Summer School

Study games.

Make games.

Play games.

Pitch games.

First International Summer School by GameLab KBTU

A free intensive for students and gamedev enthusiasts at KBTU campus.

August 16-19, 2022

Almaty, Kazakhstan

Apply Now

I want to make a game. Where do I start? What skills do I need? Do I need a team? How to set up a working environment? What does a concept document look like?

10:30 Orientation session

Before the school each student will receive a student pack: a workbook - an online folder with all the materials we will be working with during the school; teams distribution info (you will be preparing projects for pitching in teams of 4), information about your team’s curator, who will be mentoring you throughout the process. At orientation we will all meet in person and discuss what's gonna be happening in the next four days.

11:30

Coffee Break

12:00 Alexandr Mezin: Setting up the game project and preparing a concept doc

The basic theory on what you should know before setting up your own game project. We will make a concept document together so every participant can check the logic behind its creation.

14:00

Lunch

15:00 Preparing a concept doc and project plan in teams

Workshop

What is so special about my game? What are my options for monetization and future growth? What information should I know about my competitors? What metrics should I consider for my project? Market overview. Platforms, publishers, monetization strategies.User acquisition. How to scale an f2p project. PR and publishing. Market research instruments and tools.

10:30 Anton Skudarnov: Analytics, Metrics, Product Lifecycle.

How to define success of your project on different stages of production? Let's talk about what key metrics and approaches could be used to evaluate your idea and potential earning.

11:30

Coffee Break

12:00

Abzal Ahmedzyanov: Research of PC game trends using open sources

14:00

Lunch

15:00 Vladimir Popov: #PitchDeck "Presentation"

Ноw to prepare slides for pitching? How can storytelling help? Public speaking and other tips for making your game project most attractive for investors.

16:00 Preparing a market research and monetization strategy in teams

Workshop.

What instruments will I use in the production process? How to develop a comprehensive production plan? How will the team members understand each other? Why does a programmer have to understand narrative design basics? What is game design?

10:30 Arseniy Deriglazov: Storytelling in Games: an Introduction (to the Dark Arts)

What is the difference between a game and a story? If they’re not the same, why do so many games try to tell stories anyway? And finally, why are some game stories so captivating they can drive us to tears… while some are eye-wateringly boring? To answer these questions, we shall dive deep into the dark art of interactive storytelling, study the many forbidden lores of game writing, and even glimpse into the dreadful abyss that is narrative design.

11:30

Coffee Break

12:00 Amal Issabekov: The game and its engine

We'll go through the purpose of game engines, their history and current status. How to choose the engine for your new game and what to expect from it.

14:00

Lunch

15:00 Production master classes in groups

Arseniy Deriglazov: “Writing Interactive Stories and Dialogue with Inky”
William Huber: “Games and the world – a paper prototyping approach”
Amal Issabekov: “So Unreal!”
Dmitriy Tuchashvili: Art of Math basics with Unity ShaderGraph
See more

Can gamedev education be completed? Is gamedev about management? programming? art? or anything else? Why is the gamedev community important? What are the future perspectives of the gamedev industry? How do games change the world?

10:30 Alexandra Knysheva: Games for good: what does gamedev have to do with social sciences?

Entertainment. Art. Addiction. Business. Reflex. Technology. Playing games is fun. Making games is even more fun. Studying games… Is it even a thing? Let’s discuss how gaming changes the world and how the world changes the gaming. Let’s find out who comes first - Homo Sapiens or Homo Ludens. Let’s acknowledge that videogames is a complex phenomenon, which is crucial (and fun!) to explore.

11:30

Coffee Break

12:00 William Huber: Necessity and contingency: game design and historical thinking

This talk addresses how games depicting historical and contemporary model agency and causality, and the consequences of different design choices for promoting civic awareness and social responsibility.

13:00 Diana Bissembayeva: What is HR in gamedev?

