Indie Cade East 2014 – Ad Magic Games in Long Island City

By Shari Spiro

I hate it when I go to a great event and I am all ready to blog about it – and then things happen and I don’t get to talk about it until many days later.  Actually it was exactly 2 weeks ago now.  Anyway – I have a lot say about the highlights of the 3 days of IndieCade.

On Feb 14th – Valentines day  –  I headed out – after several hours of shoveling and moving snow – to Long Island City – across the Queensboro bridge into a land I have never been to before.  There were very few of us on the road – I was lucky to be able to get out – as I had access to a snow mover and had cleared my driveway with it.  But by the next morning I still had to shovel my car out of icy snow – (back pain) but I am pretty determined – in fact Chris from Dice Hate me called me a machine in his pod cast – so I grabbed some natural muscle relaxers and headed out to New York City.

I was supposed to have a companion  – but everyone’s car was literally snowed under.  Check out this picture.  This was the kind of snow we all had to deal with.  But I was determined to get there on time – as Ad Magic Games had arranged to be a sponsor of Indie Cade and I needed to get there.

 

The destination was the Museum of the Moving Image – a great venue and a location which lives up to its name.  The highway was almost completely empty because not many people could possibly dig out in one day – and I got to New York City – and through the Lincoln Tunnel – with NO traffic.  In fact I have never in my life driven in to the Lincoln Tunnel when there was no traffic and it looked like that Will Smith movie I am Legend.    It’s $13 to go through that tunnel now.

Anyway – my daughter Jenni Spiro – who works with us in the game development division of Ad Magic Games – was able to make it in Saturday – here’s a pic of her at the booth we set up, answering questions.

Jenni and I stayed at the Z Hotel in Long Island City – which -has an incredible view of Manhattan but- is in a place – where – if you are not careful – well even if you are – you won’t find it and you will have to drive back and forth over the Queensboro bridge – (which both she and I did individually and I wonder how may other people this has happened to) as the hotel is not really easy to find even with Navigation – or maybe it is harder to find because of it.  Those of you who have read my blog before may know of my fascination with the navigation of all new cars 🙂

 

Like I said – this was a day AFTER the largest snowfall I have ever seen and the parking was impossible – and even getting to the hotel by trekking over the sidewalk from the car was like exploring Mars.  It took a lot of determination to get there but I made it and it was worth it. The city dwellers had it much easier I think.

So I have to tell you that if anything is about games – Indie Cade is about Games – Video Games mostly – but interactive, person to person, tabletop and card games as well.  There were people there from education, universities, other countries – other cities and even other planets.  Well, just kidding about the other planets but it was a diverse and interesting group with many up and coming game designers along with sponsors like Facebook, Playstation and Ad Magic – of course.  We were in good company.  We had some examples of games we have printed and we answered a lot of questions from game designers and we asked them a lot of questions too and played some great games.  We met Pete Vigeant

 

who is an interactive Game Developer. Pete ran one of the games during Night Games – and created a n excellent Karl Rohnke deck of cards to go along with his talk on the man who was one of the founders of the Project Adventure program in Hamilton, MA, is a pioneer and author of many books on Adventure education and continues to travel worldwide presenting clinics about the use of games.   The deck asks questions and provides activity opportunities that are unique and entertaining – as well as providing a way for us to learn about and interact with one another.  Questions like:

Are you wearing anything that requires a battery?

or

Your job is to replace the toilet paper roll – over or under?

OVER of course – I live with someone who would have it no other way – these questions get even more in depth and even more fun and thought provoking – it is an interesting deck of cards – with quotes like

Fun should always precede Agenda

Fun is reproducible most often by those who recognize it when its happening.

The creative mind plays with the object it loves.

Needless to say now I want to read some of the books Karl Rohnke has written.

 

Someone I had spoken to but never met – was also at Indie Cade.  I finally met Zach Gage  🙂  Zach is very clever and one of the inventors of the game  – Clusterfuck.  Clusterfuck one of the gift that was sent during the 12 days of Cards Against Humanity Holiday Bullshit – most of which was printed by  Ad Magic Games. I think you should visit the website and check it out.

and then – on Sunday I was asked to speak for a few minutes after Pete Vigeant – the self described Game & Experience Designer, Doodler, Experiential Educator, Camp Song Guy, Occasional Lecturer, and Stair Master – who gave a truly great presentation about Karl Rohnke – who I mentioned earlier.

This video is of me speaking and – hang in there – after a minute I actually discover my ability to make people laugh!

In summary – Long Island City has some truly interesting places, views, people and things to do, Indie Cade is a great festival to attend – both fun and educational for developers, gamers and related parties as well, and most importantly – large snowfalls can be a difficult thing to deal with and it is probably a good idea to stretch before you shovel. And note to self – don’t twist and bend.

Tagged as: Ad Magic Games, Indie Cade East 2014