The Game Design Stack

Event Description

The “game design stack” is a concept used by developers to describe how a game works, and what’s important to that game. This combination of fantasy, action, economy, world, and story combine to make a game what it is. Finding out which of these anchors is most important to your game will help you make tough decisions about where to invest your time and energy. In this session, we will begin by describing the game design stack at a high level, and why it matters. We will then explore the practical implications with an example from building TwilioQuest, an educational PC game for developers. Since many of us are web developers by trade, we'll close with a brief overview of the TwilioQuest tech stack, and hopefully inspire you to use your web development skill set to build games.

Kevin Whinnery leads the team building TwilioQuest, an educational PC game that teaches software development skills. In over 15 years of experience building software and teaching developers, TwilioQuest is the most fun he’s ever had at work. Kevin lives just outside Minneapolis, Minnesota with his wife and three devious children.