Boston GameDev

Last year we ran 'Office Hours,' where industry pros were available to casually answer questions in their field, review portfolios, or just chat about working in the industry. We loved the format, so we're bringing it BACK as a virtual call-in show on Twitch! Call in using a phone, Zoom, or Twitch chat and we'll answer all your burning questions! (info for how to call in will be on the stream page) Our mentors this week are Graham Pentheny (Spryfox, Subatomic, Boston Unity Group) and Ziba Scott (Popcannibal, Harmonix). And Chris Maire (Boston Indies, OtherSide, Turbine) will also be there. So come drop in, and ask us about game engineering, indie development, game dev community building, and more!

On October 27th we will be talking with Juliet Rascon of Playstation to talk about foley in cinematics and in-game, what foley represents, how it affects your game, how to make a system, how to pick props, etc.. Juliet has worked on / is working on Demon Souls, Death Stranding, Spiderman, God of War, and more! Again, our remote meeting will take place on Discord on Tuesday, the 27th of October at 7:00 pm EST.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DESCRIPTION ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Given her non-traditional background and the variety of roles/disciplines in which she has worked, Helen McWilliams has had to get creative over the years in order to pursue her professional passions. Helen will be chatting about strategies that folks from non-gaming/untraditional backgrounds can utilize to advance their careers. She will also touch on how studios of any size can use related strategies to find new talent and ideally increase diversity in their workplaces. Mostly, Helen just wants to hear your questions about anything Harmonix-related, and is therefore hoping for a lengthy Q&A. She will do her best to remember things even though she can’t remember where she hid the trail mix with the mini peanut butter cups in it and that was, like, twelve days ago. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABOUT THE SPEAKER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As VP of Creative at Harmonix, Helen McWilliams is responsible for ensuring the creative excellence of all company products. Helen started at Harmonix as a QA Tester in 2004, and has since held a variety of positions at the studio, including writer, producer, designer, and creative lead. She has worked on over 25 shipped titles, including the upcoming FUSER, and numerous games in the Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Dance Central franchises. Outside of Harmonix, Helen plays guitar and intends to return to the very excellent local punk/hardcore scene once fun is a thing we can do again. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DEMO SIGNUPS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Want to show off a project you or your team have been working on? Apply here to demo it for the group! https://forms.gle/JeFvKD2pJC4r6a3F6