Play, Make and Design Games in the Pacific NW

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Summer Camps in Game Making and Digital Storytelling

Posted by Jeffrey Sens

· Monday, May 19th, 2014

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Library Summer Camps in 2014

We’re thrilled to announce 4 public, free camps this Summer through the Multnomah County Library (MCL) teen services. Camps registration is online with MCL here, or click the links below for individual libraries.

Rolling registration begins May 26th and continues through August. If your children are younger, please contact us at info@GameEducationPDX.com. We are working with the MCL to make these camps available to younger participants as well as teens.

June 16-20th, Capitol Hill 2-4pm

June 23-27th, Gresham, 3-4:30pm

August 18-22nd, Troutdale, 2-4pm

August 25-29th, Sellwood-Moreland, 12:30-2:30pm

GameCampPoster Final Color

Imagine New Worlds with Reading and Games

Have you ever wanted to create your own adventure story or a game you can play with friends?

Bringing games to life can be easy and fun! Join Pixel Arts for five days of fun, hands-on workshops to create tabletop and video games with your friends. We’ll draw, sketch, and design games inspired by your favorite books and your imagination.

You’ll be able to:

Build your own game worlds using cards, paper, tiles, dice, and tokens
Write a choose-your-own-adventure game with Twine – a game-making software
Bring your game to life with SNAP – an easy to learn visual programming software
Combine your projects or continue on with one of them in a free-for-all maker place
Learn about game developer careers and local game spaces
At the end of the activities, share your games with friends online and at the library!

Registration required and participants are encouraged to attend all five sessions.

Tetris Documentary Screening & Games on the Big Screen

Posted by Jeffrey Sens

· Wednesday, April 9th, 2014

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Join Pixel Arts and the Portland Indie Game Squad in a free screening of Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters & playing videogames on a theater screen!

Where: 5th Avenue Cinema, 510 SW Hall Street, Portland, Oregon 97201

When: Saturday, April 19th, 6pm

6:15pm: Play Tetris

7pm: Movie Screening – Ecstasy of Order

9pm: More games – Tetris Attack, Hard Lander, and more!

For more about the film: “Tetris. We’ve all played it, rotating the pieces (“tetrominoes”) and dropping them in the perfect place, or despairing as we discover a piece won’t fit. You may have even joked about “mastering” the game during a stint of unemployment, or as a child, before you could afford any other Game Boy cartridges. But what about the people who’ve truly mastered Tetris? Where are the Kasparovs and Fischers, the great champions who’ve dedicated their minds to solving its deepest puzzles?”

Games from the 3rd Annual Rob Ingram Youth Summit Against Violence

Posted by Jeffrey Sens

· Monday, April 7th, 2014

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On April 5th, Pixel Arts hosted 11 social impact games for the 3rd Annual Rob Ingram Youth Summit Against Violence. Organized by the Multnomah Youth Commission and their Youth Against Violence Committee, the Summit gathers hundreds together to help end violence directed toward youth.

At the Game Exploratorium, more than 70 youth participated in 2 sessions and discussed their relationships with video games and violence. As one youth voiced, “videogames are a representation of what is happening in real life, like Call of Duty and war–these topics have changed because of what is happening around the world.” Similarly, youth gave voice to the contradictions of games, asking “if a violent game makes me a killer, why doesn’t Madden make me a football player?” and “how do we create better futures with games?”

The success of the Game Exploratorium was also one of inter-organizational cooperation. Using computers provided by Free Geek, a team from Portland YouthBuilders provided more than 30 stations for youth to play games. We are thrilled to grow this opportunity into the future by collaborating with the Youth Against Violence Committee and communities for positive youth development.

Expect our report back in the next few weeks, and, until then, here is information on the entries at the Game Exploratorium. Of them, 9 are free. Play, explore and enjoy!

