iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Another example of "doing it themselves" kiwi number 8 approach was handling the crowdfunding for the game themselves as well. These initial packs included a kiwi, which he thinks helped with their success.

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Pictures of the codes that got you into the Path of Exile beta many years ago. Chris hopes these codes don't do anything nowadays!

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Early press for Path of Exile was also focused on it coming from New Zealand. He believes the NZ angle still works today and gets you traction.

A early preview write up of Path of Exile that stresses the New Zealand connection

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The five pillars of Path of Exile were: - Visceral Action Combat - Randomly Generated Levels - Randomly Generated Items - Secure Online Economy - Deep Character Customization (PoE really doubles down on the last one)

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Now for Chris Wilson and "Why New Zealand is the Best Place to Shape Our World From"

Chris and a slide with the title of the slide

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It's closing session time! The speaker will be Chris Wilson from Light Pattern (lightpattern.com) But first the closing content

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How does drawing fast translate into moving images. At this point she reveals that all the drawing she has been doing so far (and the presentation itself? Not clear) has been done in Blender Using the grease pencil

An image showing the grease pencil tool in blender

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Pictures can communicate a lot and if you can do it quickly it can do that quickly as well. Before working at Ninja Kiwi she did summary type drawings of meetings/workshops that captured what had been said and participants can take away and reference. More interesting than bullet points.

A bunch of meetings summarized in art + some text form.

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The more comfortable you get with doing this simple iconic drawing. The better you can represent a bunch of different things.

Quick drawings of a bunch of different monkeys next to their fully developed art versions. Each simple drawing communicates the heart of the full art monkey e.g. by having a bow, etc

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A lot of complex things can be drawn simply with a few steps. A fire truck is just a complicated square. You can also use context. A person next to a firetruck is probably a fire fighter. Particularly if you give them an appropriately shaped hat.

A quick drawing of a firetruck and a fire person next to it

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An example is drawing a distinctive figure of a neighbor like a beard, glasses, etc

Four different simple drawings (a circle on top of a cone) with faces. One has simple drawn glasses (two circles), another a beard, another a ponytail, and another a shirt.

Each looks distinct.

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Lenia is stressing that the critical thing for drawing at an early stage. An ideation phase. It is does it communicate! And that can be done with quick and simple drawing anyone can do.

A slide with two cave people. One is pointing at a stick figure and saying "that a human"

The other one is thinking "yoooo it's just like me F R"

Lenia starts sharing some "high effort" shitposting

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Next up is "They Let Me Shitpost on Main: Business meetings, Blender, and the art of rapid-fire iteration (but like, make it funny)" from Lenia Burton at @ninjakiwigames.bsky.social

A slide with rough 2d looking human figure on it (that is bouncing up and down) with "what i'm about to do has not been approved by the art team" written on it

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To start today is a panel: "The Valheim Saga - From Early Access to 1.0" with @grimmcore.bsky.social, @sarauvalic.bsky.social, and @lisakolf.bsky.social

A sign saying that at 9am the panel is "A Valheim Saga - From Early Access to 1.0"

The mentioned panelists on stage with a NZGDC 2026 slide behind them

Time for the third and final day of NZGDC! I am sure it will be a critical hit, much like this stylish T-shirt from @crom-ink.bsky.social

It's me wearing a shirt with a skeleton on it, on fire, full of arrows and being critical hit

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The last game for today was Dream Team Supreme (@big-adventure.bsky.social) a co-op (& solo) deck builder game about being a colourful mecha and defeating rampaging monsters. The game is full of character & the co-op let's you strategize with a friend. store.steampowered.com/app/3208500/...

A table with two computers on it showing a multi coloured mecha flying through the air. Behind it is the banner for Dream Team Supreme with the mecha in the center and many colourful characters and monsters around it.

Next is "Project Operative" by @machworks-studio.bsky.social The game is a very solid souls-like game with art deco futuristic stylings and a build your own combo action point combat system. William, the developer, is focusing on building out the game in Unreal in a fast gray box style.

A table with a computer on it with the game and the sign saying Project Operative.

A promotional sign saying Project Operative showing a robot like enemy

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Next a physical game! The new more focused Choplet themed version of Swords Cut the Deck by @swordscomic.bsky.social I played one game, which was fast paced with an easy to understand purchase phase. Followed by a clear rock paper scissors like action step.

A table with the card game laid on it and a stack of cut the deck packs. Up on the wall are several cut the deck banners and various figures from the Swordaverse including the popular Quest Sprout and Choplet.

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Next was Necromancer a hardcore movement shooter with airdashes, grappling hooks, and summoning the souls of defeated enemies. I had fun working out the mechanics (sucking at them) and discussing with the developer the challenges of onboarding players and the readibility of ALL CAPS FONTS

The game booth with two laptops, the developer, and a trailer for the game up on a projector

You can a go to linktr.cc/shadowstatecollective to check things out

A pamphlet for the game showing a PlayStation era graphics style mage enemy and the title Necromancer.

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Next up is Parallax Blue a Media Design 3rd year student project store.steampowered.com/app/4753720/... It is a tower defense game with resource gathering and base building elements. In the game you have to defend your base against waves of bug enemies

The booth with a Parallax Blue stand up showing the name of the game, a bug alien creature, and some cannons looming above them

Some gameplay with a base, some towers (that have to be build within power range of the base), and some extractors. The base is being attacked by waves of enemies.