All about people (and not only) in gamedev: how to get there, what to do when you are there and is there life in gamedev?

14:00

Lunch

16:00 Projects pitching

Finally! The teams pitch their projects to the expert jury. The best will be acknowledged by awards and prizes from our partner Meloman Marwin. Perspective projects can continue the work up to game release with the mentorship of GameLab KBTU throughout the year.

19:00 Final Gala and Awards

We award all the students and participants with certificates of accomplishment, best of the best receive the prizes from Meloman Marwin. And that’s when the party begins! A perfect chance to mingle with peers, curators and experts in a casual party atmosphere. A small gaming tournament, geeky prizes from our partner Meloman Marwin and lot’s of fun expected.

The theme of this year is 2022 “Games for good” — it will be reflected in lectures and prerequisites for the game projects.

Production master classes in groups

Arseniy Deriglazov: “Writing Interactive Stories and Dialogue with Inky”
Find out how to write interactive dialogue, give your players multiple replies to choose from, create branching in your story, and much more! All you need is to learn a simple and versatile tool used by professional game writers all over the world - the Inky editor. As an added bonus, everything you write during this masterclass can be easily exported as an .exe-file for your portfolio, featured on a web-site, or integrated into a bigger game project made with Unity or Unreal. Software requirements: Inky editor - downloadable here: https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/
William Huber: “Games and the world – a paper prototyping approach”
This workshop discusses how to incorporate research into historical and social issues into a fast-iteration approach to game design. Materials for prototyping will be provided.
Amal Issabekov: “So Unreal!”
Try yourself in game development! You'll have full access to an almost finished game developed on Unreal Engine, but there's something broken. In the process of fixing the bugs, testing, and delivering the game, you will learn a thing or two about the most popular game engine at the moment. Software requirements: UE (the classroom will be equipped with the computers with all required software)
Almaskhan Baimyshev: "Creating and tuning a 2D platformer character in Unity"
There are many ways to implement a character for a 2D platformer. However, doing it in a way that feels good to control is a non-trivial task. During this class you will learn how to avoid potential traps associated with Unity Physics engine, as well as add quality of life improvements to the player controls. After getting your hands dirty with coding the player controller, you will find out how tuning your control parameters changes the feel of the game. Software requirements: Unity (any version), Visual Studio
Dmitriy Tuchashvili: Art of Math basics with Unity ShaderGraph
Exploring the basics of ShaderGraph we will learn how colors can be interpreted as numbers and modified using mathematical functions. The main goal of this master class is to understand the importance of shaders in game development and the mindset behind shader production. During the session we will create several customizable and animated shaders to use in different game situations. Software requirements: Unity version 2019+ with installed Scriptable Render Pipeline (any of LWRP, URP, HDRP, SRP)
Alexander Vilassak: Quick Prototyping on Unity IzGuanoAndPalok. Based on experience in game jams and in a big serious company.
You are a cool game designer with great and innovative ideas but bad with code scripting? Then we are on the same page because the lecturer of this master class is dumb in coding and just loves to make some games. I’ll show you how to implement your ideas on Unity using stuff that you have: brain and the internet. On a simple game (probably a 2d platformer) downloaded from the Unity asset store we will practice on how to improve it: make the game different from the original with your favorite graphic editor and prototype some new mechanics using C# language. So, yeah, this course requires a tiny bit of programming skills, but no worries - mostly what we will do is copy-pasting. Let’s have some fun! Software requirements: Unity version 2020+, your favorite code editor (I hope it's Rider), a graphical editor like paint.net or photoshop.

Arseniy Deriglazov: “Writing Interactive Stories and Dialogue with Inky”

Find out how to write interactive dialogue, give your players multiple replies to choose from, create branching in your story, and much more! All you need is to learn a simple and versatile tool used by professional game writers all over the world - the Inky editor. As an added bonus, everything you write during this masterclass can be easily exported as an .exe-file for your portfolio, featured on a web-site, or integrated into a bigger game project made with Unity or Unreal. Software requirements: Inky editor - downloadable here: https://www.inklestudios.com/ink/

William Huber: “Games and the world – a paper prototyping approach”

This workshop discusses how to incorporate research into historical and social issues into a fast-iteration approach to game design. Materials for prototyping will be provided.

