December CGDA Meetup - Cleo Renshaw, Emma Procter, Jonathan Shirley

Welcome to the December 2024 Christchurch Game Developers Meetup!

Location:
EPIC Innovation, 106 Manchester St, Christchurch 8011

The meetup will also be streamed online:
[YouTube link here]

Don't forget to check us out at:
Website: https://chch.gamedev.co.nz
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CHCHGameDev
Facebook: https://fb.me/CHCHGameDev
Discord: https://discord.gg/68YqqFZ
If you like our meetups, consider supporting us on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/CHCHGameDev
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6:15 PM - KICK OFF
Welcome to the Christchurch Game Developers Meetup, with news from around New Zealand!

6:30 PM - Designing for Profound Experiences
Games that have the power to teach, heal, and transform are steadily gaining traction, but clear framework for hot to design for such experiences in video games is still lacking. This talk is an adaptation of my third-year research paper which tackles the question: how do we purposefully design our games to foster profound experiences in their players? I'll propose a rudimentary formula, explain some of the key research behind it, and illustrate my points by exploring three games that do this incredibly well but in different ways: Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch, and The Witness.

Cleo Renshaw is a 3D artist at Outerdawn and a social psychology graduate with a lifelong passion for narrative design and the power of games to move their players. While she's not modelling or writing, you'll find her making resin dice for TTRPGs.

7:00 PM - Market Research in Game Development
Creating games that captivate players and achieve commercial success is a goal many developers share. In this talk, I’ll explore why market research plays a critical role in achieving both objectives. Drawing from my experience at PikPok, I’ll discuss our approach to market research and highlight how it can bring the most value to game development.

Emma Procter is the Research Manager at PikPok, with expertise in Market Research, Customer Insights, and Strategy. She is passionate about turning data into actionable insights, using evidence-based approaches to help create commercially successful games that players love.

7:30 PM - Utilising Playtesting for Team Alignment
Playtesting a game (i.e getting people to come play your games) is commonly used as a tool for getting insights on both usability and the player experience within your game. However, when playtesting is done right, I have seen it be an amazing tool for influencing team morale, decision-making and ultimately give teams more confidence in what they're making. Jonathan will share strategies for helping development teams align around playtesting to maximize its value, ensuring they gain both actionable player insights and practical outcomes.

Jonathan Shirley is a Senior Games User Researcher at PikPok. He specializes in analyzing player behavior and sentiment to inform game development and enhance the player experience. His work bridges player feedback and design decisions to help create more engaging and fun games.

8:00 PM - PIZZA
Enjoy some refreshments (AKA pizza) and catch up with/meet other game dev enthusiasts.

Event Photography Notice: The CGDA occasionally takes photos and/or videos at our events for promotional purposes. If you would prefer not to have your image recorded for marketing purposes, please make your wishes known to the photographer, and/or reach out to a committee member, and we will accommodate your request. Thank you!
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Massive thanks to all our supporters for making our meetups possible!

Our Corporate Supporters:

Yoobee College of Creative Innovation - a tertiary institute committed to developing creative and technical talent across New Zealand.
https://www.yoobee.ac.nz/courses/

HIT Lab NZ - a multidisciplinary, Human-Centred Research environment that collaborates with industry.
https://www.hitlabnz.org/

CerebralFix - a Christchurch-based game development studio specializing in work for hire from some amazing companies.
https://cerebralfix.com/

Screen Canterbury NZ - a Canterbury-based film office helping creatives get their projects delivered to the screens of their choice, providing fantastic resource-sharing & advocacy for our screen production industry.
https://www.christchurchnz.com/screen-canterburynz

And our awesome Patreon Supporters:
Matt Barton
Leith Caldwell
Samantha Cook
Nik Scarr
Carl de Visser