GeekGirlGaming ’15
Our gaming area may be located on the lower level of the Conference Center, but if you want dank, creepy, and dungeon-like, you’ll have to get your GM to take you on a dungeon crawl, because our basement is sure to be bustling. This is shaping up to be a banner year for gaming at GeekGirlCon—all your favorites are returning, along with many new events and goodies.
One of last year’s big highlights was the Paint ‘n’ Take miniatures event. Kids and adults alike loved picking out and painting their own miniatures (provided by the ever-generous Privateer Press). This year it’s scheduled for 10am-1pm on Saturday, so be sure to show up early before the miniatures run out.
Other workshops include the “ColorCODE Kids Coding Workshop,” for kids of all ages. If you can read, you can code! Try your hand at game design in the “Mystery Box Game Design Challenge Free Play” workshop, in which each team gets a box of mystery ‘ingredients’ and creates an original board game from them in just three hours. In the “Ultimate Character Creator” workshop, veteran improv actors and live action roleplayers guide you through the process of creating characters you’ll be itching to play.
For hands-on gaming, we’ll once again have console and tabletop free-play areas. The Lady Planeswalkers Society will be teaching and playing Magic: the Gathering. And for the first time, this year you’ll have the opportunity to learn from the amazing GeekGirlScouts!
If you’re feeling competitive, try your hand at one of our tournaments. There’s the Late Night Mystery Tournament on Saturday from 8:00-11:00pm, and the King of Tokyo Tournament on Sunday from 11:00-12:50am.
For a more analytical (rather than hands-on) approach to gaming, we have panels galore.
“You Can Make a Game (Yes, You),” “So You Want to Work in Tech,” and “Anyone Can Make Board Games (and You Should Too)!” provide guides to getting those game-design juices flowing, and breaking into the industry.
“Tabletop Playtesting” is essential for any budding designers, with its psychological and research-based approach to getting the most out of your playtesting.
If you prefer playing games rather than designing them, “Ladies Who Let’s Play” is a great guide to getting your playthroughs out there on streaming channels like Twitch.
In “Sexy vs. Sexism,” our panelists dig into the tricky topics of objectification and exploitation in video game depictions of women; in “Blind Lady Versus,” Elsa S. Henry demos what gaming is like for a person with low vision; and in “The Couple That Games Together,” three couples explore how to balance life with another gamer—and how to avoid fighting over the Xbox controller!
Check out our schedule for the full details!