Game Development Workshop: Concept to Prototype

You’ve got a great idea for a game. So...Now what? This interactive workshop focuses on how to turn your concept into a prototype (the process of moving your game from L1 to L2, as the Reacting Editorial Board would say). This includes clarifying your learning objectives, figuring out your array of roles, sharpening up your document set, considering approaches to basic game mechanics, and setting the chronological “bookends” for your game.  After facilitator Nick Proctor presents on the above topics, there will be plenty of designated time for questions, discussion, and individual feedback for how to best apply these lessons to your game.  You can also check out our other game development workshop!

DURATION
90+ Minutes 

PRESENTER/FACILITATOR BIO
Nicolas W. Proctor grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. After completing his B.A. in history from Hendrix College, he received an M.A. in Diplomacy and International Relations from the University of Kentucky, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from Emory University. He is now a Professor of History at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, where he has served as department chair and director of the first-year program.

After completing a traditional historical monograph, Bathed in Blood: Hunting and Mastery in the Old South, he reoriented his research to fit the needs of a teaching institution and focused on writing historical role-playing games. These include Kentucky, 1861: Loyalty, State, and Nation, which he wrote with Margaret Storey; Forest Diplomacy: Cultures in Conflict on the Pennsylvania Frontier, 1757; Modernism versus Traditionalism: Art in Paris, 1888-89, with Gretchen McKay and Michael Marlais, and Restoring the World, 1945: Security and Empire at Yalta, with John Moser. His most recent work, Chicago, 1968: Policy and Protest at the Democratic National Convention, was published in 2020. It is based on a prototype that was created by students in his game design seminar in 2012.

To help game authors in the series, he wrote a Game Designer’s Handbook, which is now in its fourth edition. He also chairs the Reacting Consortium’s editorial board, which oversees the development of hundreds of games for use in college classrooms. His next project is about the Reconstruction era in Louisiana after the Civil War. He is also working on a game about the escalation of the US role in Vietnam with Jace Weaver and the “Jumonville incident” with Jeff Fortney. He lives in Des Moines, Iowa, with his family, a print shop, lots of books, and too many Legos.