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Invest in your professional development with the next round of PocketGamer.biz MasterClasses

Pick up new skills and gain valuable games industry knowledge with these deep-dive workshops

Invest in your professional development with the next round of PocketGamer.biz MasterClasses

You can gain essential knowledge and learn new skills from the finest games industry experts with our PocketGamer.biz MasterClass series, as it returns on September 13th to 17th.

We're hosting more insightful sessions designed to help enhance your skills and knowledge, by providing a practical deep-dive into specific subjects, all accessible from the comfort of your own workspace.

Early bird tickets for the PocketGamer.biz MasterClasses are on sale now, enabling you to save 50 per cent on each session. Book now:

These professional, half-day workshops are run every quarter throughout the year, delivered by the finest industry experts through Zoom, with learning support tools like Miro, Mural and Google Docs to support collaborative activities including tutorials, lectures and breakout group work.

You can expect to explore a range of key games design topics such as how to successfully scale a living game, playtesting secrets, monetisation, player behaviour, applying game design to real-world issues and more.

Check out the upcoming MasterClasses below and don't forget to click the links for a full, detailed breakdown of everything you can expect; including the core topic areas, key takeaways and session format.

 

UPCOMING MASTERCLASSES


Monday, September 13 | 10:00 - 13:00 (UK time)

MasterClass: Lessons with a Growth Hacker: Successfully Scale a Living Game

Oliver Kern Chief Commercial Officer Lockwood Publishing

This Masterclass is about the product management, strategy and marketing side of managing games and game portfolio. We will be diving into business principles and how product strategy can align with company strategy (or not).

We will be focusing on the big decisions, how and when to make them and what the fundamental levers a games business has to impact the lifecycle of its product(s). When to scale and when to scale back plus what tactics can be applied at what stage.

Key takeaways include:

  • What are common best practices and mistakes in lifecycle management
  • How do these apply to games
  • How to expand the lifespan of your game in practice
  • What’s a living game and how can you scale during the growth and maturity stage of your gamet

 

BOOK YOUR PLACE


Monday, September 13 | 14:00 - 17:00 (UK time)

MasterClass: Save Your Game From Disaster: Playtesting Secrets From a Former Ubisoft Expert

Pascal Luban Creative Director

Pascal Luban is a game designer and creative director. With over 25 years of experience, he has led design teams on both triple-A console games (Splinter Cell - Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory, Alone In the Dark - The New Nightmare, Wanted - Weapons of Fate, etc.) and mobile titles (Wars and Battle, The One Hope).

He set up and managed the playtest facility at the Ubisoft studio in Annecy where the multiplayer mode of Splinter Cell games was developed.

Playtesting is the quality insurance for gameplay, but why do so many studios fail to use it effectively? What are the pitfalls to avoid? How to make it cost-effective?

In a nutshell, how to run it?

This masterclass will cover the pros and cons of the different ways to playtest your game. It will focus on how to set up your own in-house playtest structure and how to run a playtest campaign while remaining affordable, even for very small studios.

Key takeaways include:

  • Pros and cons of the various ways to playtest your game
  • Step-by-step method to prepare and manage a playtest campaign
  • Best practices to recruit the playtesters most adapted to your needs
  • Sample documents for the preparation of a playtest session, and its debrief

 

BOOK YOUR PLACE


Tuesday, September 14 | 10:00 - 13:00 (UK time)

MasterClass: Make a Change: How to Apply Game Design to Real-world Issues

Ellis Bartholomeus Game Design Consultant Ellis in Wonderland

In this MasterClass you’ll discover the art of designing games to solve real-world problems in a playful, engaging way.

The class will begin with examining case studies of games with this ambition, followed by activities in small groups where you will have the opportunity to explore real-world issues and apply game design to solve this problem.