Amal Issabekov: “So Unreal!”

Try yourself in game development! You'll have full access to an almost finished game developed on Unreal Engine, but there's something broken. In the process of fixing the bugs, testing, and delivering the game, you will learn a thing or two about the most popular game engine at the moment. Software requirements: UE (the classroom will be equipped with the computers with all required software)

Almaskhan Baimyshev: "Creating and tuning a 2D platformer character in Unity"

There are many ways to implement a character for a 2D platformer. However, doing it in a way that feels good to control is a non-trivial task. During this class you will learn how to avoid potential traps associated with Unity Physics engine, as well as add quality of life improvements to the player controls. After getting your hands dirty with coding the player controller, you will find out how tuning your control parameters changes the feel of the game. Software requirements: Unity (any version), Visual Studio

Dmitriy Tuchashvili: Art of Math basics with Unity ShaderGraph

Exploring the basics of ShaderGraph we will learn how colors can be interpreted as numbers and modified using mathematical functions. The main goal of this master class is to understand the importance of shaders in game development and the mindset behind shader production. During the session we will create several customizable and animated shaders to use in different game situations. Software requirements: Unity version 2019+ with installed Scriptable Render Pipeline (any of LWRP, URP, HDRP, SRP)

Alexander Vilassak: Quick Prototyping on Unity IzGuanoAndPalok. Based on experience in game jams and in a big serious company.

You are a cool game designer with great and innovative ideas but bad with code scripting? Then we are on the same page because the lecturer of this master class is dumb in coding and just loves to make some games. I’ll show you how to implement your ideas on Unity using stuff that you have: brain and the internet. On a simple game (probably a 2d platformer) downloaded from the Unity asset store we will practice on how to improve it: make the game different from the original with your favorite graphic editor and prototype some new mechanics using C# language. So, yeah, this course requires a tiny bit of programming skills, but no worries - mostly what we will do is copy-pasting. Let’s have some fun! Software requirements: Unity version 2020+, your favorite code editor (I hope it's Rider), a graphical editor like paint.net or photoshop.

Awards

Prizes and gifts provided by

Experts

Dr William H Huber
Senior lecturer at Abertay University, currently acting as the head of the Centre for Excellence in Game Education. He is also the current president of the Digital Games Research Association.
Arseniy Deriglazov
Game writer and principal narrative designer at the German studio Grimlore Games (THQ Nordic). He's worked on award-winning games, such as the story-driven isometric CRPG "Pathfinder: Kingmaker"
Alexandra Knysheva
The head of GameLab KBTU. MA in Media Culture, her current research focuses on socio-cultural and philosophical interpretations of videogames.
Alexandr Mezin
CPO Edvice, ex CBDO at devtodev. Years of experience as product manager, project manager, producer, game designer and business developer. Co-founder of Gamedev.House. "From home" book author.
Amal Issabekov
Senior Software Developer at Sperasoft.
Abzal Akhmetzhanov
Senior Principal Product Manager at Garena
Diana Bissembayeva
HR Business partner, World of Tanks, Wargaming
Alexander Vilassak
Game designer at IzHard. Computer science graduate, 3 years in Saber Interactive as a game designer, overall 8 years of experience in game development, winner of Microsoft's Imagine Cup student competition in 2015 - released OVIVO game.
Vladimir Popov
Director "KBTU Startup Incubator", CEO startup-course.com, studied @ IIDF.vc, HSE GIC, UBI-global.com, InBIA.org etc. PhD-candidate in student techpreneurship, launched virtual academic incubation programs to 5 universities, conducted 12 incubation batches in KBTU.
Almaskhan Baimyshev
PhD in Robotics, Vanderbilt University. Worked on indie titles pubdivshed on mobile phone platforms (Hyper Pixel Beast, STYX Vertical Platformer) as a Unity developer in a team of two.
Anton Skudarnov
CEO & Producer at Indie GameDev Club (Hyper Casual Studio). 3+ Years experience in Hyper Casual production. Built a team and a company from scratch. Expertise in game design and product management.
Dmitriy Tuchashvili
Unity developer in "Sensum", Working with VR, shaders, simulation models. CG track tutor at KBTU.
Andrey Dronin
Unreal Engine community lead in CIS, Epic Games.
Sergey Lopatin
#1 guy in the Almaty gamedev community. Organized dozens of gamedev events, currently he manages a studio and develops a big TBS game.

