In July / August 2018, I was one of the mentors at the Critical Hit Parallax summer program at Concordia University, in partnership with Indienova. I taught about game making tools, game design and helped to support students in their game jam projects. From the program’s website:
Critical Hit Parallax is hosted by TAG in collaboration with Indienova – China’s largest indie game portal. In previous years, TAG’s 10-week summer game incubator program, Critical Hit, attracted international attention with its focus on producing innovative experimental games through fast-paced iterative prototyping approaches. Many games from Critical Hit and Critical Hit alumni have gone on to do very well in international festivals such as Indiecade, IGF, Japan Media Arts Festival. As such, Critical Hit is now synonymous with innovative and experimental game creation, and both past and future participants benefit from this reputation as game makers, artists, students, and researchers.
Critical Hit Parallax borrows from the previous model but in a condensed 2 week form, foregrounding the same spirit of exploration with regards to alt/indie/experimental making. Teachers and mentors will be recruited from the game industry in Montreal and TAG/Milieux Research Centre graduate students. The participating international students will be introduced to research-creation culture in Canada, potential graduate studies at Concordia University, and the rich game development ecosystem of Montreal.