Sunday 

Sunday was the third and final day of PRACTICE. The format of the day was more or less the same as that of Saturday. The talks were much more detail-oriented compared to those of the first day. For example, many of the talks on Saturday were about game design in the broad sense, the Sunday talks focused more on design choices within specific games.

Things I Liked at PRACTICE

1) The Size of the Conference – PRACTICE was one of the smallest conferences I attended this year. I think there were about 150 – 200 attendees. It felt incredibly intimate, and was very easy to meet new people.

2) Single-Track Activities – A single track meant that everyone got the same experience, and didn’t have to choose between talks thinking they were missing out. Another thing is that you got to attend talks you may not have had you had a choice. If there was a talk about outdoor social games, and a talk about puzzle design going on at the same time, I would have gone to the one about puzzle design just because of my current project. However, the outdoor social game talk may have had some really good insights for me. At PRACTICE, there wasn’t this issue, and I got to see a whole spectrum of talks and was exposed to some new points of view.

3) Open-Problems and Discussions – I can’t stress how awesome these are for getting feedback on specific design challenges you may be facing. If you go, definitely take advantage of the fact that there are some amazing designers in the audience.

4) Organizers are really open to feedback – You can tell the organizers are really interested in improving the conference, and are constantly seeking feedback from attendees. On Sunday, right before the closing talk, there was a session where the organizers took suggestions from audience for things they’d like to see and improve upon in the future. There were also plenty of other opportunities to offer opinions.

Things I’d Like To See In the Future at PRACTICE

There wasn’t anything negative that I didn’t like at PRACTICE, and as stated previously, the organizers are very open to suggestions and feedback. As such, there isn’t a list of “things I didn’t like”. Instead, I’ll list just a few things I’d love to see in the future at PRACTICE. Some of these were actually suggestions made by other attendees during the feedback session, and I really liked them, so I’m listing them here.

1) Talks from Experts in non-game fields – I would love to see a talk by a psychologist on how children learn, or a neuroscientist on how the brain perceives new information, or an architect on how to design physical space to guide people, or an urban planner on how to design cities. They don’t even need to talk about it in the context of games. I think a lot of their insights would be directly applicable to game design, and I’m sure a lot of the designers in the audience would be able to pick up on how it applies to their practice.

2) A live level design session – It would be awesome to see a level designer create a level with feedback and suggestions from the audience, and discuss why some things work well and some don’t.

3) Panel Sessions on specific topics – I think a panel session like this one from IndieCade, featuring Jonathan Blow, Marc Ten Bosch, and Droqen talking about puzzle design would be a awesome at PRACTICE. It would be great to hear what different designers have to say on the same topic.

Conclusion

Was it worth it?

For me, yes. I went to PRACTICE with a very, very specific design problem that was holding me up in the development of the game. I was able to present it in front of a group of people who were all passionate and interested in game design, and was able to get their feedback on it. There could not have been a better group of people to ask.

I haven’t had a chance to actually implement any of the solutions, so cannot know for sure whether the design challenge in the game has been resolved. However, I got a lot of ideas, and was able to discuss the issue quite thoroughly with a lot of other game designers.

Outside of this specific design problem, as someone who is very interested in game design, I found the talks and discussions of the conference really informative and insightful. If funds and timing allow for it, I would definitely return next year. Compared to all the other conferences I’ve been to this, it’s definitely the one where I’ve learned the most about game design in general.

Should you go?

If you’re a beginner, and are just standing to learn about game development/design, I actually would not recommend that you go to PRACTICE. I’m not saying I would recommend against it, but that I wouldn’t say “You should definitely go!”. This is not to say you won’t stand to gain anything if you do go, but I think a conference like IndieCade or GDC would be much better and more suitable. For one thing, at those conferences, there are a range of activities going on simultaneously, so you can customize your experience to suit what you’re looking for. At PRACTICE, if you’re finding the talks on design to be too in-depth, there isn’t really much else to do. Additionally, at other conferences, there’ll be talks in which they introduce the basics of a game engine, or talk about starting out with a project, etc, and those aren’t at PRACTICE.

However, if you’re a game designer, and are really interested in taking your practice and craft forward, I can’t think of a better conference to attend.