Depict1	Xerus	http://www.kongregate.com/games/mirosurabu/depict1	Depict1 is a 2010 platformer game based around the ideas of deception and inversion. It was the winner of the 2010 Tank Awards.
Depression Quest	Zoe Quinn, Patrick Lindsey and Isaac Schankler	http://www.depressionquest.com/	Depression Quest is an interactive fiction game where you play as someone living with depression. You are given a series of everyday life events and have to attempt to manage your illness, relationships, job, and possible treatment.
A Closed World	MIT GAMBIT LABS	http://gambit.mit.edu/loadgame/summer2011/aclosedworld_play.php	RPG-like turn-based combat mechanics to emulate conversations about homophobia, acceptance and oppression. Rather than swords and spells, your character has logic, ethics and passion on his or her side and must maintain their composure in the face of crippling hate speech.
Auti-Sim	Taylan Kay	http://gamejolt.com/games/strategy-sim/auti-sim/12761/	Experience what hypersensitivity overload might feel like for those on the Autism spectrum. A haunting, abrasive game that puts you on a playground occupied by other children. Attempting to venture too far into the crowd and interact with your peers results in deafening static, volume-shifting effects and overwhelming visual impairments, forcing you to reel back and seclude yourself in a quiet area.
Papa & Yo	We Are Minority	http://www.weareminority.com/papo-yo/	A fantasy game rooted in some very real and personal issues. It’s a puzzle game and an adventure game about a young boy named Quico, his friend, Monster, and the sad nature of their relationship. While Monster can be playful and friendly, he has an addiction to poisonous frogs that, when fed, changes him into a raging and violent beast Quico must flee from.
Love in the Dumpster	Jean Hehn of Another Kind, Belgium	http://jenniferann.org/Love-in-the-Dumpster/2013–game-first-place.htm	Love in the Dumpster is Another Kind’s second winning game, having won in 2011 with “Finding Jane.”“Love in the Dumpster” is the fourth video game to be released from the 2013 Life.Love. Game Design Challenge and like all of the other winning games is free to play to increase awareness about teen dating violence.
“Janie’s Sketchbook”	GP Touch Thailand	http://jenniferann.org/Janies-Sketchbook/janiesketchbook/2013-video-game-to-stop-teen-dating-violence-Janies-Sketchbook.htm	Janie’s Sketchbook is a follow-up to the award-winning “Grace’s Diary,” the critically acclaimed game from 2010.“Sometimes games are just there for us when we want to have some fun, blow up the princess, and save the zombies, or something like that. Other times, we want to explore more difficult and painful stories. Grace’s Diary by GPTouch manages to seamlessly integrate the theme of relationship abuse into a sensitive and moving visual novel.” – joye, JayIsGames.com
Gracies Diary		http://jenniferann.org/2010-game-first-place.htm	Award winning and critically aclaimed game from the Jennifer Ann game jam to combat relationship based violence and abuse.
Papers Please	Lucas Pope	http://papersplea.se/	A Dystopian Document Thriller. The communist state of Arstotzka has ended a 6-year war with neighboring Kolechia and reclaimed its rightful half of the border town, Grestin. Your job as immigration inspector is to control the flow of people entering the Arstotzkan side of Grestin from Kolechia. Among the throngs of immigrants and visitors looking for work are hidden smugglers, spies, and terrorists. Using only the documents provided by travelers and the Ministry of Admission’s primitive inspect, search, and fingerprint systems you must decide who can enter Arstotzka and who will be turned away or arrested.
Adventures of Rubberkid	Critterverse	http://www.thecritterverse.com/rubberkid/	The Adventures of Rubberkid is all about helping others get through the evils of bullying while learning just what horrible affects it can have on people.
Survivance	Elizabeth LaPensee	http://survivance.org/	Survivance is a social impact game that asks us to explore experiences of intergenerational trauma and create acts of survivance as a pathway to healing.

Sprouting World Making Change with Pixel Arts Game Education

Posted by Jeffrey Sens

· Monday, March 10th, 2014

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Since January, we have been rapidly developing our organizational capacity. In response to increased requests for support by non-profits, youth advocates and schools, we are thrilled to announce our Imagine New Worlds program. In this 5-day camp, youth connect their love of reading and story to the imaginative potential of games for world making change.

Designed to serve ages 8-21, Imagine New Worlds will be coming to Gresham and Sellwood libraries in June and August respectively. You can stay updated by signing up for our newsletter.

We also are thrilled to announce our participation and support of the Rob Ingram Youth Summit Against Violence.

In 2011, the MYC established the Youth Against Violence Committee (YAV) in response to the growing violence directed towards young people. Youth commissioners identified seven types of violence:

Anti-Gay and Gender
Cyberbullying
Gang
Home/Family
Police
School (Bullying)
Sexual & Dating Violence.

