Indy PopCon: Full Schedule

PLEASE NOTE! Times below are PRELIMINARY. Schedule is subject to change.

All panels and workshops are free, non-ticketed events unless otherwise specified. Add your favorites to your own personal schedule planner but please note that attendance to panels will be first come, first serve!

Want guaranteed panel/workshop seating? Get our PopCon VIP Badge!

12:00pm EDT

Why Should Players Care about Story in Video Games?

Video games are a unique medium that combine audio, visual, and interactive elements. This makes video games unlike any other media as a story-telling mechanism. But why do games need story in order to be enjoyable? And how can video games take advantage of their narrative capabilities? In this panel, we’ll take a look at some of the interesting ways that video games tell stories through interactivity and examine the role of video games as narrative devices. Each panelist will share some examples of story-telling done right and done wrong and give their personal dos and don’ts for video game story-telling.

Speakers

Andrew Nee

(Negativeworld.org) – Owner and web developer of video game website, Negative World.

Ragtag Studios

Ragtag Studio is an independent game development company founded in 2011. The team is comprised of friends and industry veterans, Matt Carter, Chris Cobb, and Shawn Halwes. After developing games together for more than a decade for studios such as Activision, Ion Storm, and Disney... Read More →

Dave Welch

(Experimental Gamer) – Developer of Boot Hill Heroes, a wild west RPG.

Friday May 30, 2014 12:00pm - 12:45pm EDT
Room 141-142 Indiana Convention Center

Gaming, Entrepreneur

2:00pm EDT

Making a Board Game - From Concept to Execution

There's nothing quite like opening a fresh new board game, punching out the pieces, and gathering around a table with good friends for old school gaming fun. Learn from several board game developers about their new projects and how they took their love of board gaming and turned it into an actual game for others to enjoy.

Speakers

Action Phase

Kathryn Steele

Friday May 30, 2014 2:00pm - 2:45pm EDT
Room 141-142 Indiana Convention Center

Gaming, Entrepreneur

3:00pm EDT

Heroes, Trolls, and Game Changers: Video Game Law Dungeon Crawl

Law is a source of much fear and confusion, located as much in the realm of witchcraft and magic as necromancy. Join Suzanne Jackiw, Dawid Danek, and Ross A. Hersemann, apprentices in the dark arts of video game law, as they disclos,e the secrets and spells behind copyright, trademarks, and game licenses.

Friday May 30, 2014 3:00pm - 3:45pm EDT
Room 140 Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis IN 46225

Gaming, Entrepreneur

4:00pm EDT

Nerd-prov

INDYPROV is an Emmy® Award nominated improvisational comedy troupe and his been performing for over a decade. Join us for an improv show based on your suggestions about all things nerdy! We will visit comics, gaming, Dr. Who and all things geek like! Audience interaction highly encouraged!

Friday May 30, 2014 4:00pm - 4:45pm EDT
Room 143-144 Indiana Convention Center

All Anime Art & Music Comics Fantasy Gaming Internet Sci-fi TV & Movies

5:00pm EDT

Adult Swim: The Minds Behind Making Return of Aetheria

Professors discuss the game development process from conception to completion and all the areas between.

Speakers

Mathew Powers

Friday May 30, 2014 5:00pm - 6:00pm EDT
Room PoPCon Academy 139

Gaming

7:30pm EDT

Free Concert with Paul & Storm

Join us for our PopCon Kick Off Concert featuring our special guest headliners, Paul & Storm! This concert is FREE for all PopCon fans with a valid Friday/3-Day pass for the convention.

With Support From The Harp Twins and Playboy Psychonauts, and with "Big Daddy Cool" as MC, this concert is sure to take the roof off the convention center!

