River Valley Ripple Artist Salon: Playing with Pixels, an Interactive Showcase
Saturday, May 9 | 3 – 8 PM
@ The YES! House
Join us at The YES! House for a celebration of video games as an art form during River Valley Ripple Artist-in-Residence Kristofor Gieske's Artist Salon: Playing with Pixels, an Interactive Showcase.
Schedule of the day includes:
3 – 6 PM | Drop-In Playtest (Basement Lounge)
- Come and go as you please
- Try the game and share feedback
- Explore project files
- Chat about game development & interactive art
6 – 8 PM | Showcase (Main Floor)
- View early builds, code, and design docs
- Kristofor will present a live demo playthrough of the prototype
- Learn about Kristofor’s development process
- Playtest on available computers (headphones required)
- Artist Q&A and conversation
Kristofor will be sharing a very early version of his newest game, Aeronaut Adrift (working title), a narrative 2D adventure game with a pixel art aesthetic. During his residency, Kristofor will be designing, programming, creating story, art, music, and sound effects to build a tiny but playable version of the game that's intended to test the core mechanics, art direction, controls, etc., a process known as "prototyping." And that's where you come in!
Playtesting is essential to the game design and development process, and no matter your experience with playing video games, your feedback can help shape the future of this project.
This event is free and open to the public with complimentary food and beverages provided!
Artist Bio:
Hi, I’m Kristofor Gieske. As someone who’s always been fascinated by combining art and technology to tell stories, I’ve dabbled in different creative fields over the years: animation, filmmaking, music composition, programming, writing, and more. And when you look at that list of skills, there’s one artistic medium that offers the opportunity to meld them all together—video games!
I’ll never become an expert in every area of game development—each field could be a life-long study on its own—but I continuously strive to improve my skills in the hope that I can one day create a game that satisfies my artistic vision.
This RVR Artist Residency is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.