June Meetup - Featuring George Royer of White Whale Games

Our next event will feature George Royer, the Co-Founder and Lead Designer of Austin indie White Whale Games (http://www.whitewhalegames.com/). George will give a talk on game design tips and techniques. Specifically, he'll focus on how to avoid predictable tropes and approach game design from a fresh, unconventional perspective. In addition, he'll provide insight into the creative process behind White Whale's critically acclaimed game, God of Blades.

White Whale was founded in 2011. The company's goal is to design and develop games that thoughtfully present the player with elegant, meaningful, and fully realized worlds. Their first game, God of Blades (http://www.whitewhalegames.com/godofblades.html), is a sidescrolling, physics-based sword-fighting adventure. It utilizes a highly unique style to present a "love-song to pulp fantasy tales of yore, 70s synth-prog-landscape oddities, and forgotten places." The game also touches on deeper themes, prompting players "to think about memory, culture, and loss in terms of stories, books, and the communities that love them." White Whale's dedication to the concept is so complete that the game even rewards players with special swords for visiting real world libraries (http://whitewhalegames.com/blog/2012/02/god-of-blades-new-library-feature-encourages-discovery-of-lost-tales-makes-real-life-part-of-the-adventure/) and has a companion eBook (http://whitewhalegames.com/blog/2013/04/god-of-blades-ebook-hand-of-the-sable-king-releasing-tomorrow/).

God of Blades was released for iOS in September 2012, for Android in March 2013, and for PC/Mac/Linux in April. It was widely praised by critics, receiving a score of 85 of Metacritic (http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios/god-of-blades). George is a PhD student at UT studying design and digital media. Our schedule for this event is:

6:30pm - Arrival and socializing 7:00pm - George Royer talk begins 7:45pm - Audience questions 8:15pm - Head downstairs for more socializing