The first game is Headlice by @bunguin.games! store.steampowered.com/app/2851800/... A "reverse horror" game where you play as an escaped monster rampaging through a complex. Lots of fun to jump inside and meat puppet people and explode their heads.

A table with the game on a monitor with a banner next to it showing a lice like monster leaping forward with the title "Headlice"

The end of demo screen which shows the red lice like monster you play.

It took me 22:20 mins and I scored an A

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Players are like students in that they have unique skill levels, unique rates of learning, and unique background knowledge

A slide with the above text and showing a tortoise

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He says that the responsibility of the game designer is to challenge the player. While the tutorial designer is to support the player. This creates a tension

A slide showing a flow diagram of a balance between anxiety and boredom

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Next is "Why Students Learn Faster Than Your Players: Structuring Experience" by Ivan Khimel from the Media Design School (www.mediadesignschool.com) Given my own talk was on designing for new players I am of course very courteous to see this talk as well!

A program for the day with this talk up next

Ivan on stage with a slide showing the title of the tak

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To summarize: Look for the pattern of behaviours What belief is driving that pattern What missing element from the system is causing that belief And then what is the move, the small change in leadership behaviour that can move towards resolving that element.

A slide with text summarizing the core Framework as above

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Her idea is that you notice a behavioural issue, identify the belief in the system that might be driving this, then identify what need may be missing that is driving this belief, and then what is a small repeatable change in leadership behaviour that can meet this need (then iterate)

A slide saying Pattern, Belief, Need, Move

A slide talking about the elements of the core framework mentioned above.

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The Core Framework she has of the nervous system is: - A metaphor to help systems thinking - Humanizes systemic patterns - About patterns in a team (not individuals) - Help form hypotheses - SOLVE FOR ROOT PROBLEMS INSTEAD OF SYMPTOMS (my emphasis here)

Now it is time for "Regulating Your Team" by Emilie Poissenot who is Creative Director at Level (level.me) Leading a team and maintaining a good team culture is something I am very passionate about. So I am particularly curious to see this one.

A slide saying Regulating Your Team and with Emilie's name and title on it

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You can sign up for the VLDL newsletter at vldlgames.com And Prismatic Studios is hiring at prismaticstudios.co.nz/careers

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They also mentioned that they are lucky to already have a 7 Million subscriber fan base to market games to. They are making games with Prismatic Studios (www.prismaticstudios.co.nz) and are officially announcing VLDL Games

A slide announcing VLDL Games and working with Prismatic Studios

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The next talk I am going to is "The story of Viva La Dirt League" by Rowan Bettjeman and Alan Morrison from @vivaladirtleague.bsky.social

A slide saying "The story of VLDL presented by Alan Morrison and Rowan Bettjeman"

The slide has a down pointing arrow made up of a red and blue triangles next to the text VLDL

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Here is a picture of a cute spider cat and dancing spider bots to finish up the talk. Adorable.

On the right is a ginger cat in a Spider-Man mask and on the right are three dancing spiderbots

Here is the summary - Don't let fear stop you - Reach out to trusted folks for support - Take into account the impact of your idea on other departments - Make your prototypes as real as possible (And a final point but the slide changed too fast for me to get a photo)

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The Prowler Boss fight in the DLC was originally going to be a cut scene. No fight. He thought "no way" and pitched a boss fight by modifying the Taskmaster model (with gloves, not a sword), etc from the main game and showed it that way with a test level. This was enough to convince the Director

A slide showing the Prowler Boss and a test level

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The holo Vulture boss fight in the DLC wasn't originally planned, but he recognized there needed to be more of a climax to the training missions. So he pitched "what if Peter recreated his first fight with Vulture for Miles" He pitched it with an image and then put it in Engine to show it off.

A slide showing holo Vulture hovering in front of Miles

A slide showing a holo Peter talking to Miles

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He talks about a prototype he made of flooding NYC. Which was interesting. But not really workable. Which raises the idea of being ok with letting go and not clinging too tightly to your ideas.

It's hard to see in the image but it is a slide showing a flooded NYC at night.

Donald shows us a fly through of a level in Insomniac's level editor of work that he did as he was transitioning from QA to design

Insomniac's level editor with an underground sewer-like level.

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As an example of clever reuse he gives examples of using the geo from a level in Spider-Man to make a space for gameplay in the DLC

Two different looking levels that use the same Geo

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The first talk for day 2 of NZGDC is "Shoot Your Shot - Taking Calculated Risks in the Marvel's Spider-Man Franchise" with Donald Barrett.

Advertising an anti congestant on a bus is some excellent brand synergy

A bus with a large advertisement for an anti congestant medication on the side

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It's day 2 of NZGDC and I am jazzed to see what is on today!

It's me wearing a Jazz Jackrabbit T-shirt

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"Doing things and taking action is leadership. This industry, and this planet, needs you to dare to shape your world, now more than ever"

Leadership is not about followers posting about other and getting likes.

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"Disbelief in your own skills does not make them disappear or be invisible to those around you KNOW the reality of what others perceive in you, even if you struggle to THINK you have skills or not"

Things to consider: - The developer's values and goals - Context in which content is generated - Business strategy for the vertical (e.g. games) - Market strategy for the locale (e.g. China) - Market strategy for the specific game (e.g. FPS) - Changing geopolitical/cultural/social/legal factors

A slide showing the above factors to consider

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