Please help us share registration for the 3rd Annual Rob Ingram Youth Summit Against Violence with youth and community groups.

When: Saturday April 5th, 9am-5pm
Where: Ambridge Event Center (1333 NE MLK Jr. Blvd)

In partnership with the Oregon Game Project Challenge, we are hosting a game expo and sessions for the Summit. Help inspire new conversations and support YAV’s ongoing mission to create change! Entries will be screened by Youth Commissioners for relevance to the Summit and Multnomah County youth.

Submit your games by emailing Jeffrey at jsens@GameEducationPDX.com or enroll here.

Bringing Game Design to East Metro

Posted by Jeffrey Sens

· Thursday, January 9th, 2014

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Design Week Spotlight: Guide to StumpQuest Indie Games Arcade

Posted by Jeffrey Sens

· Friday, October 11th, 2013

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Get ready, they’re here.

Portland’s most diverse, locally-made indies games are here to play for your enjoyment. Tomorrow, October 12th from 2-10pm, the Art Institute (NW Davis) is hosting the StumpQuest Indie Games Arcade. Join us for games with everything from monsters, cows, and spaceships to all your crazy exes in one place. Here’s a partial lineup:

Indie Games Arcade

Monsters Ate My Birthday Cake

A dungeon-style puzzle game in development for PC, Mac, iOS, and Android similar to the dungeon areas in games like The Legend Of Zelda. By splitting your puzzle solving abilities between multiple characters instead of one, Monsters flips the standard of puzzle solving gameplay on its head and forces you to think differently about each situation you encounter. You’ll need to use your problem solving skills and the combined abilities of your monster allies to conquer each mind-bending level. Freeze, scorch, corrode, dig, and even move across outer dimensions on your cake-fueled journey!

Rubicon

rubicon ss

RUBICON is a astroidsy top-down space shooter developed in three months as a Kickstarter project. It features ship customization, a mouse-and-keyboard control scheme, and Zero Wing-style words for mission justice. PC, Linux, and Mac distributions are available at wickworks.tumblr.com!

Blargh Thwart

Blargh Thwart, billed as ‘a Game of Madness’, opens to find the player in a first-person walk across a small island floating in an abyss. The island is sparsely populated…a store, a box of dirt and a few strange creatures that say crazy things when you speak with them. In this minimalist environment, the user has but one task: plant a tree.

Starfruit: Ascension

Startfruit Ascension

Starfruit: Ascension was born just a few weeks ago during the Indie Speed Run 48-hour game jam. The game is about going up — in style. Navigate your rapidly multiplying starfruit through several layers of atmosphere and into outer space while avoiding hot-air balloons, low-orbit satellites, and chocolate chip cookies.

Major Magnet Arcade

MajorMagnet

Major Magnet is a full side-scrolling “orbiting platformer” featuring rich, fully hand-drawn 2D animation. Gone are the days of playing a game where you just run around, stomping on mushrooms — this is magnetic gameplay! Tap a magnet, swing and shoot the Major to race through each level. It’s as innovative as it sounds and incredibly fun to master.

PriceTag

PriceTag is a shopkeeper simulator game in the flavor of old school JRPGs. Hire adventurers and form parties for them to explore dungeons and wilderness for you, and equip them with the gear they need through a deep crafting system.

Hardlander

Control and unwieldy craft through 10 grueling landing challenges. This is the most advanced top-heavy rocket game in existence. Do you have what it takes!?

Cow Tippa!

Tip cows to keep the jealous volcano god from burning your crops!

Marshmallow Duel

A fast-paced, 2D, arena style 1 Vs. 1 barrel of fun! Collect items to help send your foe to the boiling vat of marshmallow or protect yourself from falling in. Currently on Xbox Live Indie Arcade and coming to Steam soon, “[Marshmallow Duel] is really cool and worth checking out!” – Signed In Podcast

Trash Donkey

Trash Donkey is a game where you eat trash to protect your crops(agriculture) so they can grow to their fullest potential. Eating the trash powers your ‘trash tank’ which you can expel to alsodestroy trash – making Trash Donkey the ultimate trash fighting weapon. There are 11 rounds, each round banks the health of your crops as ‘pounds of agriculture’. After all 11 rounds you are rewarded with a final score. Replay with friends to get SUPER HIGH SCORES!