Moderators

Johnny Dellarocca

Owner, BDC Entertainment Network

Johnny Dellarocca is a walking talking reminder of a time long past. He describes his entertainment style as Dieselpunk - a fusion of the styles and aesthetics of the past, with the sensibilities of contemporary culture. Johnny fuses magic with high energy vocal swing music and... Read More →

Speakers

Playboy Psychonauts

Paul and Storm

Paul and Storm (Paul Sabourin and Greg “Storm” DiCostanzo) have been writing and performing funny songs together for a long, long time, starting with their stint together in a cappella band Da Vinci’s Notebook. Their music has appeared on pretty much every type of media... Read More →

Harp Twins

Friday May 30, 2014 7:30pm - 9:30pm EDT
Main Stage Indiana Convention Center

11:00am EDT

I Want to Play Your Indie Game

Developers! Come on a journey that will help your indie game jump to the front of the pack by hearing from the one that will be the most critical to your success: the gamer.

Join a panel of indie gamer creators as they talk through the pros and cons of inie development, publishing, marketing, etc...

Moderators

Eric M. Hunter

Speakers

John D. Kennedy

Jay Margalus

Patrick Scott Patterson

It all started in 1981 when he dropped a quarter into a Pac-Man machine…Patrick Scott Patterson (Scott to his friends) makes his living as the go-to guy for video game content and insight. From the earliest days of video game history to commentary on the latest and greatest... Read More →

Saturday May 31, 2014 11:00am - 11:45am EDT
Room 143-144 Indiana Convention Center

Gaming

11:00am EDT

Modeling 3D Assets for Games/Movies

Speakers

Zeb Wood

Saturday May 31, 2014 11:00am - 12:00pm EDT
Room PoPCon Academy 139

Gaming, PopCon Academy

12:00pm EDT

Publishing Your Game for the Next Generation - Xbox One and PS4 Development

Publishing on Steam is a great feat for any game developer, but joining the PlayStation and Xbox networks is a whole other level for indie game developers. Hear from game developers on how they developed their relationships, and what the development process is like for the console industry.

Moderators

John D. Kennedy

Speakers

Young Horses

Ragtag Studios

Dave Welch

(Experimental Gamer) – Developer of Boot Hill Heroes, a wild west RPG.

Saturday May 31, 2014 12:00pm - 12:45pm EDT
Room 143-144 Indiana Convention Center

Gaming, Entrepreneur

12:00pm EDT

Making Games with the Unreal Development Kit

Speakers

Mathew Powers

Saturday May 31, 2014 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT
Room PoPCon Academy 139

Gaming, PopCon Academy

12:30pm EDT

Dungeons & Dragons Improv-active

The hilarious cast of the D’n’DUI podcast is going to be doing a live podcast show, and want IndyPopConians to participate. Think Who’s Line Is It Anyway, if it were run by Chris Hardwick.

The members of D’n’DUI are going to be bringing their characters to life in a fast-paced, free for all session of D&D and are going to use the audience to help write and tell the story. Let’s say Audience Member Dave volunteers, he is now transformed into Golbin Hex Master Dave! GHMD is now a character in the scene and then gets to go home with a belly full of laughs and some sweet swag. The whole affair is going to be recorded for podcast goodness!

Come check it out and roll the die!

Saturday May 31, 2014 12:30pm - 1:30pm EDT
Sam Ash Stage Indiana Convention Center

Art & Music, Live Podcast | Fantasy, Live Podcast | Gaming, Live Podcast | Sci-fi, Live Podcast

1:00pm EDT

Making Return of Aetheria– War of Realms: Programming & Media Promotion

Speakers

Todd Shelton

Saturday May 31, 2014 1:00pm - 2:00pm EDT
Room 143-144 Indiana Convention Center

Gaming, PopCon Academy

2:00pm EDT

Making Return of Aetheria – War of Realms: The Women of ROA

Speakers

Mathew Powers

Saturday May 31, 2014 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Room 143-144 Indiana Convention Center

Gaming, PopCon Academy

3:00pm EDT

Action Figure Customization

See exclusive figures and what goes into making them.

Get tips from the pros.

Ask them questions about their work.

