Crafter Con
Crafter Con is our very own game design convention. The focus is on education to make you a better game designer and to help you meet other professionals in the industry. It features tracks of sessions, panels, and workshops with industry experts. Speakers include publishers, reviewers, podcasters, crowd funding experts, successful game designers, artists, writers, and distributors. In addition, there's also a separate room available (until Midnight) where you can playtest games if you're not interested in a particular seminar or workshop.
Click here to visit the Crafter Con 2017 website
NOTE: Below you'll see archived information and recorded videos from Crafter Con 2015. Visit our Crafter Con 2017 website to buy badges and get information about this year's event. Scroll down to the see the 2015 sessions and click on the [watch on youtube] links.
Presenters from Crafter Con 2015
Steve Jackson - These days Steve is probably known best for Munchkin, but he's created and published many great titles such as GURPS, Ogre, and The Illuminati through his publishing company, Steve Jackson Games.
James Mathe - James owns a publishing house called Minion Games, runs a successful set of retail game shops called Games Universe, but is probably best known for his game design blog.
Alisha Volkman - Game designer and artist. She did the art for Parkies and designed Zambies, and owns Bouncing Bomb Games.
John Kovalic - World renowned artist of the comic strip Dork Tower, and of games such as Apples to Apples and Munchkin.
Cyrus Kirby - Cyrus is better known as the game reviewer Father Geek. He reviews games from the perspective of kids, casual, and hardcore gamers.
Jeff King - Jeff hosts and produces several gaming-related podcasts including All Us Geeks, The Game of Crowdfunding, and The Official Game Crafter Podcast.
Richard Bliss - He's a social media strategist, crowd funding expert, and brand visionary, and somehow he also finds the time to run one of the most successful crowd funding related podcasts Funding The Dream.
Adelheid Zimmerman - An accomplished artist and owner of Draupnir Press.
Alex Gianturco - A former defense attorney turned professional gamer and media mogul, he is now known best as the space tyrant The Mittani.
Dave Cook - Owner of Zipwhaa, Inc. Producers of Management Material and Heebie Jeebies.
Chris Leder - Designer of popular published games Roll For It and Train Maker as well as soon to be published City of Gears.
Jason Glover - Owner of Grey Gnome Games, with popular games such as Plague, Of Dungeons Deep and Train Maker.
Bob Maher, Jr. - World renowned Magic: The Gathering player, and President of ACD Distribution.
Matt Worden - A veteran game designer, best known for Jump Gate, and owner of Matt Worden Games.
Peter Dast - A game design veteran and one of the Sanity Testers at The Game Crafter.
Steven Dast - A game design veteran and one of the Sanity Testers at The Game Crafter.
Tavis Parker - One of the founders of The Game Crafter and in charge of Community.
Jamie Vrbsky - One of the founders of The Game Crafter and in charge of Operations.
JT Smith - One of the founders of The Game Crafter and in charge of Technology.
Sessions from Crafter Con 2015
We have a wide variety of speakers and panels.
Friday
| 4pm | Writing Better Rules [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Steven Dast will teach you how to write rules that are more clear and more playable.Rules Editing [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Peter Dast will explain what happens during the rules editing process. This will continue on from Steven's Writing Better Rules talk.How To Live Your Dream [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Alex Gianturco, aka The Mittani, will share his inspiring tale of how he quit his day job as an attorney to become a professional gamer and build a media empire.Composing Product Photos [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]In this session, Tavis Parker from The Game Crafter will teach you how to compose high quality images to use as action shots for crowd funding, manuals, web sites and more. |
| 6pm | Importing Products [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Dave Cook from Zipwhaa will share his experience of working with companies in China, as well as the ports to import products.Using BOFs for Kickstarters [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Jamie Vrbsky from The Game Crafter will give tips and advice about using a BOF for a Kickstarter even if you don't plan to fulfill your game through The Game Crafter.The Future of The Game Crafter [SORRY, YOU HAD TO BE THERE FOR THESE SECRETS] :)What does the future hold for The Game Crafter? JT Smith will share a little bit of the future with you.What To Expect From Distributors [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Dave Cook from Zipwhaa will share his experience of working with distributors as a small game publisher. |
Saturday
| 10am | Kickstarter Panel [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Several crowd funding experts (including Richard Bliss of Funding the Dream Podcast, Jason Glover from Grey Gnome Games, James Mathe of Minion Games, and Jeff King of All Us Geeks) will answer your questions about running your own Kickstarter Campaigns. |
| Noon | Distribution 101 [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Bob Maher, Jr. the President of ACD Distribution, will do a questions and answers session about getting your games into distribution. |
| 2pm | Publishing Lessons Learned [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]After having worked with a publisher from Europe and a publisher from the United States for two of his designs, Matt Worden will share what he's learned.Audience [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Audience is everything for any creative endeavor. In this talk Cyrus Kirby from Father Geek will discuss finding an audience for your game. He'll talk how to define an audience, whether a game should try to be compelling to multiple audiences, and what it takes to target an audience.Seeking Publishers [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Having gotten 3 of his games published by 3 different publishers, few people would be better suited to discuss how to go about finding a publisher for your game than Chris Leder.Promotion [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Jeff King from All Us Geeks will tell you how to go about promoting your game. What does it take to get on a Podcast? When should you send your game to reviewers? When should you start talking about your game and/or Kickstarter campaign? |
| 4pm | Publisher Panel [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Several top publishers from the table top industry (including Steve Jackson from Steve Jackson Games, Jason Glover of Grey Gnome Games, and James Mathe from Minion Games) will sit on a panel to answer your questions about how to get your game in front of a publisher, how to set up meetings with publishers, and how not to put your foot in your mouth with publishers. |
| 6pm | Reviewer Panel [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Several top board game reviewers (including Cyrus Kirby from Father Geek and Jeff King from All Us Geeks will sit on a panel to answer your questions about how to get your game reviewed, and how to ensure a good review. |
| 8pm | The Future of Crowd Funding [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Richard Bliss (Funding the Dream Podcast) will enlighten us about the future of crowd funding as he sees it.The Official Game Crafter Podcast [LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ON LIBSYN]JT & Jeff will do an episode of The Official Game Crafter Podcast live at the con! |
Sunday
| 10am | Artist Panel [WATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE]Several artists (including John Kovalic from Dork Tower, Alisha Volkman of Bouncing Bomb Games, and Adelheid Zimmerman of Draupnir Press) will sit on our Artist Panel and will be able to answer your questions about getting great art for your games. |
Other Activities at Crafter Con
We have a number of activities for all attendees of Crafter Con.
- Play your games with other game designers at our private game design tables.
- Pick up free prototyping materials at our free prototyping table. It will contain thousands of free blank cards, tiles, boards, screens, pawns, dice, etc...