Queertastrophe

You want to go dancing and hit on cuties, but your exes are at the same party! Bring drinks to cuties while avoiding your crazy exes!

Surge Breaker

Surge Breaker was originally designed as a 3D endless runner that utilizes mobile tilt controls but has gone though many changes in its prototyping journey.

Amery Studios (Vendor)

I make handmade jewelry with nerdy themes. I currently have many Mario and Zelda pieces in stock, as well as other jewelry/keychains that would appeal to a gaming/nerdy crowd. For example, I make wire earrings out of recycled ethernet cable from Free Geek in Portland. You can see my work at amerystudios.etsy.com or amerystudios.tumblr.com. Thanks!

Design Week Spotlight: Game Lab Board Games

Posted by Jeffrey Sens

· Friday, October 11th, 2013

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Looking for amazing tabletop, board and card games to play? Today, October 11th from 5-10pm at the Art Institute. And, don’t forget the amazing Indie Game Tournament today at 5th Avenue Cinema from 6-10pm. Play for prizes and honor in on the big screen with three unique, indie games.

stumpquestweb1

Lineup for the Game Lab

ChronoCity Portland

It is a card game that plays like a strategy board game. Players use light strategy and learn fascinating historical facts about Portland that they never knew, even if you lived here all your life. For example did you know that Portland was home to the first US professional hockey team to play in a Stanley Cup Finals? Its true. 2-4 players|60-90 min for new players

Bad Kitty

Bad Kitty is a card-based game where players are all cats. Points are scored primarily through a Play and Sleep bidding system. There are a few modifier cards such as To The Vet, Catbox, Catnip, What’s That?! and both Good and Bad Kitty that interrupt or modify turn flow but the basic game is straight forward. When the deck is exhausted the game ends and the player with the most points wins.

American Lwgend

Action RPG set in the Old West. Think D&D meets XCOM: Enemy Unknown. This is a way to have the deep character develop that only a good RPG can give you, plus the fast-paced hard-hitting action that we all love. The themes will be straddling the line between historical fiction and fantasy.

Gwob

A game of strategy with a little bit of luck, Gwob requires players to place cubes of four cubes on a board of tiles to score points. The cube colors players place on their turn are determined by a die roll and a selection from a hand of cards the player has. There are rules governing how the cubes can be placed, but some of those rules can be broken for the price of reducing the size of your hand of cards, therefore limiting your flexibility in the future. Special tile locations on the board give players bonus points or allow them to regain a lost card for their hand. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. 2-4 players|estimated play time 45-60 minutes.

MADNESS

Find the antidote to the MADNESS virus before it’s too late and the zombies take over! Think fast, play faster in this fun and addictive card game for 2 or 4 players.

Catastrophe

You play the role of CEO of a major Insurance Company. Your task is to have your company survive a series of increasingly catastrophic catastrophes. At the same time, you are lining your own pockets by arranging outlandish executive bonuses for yourself utilizing lawyers, marketing and a hand picked management team. The CEO with the largest nest egg is the winner.

Motley Band of Adventurers

Each player becomes a leader of a hodgepodge group of adventurers. He or she is Gandalf to Bilbo Baggins party. As with any party, some adventures will be less effective – some may only help steal treasures and others may only be effective as a team. A player might attempt to lead a band of adventurers that consist of a Revenant, Fairy, Elf and Dragon. As the quest continues, the lore surrounding the treasure will grow. The lore will grow in proportion to how many other leaders believe their band of adventurers will get some of the treasure. The players continue on more quests until all the treasure is claimed.

Polaris

A science fiction strategy game that has up to four players fighting for control of the galaxy. Polaris combines deck-building with tactical war strategy to be a game that is as light and easy to learn as it is deep.

