitch document by the end of the session.
Key takeaways include:
- Why game concept pitching can be so important
- Best practices around how to explain a game concept idea
- Tips on how to prove the strength of your concept
Wednesday, June 9 (4pm - 7pm UK)
MasterClass: Cognitive Science and a UX framework to Improve Your Game
Celia Hodent is recognized as a leader in the application of user experience (UX) and cognitive science in the game industry.
Celia holds a PhD in psychology and has over 12 years of experience in the development of UX strategy and processes in video game studios.
Through her work at Ubisoft (Rainbow 6), LucasArts (Star Wars: 1313), and as Director of UX at Epic Games (Fortnite), she has contributed to many projects across multiple platforms, from PC to consoles, mobile, and VR.
Celia is also the founder of the Game UX Summit, advisor for the GDC UX Summit, author of The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can Impact Video Game Design and of The Psychology of Video Games.
She currently works as an independent consultant, helping studios increase the likelihood of their games to be engaging and successful.
This MasterClass will delve into how the human brain works in terms of perception, attention, and memory (critical elements for usability), and offers guidelines to significantly improve the experience of a game, as perceived by its target audience, not only in terms of usability, but also in terms of engagement.
Key takeaways include:
- The main characteristics and limitations of the human brain (in terms of perception, attention, memory), the three main learning processes, and how this knowledge can help game development.
- What makes a game engaging and how to foster these components in a game.
- Have a clear and concrete understanding of what having a UX mindset and developing a UX strategy entail.
Wednesday, June 9 (10am - 1pm UK)
MasterClass: Mastering Data for Engaging Game Design
Poornima has been part of the gaming industry for over 15 years and undertaken roles varying from Game Designer to Producer to Studio head and Entrepreneur.
She has been part of companies like Indiagames (Disney India), Jumpstart, GSN Games etc.
She is currently a Director of Design at Zynga.
She has worked on franchises like BioShock Mobile, How to Train your Dragons, Neopets, and FarmVille 2: Country Escape to name a few.
She is a Women in Games Ambassador and also a Hall of Fame Inductee at the Global WIG Awards 2020, making her the first Indian game developer to receive such an honour.
With close to two decades of work experience, Vimal's been at the helm of building games long enough to see the inception and growth of the free-to-play business model in the casual space, as well as the advent of the OG iPhone and the consequent touch-screen games boom.
His experience working on a multitude of hit games and incredible IPs (The Walking Dead, UFC, CSR Racing 2, etc.) and across varied platforms (Nintendo DS, AR/VR, Plug and Play, mobile, etc.) brings a well-rounded and informed perspective to the table - a key element in helping enhance design as a skill amongst others.
Vimal currently works as the Director of Design at Zynga.
The 'Mastering data for engaging game design' MasterClass will touch upon how we can influence game design and game experience with the help of data and also how to use game design to move different metrics. This will act as a starting guide for you when you are thinking about your next big idea or looking at improving your current game.
Key takeaways include:
- Why data is important in Free to Play (F2P) games or games in general
- What are the kinds of data available
- How to interpret and understand player behaviour
- Weaving data with game design
Thursday, June 10 (4pm - 7pm UK)
MasterClass: Designing for LiveOps Success
Crystin Cox is currently the Director of Live Game Operations for Xbox Game Studios Publishing.
Before joining Xbox in 2019 she spent 16 years as a game developer working on large scale, online games with teams at ArenaNet, Nexon, and Disney.
Throughout her career, Crystin has focused on game design and direction, monetization strategy, and LiveOps while also being active in the game developer community as a frequent speaker and writer, she is also the co-host of the podcast The Art of LiveOps.
This MasterClass is about designing games that will grow and engage players through live operations. We will be exploring the fundamental elements that create longevity, growth, and engagement in games regardless of genre or platform. With a focus on design and player experience, we will dive into Retention, Monetization, and Live Content and lay out how to align your game’s design with best practices in these key areas.
Key takeaways include:
- Which elements of design will drive retention what which might be getting in the way of retention
- How to create monetization goals and pillars
- How to evaluate live content plans for sustainability and efficiency
Book your Early Bird tickets now and save 50%
Remember, there are FIVE individual MasterClasses and you can book for each one - but if you want to attend multiple, we have some brilliant multi-booking deals for you too:
There are savings if you book for multiple MasterClasses at the same time. Reserve your place at three or four workshops and get an additional one FREE. That’s a saving of 20%-25% if you contact us to make multiple reservations.
Booking for multiple people? Take advantage of our 30% corporate discount for groups of six or more people from the same company.
For multi-buy or group discounts, please email sally.kevan@steelmedia.co.uk to discuss your bespoke package. This is an incredible deal to give your team a skillset boost.
If you are an indie developer (small privately-owned studio with fewer than 10 members, engaged in game creation) or student you may be entitled to discounted tickets. Please contact us with proof of your status and we can discuss relevant offer codes: sally.kevan@steelmedia.co.uk
Tickets are strictly limited to ensure healthy class sizes, so be sure to get in touch today to secure your place.
