For the next Australian independent gaming festival, Freeplay, I’m curating a panel on gaming decisions:

How Every Little Decision Can Bring You Closer To or Further Away from Creating Crap

“A (self-described) “handsome and debonaire stranger” said to me the best way to avoid creating dull projects is “don’t work for shit companies” and “only go indie if you have a brain”. But what happens if you (think) you don’t work for a shit company and you have a brain? Are there still little things you can do that gradually and inevitably steer your project into the sea of mediocrity? This session is a discussion about how all of those little design and process decisions build to make or break your game.”

The panel includes (in alphabetical order):

• Christy Dena, Director, Universe Creation 101
• David May, Lead Programmer at Big Ant Studios
• Floyd Mueller, Head of the Exertion Games Lab, RMIT
• Luke Muscat, Lead Designer and Executive Producer at Halfbrick

It is shaping up to be a cracker panel with lots of war stories and advice on design and process decisions for a variety of games — console, mobile, pervasive, exertion — at the wonderful Freeplay Festival this Saturday. See you there!

P.S. I’ll also be helping out at the Lemon Joust Club organised by the wonderful Leena – a kick-ass fun game that Tassos Stevens introduced us to with his Secret Agent Training.