Among the mountain of tasks that come with building a game, scripting can be among the most difficult to wrap your head around. Playmaker, the visual sculpting software for Unity, helps with that. It removes the need to know how to code and instead places emphasis on what the game maker wants to happen.

In this one-hour beginners workshop, filmmaker, game developer, and musician Stephen Scott Day gives participants an introduction to Playmaker. As a practitioner, Day sees the software as more than just a simple game builder. He sees it as a tool to create immersive art and expansive stories. He teaches participants how to make the basics and then use those tools to do more.

What to expect from this course:

• Examples of an interactive world (doors, talking to NPCs, using items, picking up items, pushing things, breaking things, fixing things, etc)
• An NPC that follows you when they see you and stops when they reach you.
• Telling them to stop following you.
• Giving interactivity to anything (but first, a door.)

This is part of Killscreen’s Method programming (see below)

About Your Instructor

Stephen is a filmmaker, game developer, and musician. He currently runs his YouTube channel about independent game development, where he also streams live development sessions of his personal projects. Stephen also creates the official video tutorials for Playmaker which are all hosted on Hutong Game’s official YouTube channel. His interests in game development lean toward the experimental side, to see what exciting new ways interactive media can illicit emotions from people. He also loves his arcadey shoot-em-ups and the adrenaline rush that comes with them.

Stephen’s background in film and animation have carried over into game development since so many of the tools used to make assets are often the same. 2D and 3D design for film VFX, 2D and 3D animation, and level design assets all go hand in hand, and inform one another.

Stephen has directed and produced dozens of films both live-action and animation, some dozen or so games and interactive media, and is now using that experience to help other artists get on their way to creating their own living, breathing worlds.

What to Expect

Killscreen divides its events into two categories Theory and Method. Theory courses are lectures, talks, and other one-to-many events. Method events are workshops, immersive, and other smaller hands-on programming.

Once you’re registered you can access this experience through your confirmation email or Eventbrite account. Killscreen online experiences are recommended for attendees age 13+.

This online experience will be recorded. A link to the recording will be made available to all ticket holders roughly a week following the event. This link can be accessed by completing the post-event survey, which is emailed to all ticket-holders after the event.

Killscreen is an arts and culture organization committed to advancing the dialogue and practice of games and play. Founded in 2010, we seek to drive the intersection of games, play, and culture through cross-disciplinary collaboration to show the world why play matters. We want to break down the barriers that have traditionally segregated play and games from other creative disciplines and highlight creators with ambassadorial relationships to the world around us.

We encourage you to follow and share the hashtag #KSonline for more incredible online experiences. And check out other material on Killscreen.com, including honest and thought-provoking interviews with some of the best creators at the intersection of play and culture.