Right now we don’t have any coming game design workshops. When we do, you can find them here. You can also check out our past workshops. They are pretty cool too!
Bringing Aboriginal Storytelling to Experimental Digital Media
The Skins Workshops teach Indigenous youth how to adapt stories from their community into experimental digital media, such as video games.
One of our goals is to encourage our youth to envision themselves in the future while drawing from their heritage. We believe this helps to promote and preserve our stories, languages and cultures while also exposing our youth to the digital tools of today and tomorrow.
Covering video games, machinima and 3D printing, our workshops are designed by an Indigenous-led team to empower Indigenous youth by showing them that they can be producers, not just consumers, of these exciting media.
Since 2006, AbTeC has been sharing our unique curriculum, expertise and experience with Indigenous youth on reserves and in urban centres. Currently, we are working with our partners in the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF) to make our workshops more accessible by training new trainers in order to develop a community of knowledgeable members and mentors.
Join us online, via Discord, to participate in two, Indigenous-led workshops: “Interactive Storytelling with Twine” (6 hours, over two days) & “Game Design with Bitsy” (3 hours)!
Dates: January 3rd, 4th and 5th, 2023
3.1.2022 15-18 (EET) “Interactive Storytelling with Twine, part 1”
4.1.2022 15-18 (EET) “Interactive Storytelling with Twine, part 2”
5.1.2023 15-18 (EET) “Game Design with Bitsy”
Technical Requirements:
This workshop will introduce participants to Twine, an open source tool for creating non-linear interactive stories, and how it can be used as a medium for Indigenous storytelling. Participants will learn how to create their very own Twine game that can be played in any web browser. Additionally, this workshop will also teach the basics of CSS coding to style their game with custom elements, images, and sounds. Making a Twine game requires creators to consider narrative design and game design techniques, both of which generally apply in other game development contexts.
This workshop will introduce participants to Bitsy, a free browser-based tool for creating simple narrative-driven games, and how it can be used as a medium for Indigenous storytelling. Participants will learn how to create their very own Bitsy game that can be played in any web browser. They will be taught how to design unique rooms, avatars, sprites, and written dialogues for players to experience. Making a Bitsy game requires creators to consider narrative and visual game design techniques, both of which generally apply in other game development contexts.
In this 5-day workshop, participants will be introduced to the concept of environmental storytelling (the art of using spaces and objects to tell stories) and its importance for crafting narratives and evoking emotion using the medium of video games. Participants will learn the basics of Unity (unity.com), an industry-standard video game development engine, to imagine and create their very own virtual worlds from Indigenous perspectives.
Beginners are welcome.
This workshop (offered both online and in-person) is based on the framework of the 200-hour Skins Video Game Workshop, which teaches Indigenous youth how to make a video game based on Indigenous games, stories and storytelling.
