IndieCadeEast 2013–Games and Creativity

While I’ve played my share of video games growing up, I didn’t know much about independent games or game development before I attended IndieCadeEast 2013. Thanks to Diana, we made our way to the Museum of Moving Image in Queens this past weekend to the first IndieCade on the east coast. After two and a half days of intense convention activities, I learned a thing or two about games, crowd energy, creative design, and play testing. Warning: this entry has a lot of media. Proceed with caution.

fancy logo. Link to Indiecade East site

just a shot of the museum entrance.

Five Memorable Convention Moments (more details after the jump)

1. Renga AI: "Your fourth harvester looks really useful now”
2. Game Design Workshop: Post-It Pirates playtest sessions
3. Hokra Play-by-Play Sports Commentary during Sports Friends Session
4. Super Shove Shove Ending Screen during CAPY keynote by Kris.
5. Three way tie for the three “Well-Played” sessions I attended. All the presenters gave engaging presentations and shed some light onto games that I had not otherwise known about.

---

1. Renga Rant

http://wallfour.co.uk/
When D. and I first lined up on Sat. night for this game in the main theater (bigger of the two theaters), we didn’t know what to expect. The volunteer who was handing out the laser pointers instructed every row to pass down the laser pointers (1 per 3 people only). Since we sat on the aisle, I decided to skip it and let my neighbor participate while we observed. Later on in the show, he was nice enough to let us try as well.

Game premise: Team space shooter
The Execution: 100-players (total strangers) + laser pointers (aka annoying red things) = crowd ecstasy and/or complete chaos.
The Twist: We are all dependent on each other to build a ship, fight off enemies, and survive!
Side effect: Continuous blabbering about how cool this game is and seeing “quads” and “radial” shapes every where.

The context for the AI comment "Your fourth harvester looks really useful now” came after we opted to built yet another harvester despite being blown to bits by enemies. The ship can build different parts after each round of attacks. A “launch” engine is said to be the primary goal because the ship needs to build four launch engines in order to go home. Then there are “silo” ship units to hold supplies and “harvesters” which are little ships that can grab supplies to bring back to the silos. Harvesters have no offense so they get destroyed easily during attack.

Self-Portraits: An All-Star Gathering at Figureworks

My friend Stephanie had always wanted to explore Brooklyn, and what better way to do so than a gallery tour? Armed with smartphone apps NY ArtBeat ($1.99, absolute essential app for art lovers, including galleries and openings around the NY area) and Art & Absinthe Guide to Brooklyn (free, with whimsical artwork and cocktail recipes), we roamed around Williamsburg on one cold January Sunday. Out of the 5 or so galleries we visited, I enjoyed The Self-Portraits exhibit at FigureWorks the most. The friendly owner Randall was kind to share stories of the artists and works with us.

Figureworks Gallery

168 North 6th Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Sat / Sun 1-6pm (also check schedule for 2nd Fridays in Brooklyn)
http://www.figureworks.com/
Self Portraits Exhibit runs through March 3, 2013
All Images courtesy of Figureworks [harris@figureworks.com], taken with my iphone 4S.

Elim Mak – heart illumination

This one immediately caught my eye because it reminded me of traditional Chinese watercolors. The silver lines of the fierce tiger profile and the soft brushstrokes create a fine contrast. The heart illustration (veins and all) is straight out of a science class but doesn’t seem out of place in this composition. Fun fact: she also does comic books! [artist link]

Howard Eisman – Portrait of a Renaissance Man

Steph and I were fascinated with this piece and Randall was able to help us piece the whole thing together. The artist uses this medium for his normal works. So it makes sense for his self-portrait to reflect his medium. While it looks like it could be translucent, the entire work is actually quite heavy. You have to look closer at the real thing (this photo doesn’t do justice) to see different aspects of life that he included inside the colorful collage. Some of his other works do not have the wooden backboard, so you can imagine an abstract form floating on the wall.
[artist link]

Fred Hatt – Self Portrait

Randall said that Fred (the artist) looks exactly like this self-portrait. At a meet-and-greet event, most gallery visitors were able to recognize him. I haven’t attended an event yet but you can view a photo of the artist on his website. In the gallery, there is a video of the creative process on display next to this portrait. Steph and I were both surprised to see how the artist worked his way through the picture, without actually outlining the face first. He went straight to the eyes with blue outlines, before the beard and mouths were even formed. [artist link]

Other Notes

There were many other self-portraits of different mediums and stories. I wonder if Randall will publish a catalogue of the different pieces along with their stories. The reason why I called the title of the show “all-stars” is because most of the artists had already had their own shows at FigureWorks. If you think about it, a gallery usually features one or two artists at a time. This show is actually a great way to meet 50 artists all at once and learn about their styles and stories.