Speakers

Jamie Sillof

Sillof's Workshop

My work has been featured online on blogs, websites, and online news services. In newspapers at the local, national and international levels. In books and magazines nationally and world wide. On television in local news, national news, cable, and overseas. In independent... Read More →

Saturday May 31, 2014 3:00pm - 3:45pm EDT
Room 140 Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis IN 46225

3:00pm EDT

Making Return of Aetheria – War of Realms: Artwork and Game Design

Speakers

Mathew Powers

Saturday May 31, 2014 3:00pm - 3:45pm EDT
Room 143-144 Indiana Convention Center

Gaming, PopCon Academy

4:00pm EDT

Video Games in Today's Pop Culture

Join Patrick Scott Patterson (PSP) and a panel of game industry afficianados as they discuss how video games have transformed over the years and grown from a hobby for nerdy guys into one of the largest entertainment industries across the globe.

Speakers

Tom Hall

A gamer for 27 years, Tom combined his love of video games with his love of writing and talking. Tom contributes to 1morecastle.com, is a co-host of the Breaking Bits podcast on officialvghc.com, and is now branching into speaking engagements and other forms of gaming media.

Raychul Moore

Raychul Moore is a well-known and frequent face in the cosplay and gaming communities. Typically an attendee of major conventions, Raychul comes to PopCon as a special guest for her talent as a cosplayer and her excellent ability to self-market, self-promote, and self-publish. Raychul... Read More →

Patrick Scott Patterson

Saturday May 31, 2014 4:00pm - 4:45pm EDT
Room 143-144 Indiana Convention Center

Gaming

6:00pm EDT

KickStarter - How to Be Successful

Many of our exhibitors, guests, and panelists have completed successful KickStarter campaigns. We'll bring together a panel of the most, and least, successful to talk about their experiences using KickStarter.

Speakers

Tom Bancroft

Tom Bancroft is a Disney animator from the Long Beach, California area who is best known for his creation of the Mulan character, Mushu. He stayed with Disney for about thirteen years, working on approximately nine features until he left in 2000. Since leaving Disney, Tom has been... Read More →

Action Phase Games

Ragtag Studios

Saturday May 31, 2014 6:00pm - 6:45pm EDT
Room 143-144 Indiana Convention Center

11:00am EDT

Open Hardware and Gaming, an Intro to Project Libity

The future of gaming isn't entirely in software, it's in hardware too. Oculus Rift's billion-dollar purchase by Facebook shows how new, innovative hardware devices can go mainstream and change the direction of the entire gaming industry, so it's important that developers look at hardware, not just software. Hear about the importance of Open Hardware and see a demo of Project Libity, a new hardware controller from Lunar Giant games.

Speakers

Jay Margalus

Sunday June 1, 2014 11:00am - 11:45am EDT
Room 143-144 Indiana Convention Center

Gaming, Entrepreneur

12:00pm EDT

Creature Design for Video Games

Speakers

Mathew Powers

Sunday June 1, 2014 12:00pm - 1:00pm EDT
Room PoPCon Academy 139

Gaming, PopCon Academy

2:00pm EDT

Gaming for Money - The Biz of Let's Plays

Did you know that Twitch.tv, a streaming video service focused on showing nothing but people playing video games, is bigger than Hulu? Well, it is! And nowadays, gamers can grow audiences and make a career out of playing video games online. Talk to panelists who are starting to make a living playing and talking about video games and learn what you need to do to start.

Moderators

Patrick Scott Patterson

Speakers

Fr4gShout

Lordminion777

Raychul Moore

Sunday June 1, 2014 2:00pm - 2:45pm EDT
Room 141-142 Indiana Convention Center

Gaming, Entrepreneur

2:00pm EDT

What the Future Holds for Those Interested in Game Development: The Real World

Speakers

Joseph Defazio

Mathew Powers

Albert William

Sunday June 1, 2014 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT
Room PoPCon Academy 139

Gaming, PopCon Academy

3:00pm EDT

How to Publish and Market Your Indie Game

Releasing a successful indie game gets harder every day. With increasing barriers to publishing, marketing and funding, small game companies need to band together and help each other succeed. Come hear how indie companies Lunar Giant and The Amiable did just that, and how you can do it too.

Speakers