I’m presenting at BostonFIG 2021!

I’m presenting two talks at this year’s BostonFIG conference! Big surprise, they’re about Metroidvanias and Celeste.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Celeste-Style Tilesets

Saturday, May 29, 2PM — Purple Room

Celeste's tilesets are gorgeous, but they're also great examples to study from when learning to make pixel art. We'll talk about what makes these tilesets so effective, efficient to build, and pretty to look at by deconstructing one room from the game and walking through the steps needed to re-create it.

(This talk will be really similar to the one I gave to the ProcJam server, just a tiny bit longer and with some newer content!)

Room Design Strategies for Procedural Metroidvania Dungeons

Sunday, May 30, 4PM — Main Room

Big dungeons full of secrets and shortcuts are the heart and soul of the Metroidvania genre, and most attempts to generate them procedurally have come up short. We'll discuss what elements are necessary to achieve the right "Dungeon Feel", address some of the core challenges, and talk through design patterns for creating rooms that are both fun to play in and easy for the generator to cut-and-paste to build up a complex, interconnected space for the player to explore.