This exhibit also made me ponder what my self-portrait would look like. Probably a mix of maps/city photos/music, a multimedia experience. When I wrote about my “welcome corner” [blog entry], Steph did say it was a way to reflect my personality. Maybe subconsciously I was already starting to make my own self-portrait.

What medium and materials would you use to make your self-portrait? If you need inspiration, check out the show at Figureworks.

Art in East Village

One can live in New York for years and still miss half of the fun stuff that goes on around the various neighborhoods. I found out about the Howl Festival in Tompkins Square Park through a MeetUp group called Origami MeetUp Group (or O.M.G.).

Origami
The Meetup event was to fold origami to include in the mural submission for the festival. See below for a close up of the origami works (power in numbers!) and the final product (portrait of Allen Gainberg, even the glasses are made out of paper). Check out Sok and crew at the Origami MeetUp Group and also at http://creased.com/

The group went to a restaurant called Westville which featured a delicious gazpacho that had jicama and avocado as ingredients, in addition to the usual suspects like tomato, cucumber, red pepper, and onion. The market plate section also featured so many good looking veggies I just have to come back. Three locations in the city, too.

Art
I also took the opportunity to walk around the park to take in the other artworks. If you haven’t been to the Howl Festival before, you should mark your calendars for next year. Art in action offers so much creative energy!

This is one of my favorite paintings around the park. I didn’t get a chance to meet the artist but he did leave his info: http://clarkcarr.cc/

I met Sam, the artist for this work below (my photo did not get the entire picture which spells out READ):  http://samita.us/ Now I just need to look into his pop up books.

I did not get a chance to jot down this artist’s info but awesome composition as well.

More Reading
Allen Ginsberg: http://www.allenginsberg.org/
Howl text: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179381
Howl on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVGoY9gom50
Tompkins Square: http://www.city-journal.org/article02.php?aid=1155

and finally, I leave you with a peach colored rose from the park.

Museum Hopping

Back when I went to school in DC I always hopped around museums on the Mall. This usually occurred on a nice weekend afternoon or perhaps a break between intense library sessions during my reading days before exams. If the exhibit at the National Gallery didn’t last all day, I’d skip over the Freer/Sackler or Sculpture Garden or Natural Science Museum. After DC, I was a grad student in NY,  also free admission with my ID which was a luxury. If you ever look at suggested prices for museums in NY, you know they’re not cheap. I suppose becoming a member would make sense if you love one museum enough to go more than a handful of times.

Then I started working for a place that sponsors museums, which meant my badge always came with free admission (plus guest admissions) to various cultural institutions. In short, I’ve been a privileged and spoiled person indeed. Just to show you that tax dollars and corporate donations are not wasted, I do frequent museums very often and contribute to the museum cafes, gift shops, and nearby restaurants. My trips serve to enrich my limited art history knowledge which really came out of a combination of one art class in high school and random artwork in history books. The best way to learn is if there’s an exhibit featuring one artist and his/her different styles spanning a lifetime. Or perhaps an exhibit featuring various artists during a specific era.

V. and I decided to take a day off from work last week to catch up on our museum exhibits. It ended up being quite an adventure. Note for readers, don’t even think about taking the bus (no synchronized lights uptown) or subway (walking from MoMa to Lex just to go from Lex to Met again, ave walks, really?). You might as just walk and window shop! The two museums we had in mind were MoMa and Guggenheim but we ended up swinging by the Met too. Of course, as N. said later, we probably didn’t spend enough time at each location. Truth is, nobody can spend enough time at the Met. Guggenheim is focused on one special exhibit at a time so it is made for a cohesive trip. MoMa’s special exhibit on de Kooning is good but we also took time to walk by the room of Monets and Van Gaughs and Picassos. The most surprising exhibit was probably the Guggenheim Cattelan one. My favorite new artist John Marin was found and admired while visiting the Met exhibit featuring Stieglitz’s various artists.

