Check out the Schedule Overview or read on for an in-depth look. View Sunday’s programme here.
Saturday 5th November
09:30 – Doors open
10:15 – Welcome to AdventureX
Tom Cole welcomes attendees with a short introduction to AdventureX 2022, sharing fire safety info and details of the after-show party.
10:30-11:00 – Conor Bradley | Talk | An Accessibility Adventure
15% of the world’s population live with some form of disability (that’s over a billion people). Soft Leaf Studios’ Conor Bradley looks at practical ways for adventure game developers to remove barriers for players with disabilities.
11:00-11:30 – Aley Baracat | Talk | The Personal is Powerful: Storytelling and Intersectionality
Aley Baracat, an Immersive Experience Designer based in London, creates interactive installations, or playable experiences. Aley will discuss the importance of personal narratives in the games industry, exploring how storytelling can be therapeutic for the creator. How can the medium of games contribute to giving voices to marginalized groups?
12:00-12:30 – Andy Walsh | Talk | A Pocket Guide to Godhood: On Worldbuilding
Currency, history, religion, culture – where do you start with worldbuilding and exactly how much do you need to know about fjords to do it? In this interactive session Andy Walsh (Horizon: Forbidden West, Fable) will explore practical ways to tackle worldbuilding for your projects. Bring a pad, or laptop!
12:30-13:00 – Yoyu Li | Talk | Creating a Multiplayer Co-op Narrative Engine
UK-based game studio Infinite Whys is developing Whispers of the West, a co-operative point and click murder mystery game. Infinite Whys founder and Google Women Developer Academy mentor, Yoyu Li explores the opportunities and challenges of storytelling in an multiplayer environment.
2:00-3:00 – Nina Roussakoff | Feature
Nina Roussakoff worked on Broken Sword 5 and Beyond a Steel Sky at Revolution, and was shortlisted for a 2020 Game Dev Hero Award in Writing + Narrative Design. Now the founder of Lovewish, a studio dedicated to the colourful fantasies of women and girls, Nina comes to AdventureX to explore choice design.
3:15-3:45 – Francois Alliot | Talk | Ellipsis and Grotesque in Videogames
Following the success of his Reigns trilogy, François Alliot returns to AdventureX to talk about humour and the grotesque. Alliot likes his games to surprise players. For him, humour should not be a gimmick – it should be a tool.
3:45-4:15 – Eve McLachlan | Talk | Dark Passages: Interactive Fiction and the Gothic
A candle held by a heroine; a lamp illuminating a cave; a cursor blinking on a dark screen. The Gothic sensibilities of 19th-century literature live on in the twisted passages of IF — a place where literary analysis and games studies meet. Eve MacLachlan asks how literary and games studies can help and respond to each other?
4:45-5:30 – Mike Bithell | Feature
Mike Bithell (Volume, John Wick Hex) released his first solo game, the Bafta-winning narrative platformer Thomas Was Alone, in 2012. His games tell stories and explore a range of mechanics, including puzzles, stealth and strategy, often with a sprinkling of sardonic humour.