Dr William H Huber

Senior lecturer at Abertay University, currently acting as the head of the Centre for Excellence in Game Education. He is also the current president of the Digital Games Research Association.

Arseniy Deriglazov

Game writer and principal narrative designer at the German studio Grimlore Games (THQ Nordic). He's worked on award-winning games, such as the story-driven isometric CRPG "Pathfinder: Kingmaker"

Alexandra Knysheva

The head of GameLab KBTU. MA in Media Culture, her current research focuses on socio-cultural and philosophical interpretations of videogames.

Alexandr Mezin

CPO Edvice, ex CBDO at devtodev. Years of experience as product manager, project manager, producer, game designer and business developer. Co-founder of Gamedev.House. "From home" book author.

Amal Issabekov

Senior Software Developer at Sperasoft.

Abzal Akhmetzhanov

Senior Principal Product Manager at Garena

Diana Bissembayeva

HR Business partner, World of Tanks, Wargaming

Alexander Vilassak

Game designer at IzHard. Computer science graduate, 3 years in Saber Interactive as a game designer, overall 8 years of experience in game development, winner of Microsoft's Imagine Cup student competition in 2015 - released OVIVO game.

Vladimir Popov

Director "KBTU Startup Incubator", CEO startup-course.com, studied @ IIDF.vc, HSE GIC, UBI-global.com, InBIA.org etc. PhD-candidate in student techpreneurship, launched virtual academic incubation programs to 5 universities, conducted 12 incubation batches in KBTU.

Almaskhan Baimyshev

PhD in Robotics, Vanderbilt University. Worked on indie titles pubdivshed on mobile phone platforms (Hyper Pixel Beast, STYX Vertical Platformer) as a Unity developer in a team of two.

Anton Skudarnov

CEO & Producer at Indie GameDev Club (Hyper Casual Studio). 3+ Years experience in Hyper Casual production. Built a team and a company from scratch. Expertise in game design and product management.

Dmitriy Tuchashvili

Unity developer in "Sensum", Working with VR, shaders, simulation models. CG track tutor at KBTU.

Andrey Dronin

Unreal Engine community lead in CIS, Epic Games.

Sergey Lopatin

#1 guy in the Almaty gamedev community. Organized dozens of gamedev events, currently he manages a studio and develops a big TBS game.

What We Do:

Developing and implementing elective gamedev courses within the IT Faculty BA program
Mentoring student gamedev projects
Providing global networking and job opportunities for students and alumni
Organizing educational and networking gamedev events
Organizing hackathons, bootcamps and game jams for facilitation of local gamedev projects
Hosting and participating in academic and industrial events
Research and academic publications

FAQ

Fill in the online application (appears at clicking the “Apply now” button at the top of the screen) Only a limited number of applications will be selected for participation in the school. Main criteria: motivation, English level, erudition in the field (coding skills is a plus, but not C plus plus necessary)
Please note that only 18+ students can be accepted.

Participation is free of charge.

The school is offline, held at the KBTU campus in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Further directions will be sent to the selected candidates.

There will be coffee breaks and lunches organized for students and lecturers throughout the school. There are also vending machines around the campus.