Sound Bites
Sum of Days (white fabric tent/maze, microphone, and ambient sounds):
me- at least the fabric is nice and you can touch it, unlike other museum exhibits.
V-it reminds me of a sanitary napkin.
other museum goers: *glare

de Kooning:
me-I’m a bit scared of the teeth (on the women in some of the more abstract paintings)

Kandinsky Painting with White Border:
me-I don’t get it (and I love Kandinsky)
V-(reading the commentary next to the painting) “and it tortured me for five months!” and I just added the border because it looked nice. no social commentary!

Cattelan:
there’s way too much going on in this exhibit. I think our favs are between the Pope and the Musicians (stack of animals). or maybe Pinocchio? read the catalogue book on the various descriptions too! pigeons…enough said. and the giant foosball table. everything really!

John Marin:
me-(after seeing his earlier and later works)I like his earlier works better. although as an artist, he should be able to do different things and styles and evolve.

Rothko: (not really featured in an exhibit but came up as we were debating what kind of art to hang in our dream mansions)
me- the floating squares are quite peaceful, especially if you have nice walls
V-I’m going to get Rothko for my apt!
N-you should get the black/white one

Random fun:
Rothkomatic
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rothkomatic-for-ipad/id474351284?mt=8
If you like Rothko, check out the free ipad app that allows you to create your own Rothko. so brilliant and soothing too!

Art History Online
http://www.khanacademy.org/#smarthistory
I know everyone loves Khan Academy for math, but how about art! the Guggenheim museum video was quite informative.

Props to Art

//Yoshitaka Amano web
Funny thing about Amano is, I wouldn't have known about him if it weren't for the Final Fantasy RPG series. I recall wondering about the strange looking character interpretations in the booklet for FF6 (FF3 in US). But the scenery and mini-sized characters on screen always captured my attention. In fact, I would say it's the art and music of FF that first got me hooked.

Later, I found out how famous he was through the book he collaborated with Gaiman (at the time I didn't know who Gaiman was), the Sandman, Dream Hunter book. He had put on art shows and done many anime series as well as design sets and kimonos! It was after that when he started to put out more art books in the US. Although I must say I was still happy to find one of his Japanese art books at Katsucon. I paid a pretty high price for it but I knew I was beaming the whole time flipping through the book. Amano's colorful print style is more vividly displayed in those art books than the Super Nintendo ever allowed. And who says video games are bad for kids?

//Michel Gagne web
I first found out about him when I picked up a book on display at a small local comic shop (which had more manga for teenage boys than anything else). That was maybe freshman year? Then I saw another book at the Virgin Megastore which had the Rex story and the Shadow story, both of which I loved. Didn't really understand the unicorn or octopus story. They were more on the morbid side, I thought. Not quite children's stories. Recently, I revisited his site and sure enough, I found out that he's been featured in the graphic novel series Flight. I've always wanted to pick up the books but always forgot. Maybe I should add it to my Christmas gift list?

//Hugo Pratt wiki
I literately found out about him today. Again, the discovery was accidental. I was simply browsing through the Swatch site because I was color depraved and there were two limited collection watches featuring a character called Corto Maltese on the front page. Now, I had no idea who it was but I was immediately drawn to the watercolors featured in the ads. And of course, the watches were gorgeous, as most Swatch products tend to be. With help of wiki I got more information on Hugo Pratt, the comic book artist whose character Corto was quite famous.

//Tatsuya Ishida sinfest comic
I've been reading Sinfest since college and one of the draws is really how short and sweet it is. For some reason I never quite got into Mega Tokyo. 8-Bit Theater was a bit hard to catch up and Mac Hall ended (and transformed into something else). Sinfest comics sometimes make me laugh, and other times makes me think hard about existence. Some of my fav. strips deal with the cat and dog themed ones which are very simple yet very funny. And of course, Slick and Monique. One of these days I will buy the comic books and shirts, really, I will!

[note]
It's interesting how many of the above are comic artists. I think subconsciously I had grouped them together. Either that after I wrote about one, I had thought of another. Check them out!