Key takeaways include:

  • Learn how a game might be a solution to a real-world issue
  • Learn how to explore a real-world issue and create a playful solution
  • Experience how play invites and elicits creativity and facilitates a meaningful dialogue

 

BOOK YOUR PLACE


Wednesday, September 15 | 10:00 - 13:00 (UK time)

MasterClass: The Right Balance: Connect Gameplay & Monetisation Effectively

Glyn Fairweather Games Design Analyst Fundamentally Games

This MasterClass is about exploring and understanding the fundamental elements of game balance and game economies. Through clear examples and exercises, you will equip yourself with language and tools to deliver design and monetisation solutions that delight your players, whilst protecting the things that make your game special.

Key takeaways include:

  • How to appreciate balance (and imbalance) when approaching challenges in your game.
  • How to discuss the economy of the game in shared terms.
  • How to deliver monetisation that does not undermine your economy or balance.

 

BOOK YOUR PLACE


Wednesday, September 15 | 14:00 - 17:00 (UK time)

MasterClass: Get Your Shit Together with Player Behaviour

Kelly Vero CEO and CTO NAK3D

This MasterClass is about designing games with the player as the beating heart of everything we create.

We will be embarking on a journey of discovery, where we can investigate consumer behaviours at large for a variety of games and transmedia products by questioning what success looks like for the games we know and love.

This MasterClass is design-centred and therefore takes a deep dive into elements of player psychology, UX design basics, gamification and good old-fashioned debate!

Key takeaways include:

  • Why are successful games really so successful?
  • How important is design thinking in everything we make? And how do we measure that?
  • Can you communicate with your player? If so, how do you know if they are listening?

 

BOOK YOUR PLACE


Thursday, September 16 | 14:00 - 17:00 (UK time)

MasterClass: Game Design: How to Benchmark, Create & Measure Fun

Javier Barnes Head of Game Design Pixel Noire Games

Javier Barnes is the head of game design at Pixel Noire Games.

Previously, he was lead game designer of Monster Legends, as well as game economy and systems designer for top grossing mobile hits such as Despicable Me: Minion Rush and Asphalt 8: Airborne, among many others.

Thousands of games are released every year, and most of them won’t become a hit. The key thing that separates a successful game from one that flops is its ability to be fun and engaging to the audience. In other words, game design.

In the past, developers would create something they thought was fun and then pray for the audience to enjoy it.

Today there are a range of techniques to help us validate design decisions, understand who our audience is, what they will enjoy, plus speed up the development process by avoiding creative dead ends and detecting earlier what does work.

This MasterClass will provide you with a series of good practices and tools to set up a solid game design, and teach you how to use a data-oriented methodology to validate it and improve it.

It’s intended to be useful both for those working on new games and for those running live games that want to improve their player experience.

Key takeaways include:

  • How to benchmark the competition, build and use realistic player personas, and best practices to integrate actual audiences early on in the creative process to guide the development.
  • How to break down the progression structure of a game on its different sections (FTUE, onboarding, endgame, and more) and identify the critical elements on each stage.
  • How to establish and validate a gameplay proposal. Find an innovative, engaging gameplay, employing a lean methodology and a user-oriented mindset.
  • How to arrange/analyse playtests to validate and improve the player experience, including the usage of playtesting services such as Playtestcloud.
  • How to adapt game design to make the game more marketable, and extract the maximum value from the usage of third party IPs, satisfying both the licensor and the players. (Key topic on a post-IDFA scenario).

 

BOOK YOUR PLACE


 

Book now: Multi-buy & group discounts

You can book early bird tickets for the PocketGamer.biz MasterClasses which are are on sale now, enabling you to save 50 per cent on each MasterClass.

Three for two: Book three MasterClasses for the price of two.

Corporate discount: a group of six or more from one company can get a bespoke discount if booked together.

To arrange any of the bespoke packages above, please email katy.reilly@steelmedianetwork.com for more information.

Tickets are limited so be sure to get in touch today to secure your place.


Events Writer

Charlie is the Events Writer at PocketGamer.biz

You can catch him on Twitter @CharlieScowen_ talking about anything gaming, TV or football related whilst also sharing too many memes.