September Meetup - Game Design Analysis and Deconstruction

Our September event will feature a presentation by board game designer Jonathan Leistiko. He'll discuss how to design better games, improve existing designs, and invent innovative mechanics. In particular, he'll focus on achieving these goals through the use of practical philosophy to analyze and deconstruct games.

Some folks may wonder why a board game designer would be featured at a meetup focused on game development for mobile and web.... But it's important to note that many design principles are shared between paper and electronic games. Some of the sharpest minds in the video game industry, from AAA console developers to mobile-focused indie studios, swear by the lessons learned from board games.

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Jonathan has a long and storied history in the world of both paper and electronic games. For 10 years, he created and web-published one game a month, for a total of more than 120 games (available at Invisible City Productions (http://www.invisible-city.com)). During that period, he also contracted as an instructional designer for various companies, designing web-based Flash games to teach K-6 students and adult learners. Jonathan also co-founded and managed a retail game store for four years and worked at the legendary Steve Jackson Games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_Games) as a developer.

Two of Jonathan's games were licensed and published by AEG, one of which was a 2010 Silver Origins Award winner, and a third was licensed by Z-Man Games. He also co-self-published a title (called Inevitable (http://inevitablethegame.com)) with the first successful Kickstarter campaign for a board game and has advised several other Kickstarter-funded projects. In addition, one of Jonathan's games (Tumblewords (http://minicorestudios.com/games/tumblewords/)) was recently licensed by Minicore Studios and adapted for iOS (https://www.meetup.com/atx-mobile-game-devs/events/112601012/).

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He's also the organizer/producer of Protospiel South (http://www.protospielsouth.com/), a convention for board game designers to share and playtest board games, which just completed its fourth consecutive year. Currently, Jonathan is writing a book about how to apply practical philosophical principles to board game design, thereby making better games. His presentation will be based on the contents of this work-in-progress.

Schedule for this event:
• 6:30pm - Arrival and socializing
• 7:00pm - Jonathan Leistiko talk begins
• 7:45pm - Audience questions
• 8:15pm - More socializing

Supported by Rackspace

Thanks to Rackspace, this event will include free pizza and beer. Rackspace is a Texas company (based in San Antonio) and they're happy to help with any cloud services for your game. For more info, please visit http://www.rackspace.com/ http://photos3.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/a/c/e/6/600_269144262.jpeg