March of the Ants

In March of the Ants, send your ants marching into the meadow to explore new territory and forage for resources. Build your nest by increasing your food stores and growing larvae. Evolve your ants into a unique species that can claim victory from competing colonies and the ever present threat of the centipedes. Will your ants specialize by developing advanced Workers, fearsome Soldiers, or a fertile Queen. Inspired by games such as Eclipse, Race for the Galaxy and Puerto Rico, March of the Ants takes strategy and exploration into the realm of the ants. 2-4 Players| 45-60 minutes

Lagoon

Deploy your druids to explore the magical world of Lagoon. Discover a host of enchanted lands offering mystical powers you can harness to bend destiny. Players shape the ever-changing selection of powers available by exploring new sites and removing existing ones from play. But each site added or removed alters the balance of power in the eternal struggle between three immortal forces greater than all of you. One of these energies will prevail at game’s end, as determined by your collective actions. The player most instrumental in manifesting the dominant force will be the victor!

Colony

Up to four players compete to quickly and efficiently manage resources in an effort establish a stable and lucrative colony in the New World.

In the Afterward

A card-based game, players seek to uncover elements of past lives and cobble clues into grand revelations which help them navigate through the current life’s way points on a quest for complete understanding of the meaning behind the here and now. 3-4 players|1 hour

Length x Wit

Length x Wit, the word game preferred for ladies and gentlemen of rare distinction. Vancouver natives Tinderbox Entertainment have teamed with Portland area designer Mr. David Myers to bring you a press your luck dice and tile word game. 2 – 5 players

Design Week Celebrates Indie Games

Posted by Jeffrey Sens

· Thursday, October 10th, 2013

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Today marks the beginning of Stumpquest, a 4-day extravaganza of indie tabletop and videogames for Design Week. Sponsored by the Portland Indie Game Squad and Pixel Arts, we’re starting with a Twine Workshop at the Art Institute from 2-4pm.

Twine Software

Twine is a simple, visual design software for creating interactive or experimental fiction, a kind of make your own adventure game, with rich media. After the workshop, we’ll be putting our new skills to use at our 6-hour Twine Jam on Saturday.

Friday has something for everyone with a Game Lab Board Game Testing to play tabletop board games and an Indie Games Tournament, where contestants compete for prizes on the big screen at 5th Avenue Cinema. The tournament line up includes:

Crypt of the NecroDancer: A hardcore roguelike rhythm game. Move to the beat with the game’s epic sound track or your own MP3s.

Zero Zen: A Ludum Dare creation made in 48 hours that combines Sumo wrestling and fighter planes.

Samurai Gunn: A lightning-fast Bushido brawler for two to four players. Each samurai is armed with a sword and gun, with only 3 bullets to a life. Discipline and quick reflexes are the key to deflecting bullets and sending your opponents’ heads rolling.

On Saturday, we have an Indie Games Arcade with a huge display of independent development talent and the Twine Jam. Finally, on Sunday, we cap off Design Week with a Film Screening – Going Cardboard: A Board Game Documentary.

We hope you’ll join us for the largest, most diverse indie games fest in Portland!

A Time for Retro Gaming: Game Expo for Youth

Posted by Jeffrey Sens

· Friday, October 4th, 2013

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In 10 Favorite Things at Portland’s Mini Maker Faire, Geek Mom Cathe Post highlighted our exhibit with the Portland Indie Game Squad. OMSI 2013 1

Unsurprisingly, a game that drew much attention was PewPewPewPewPewPewPewPewPew, “a game in which two players control the little astronaut using microphones….The sounds were all modulated through the speakers so they sounded more like video game sounds, and it was pretty hilarious to watch.”

As exciting, kids and adults playing games together including one’s made by OGPC youth teams. We had games by teams from Sunset High, Glencoe High school & the School of Science & Technology.

OMSI 2013 Youth Game

Jeanie Pearson, one of the developers of Learning Step, an educational game for preschool & kindergarten aged children, said:

I really enjoyed my experience with Pixel Arts at the OMSI Mini Maker Faire. It was exciting to show my game to a real audience and to see how they interacted with it. It was good experience for my future because it was an environment with indie games made by adults as well as the youth games, so I could see how it was similar to being a “real” game developer. I had a great time and I will definitely be participating again!

We’re thrilled to be bringing more opportunities for indie game developers and youth to share their work with broader communities. This weekend, we’ll be doing it again at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo, a rollicking adventure through the history of games from arcades and tabletop to Tetris tournaments and more. Come by our booth and say hi. Your kids will love it! If you have a game to exhibit, you can enroll to show your games here.