DakuCon Day 1

Hi everyone! The first day at DakuCon is drawing to a close, and it has certainly been a fun time so far. First year conventions are always a bit of an unknown and a risk, but the staff here seems very organized and prioritizing the attendee experience. I've spent a portion of my day with Crystal, helping her table in Artist's Alley, but have also attended several panels, including "GM'ing Tips and Tricks" with the Andrews, "Women in the Anime Industry" with Tiffany Grant, and Adult Indie Games with Team Brusken. I also attended the Opening Ceremonies. Attendance has been pretty low here, but I think that can mostly be blamed on lots of people having to work on Friday. Later in the day, attendance increased significantly, including the general population of artist alley. But let's talk about those panels a little bit.

GMing Tricks and Tips

This could have been such a good panel. The Andrews have a lot of experience in gaming and some really good advice. Unfortunately, they were given one of the earliest schedule spots in the convention, Friday at 2:00. For the first 20 minutes of the panel, I was the only person in the room, and rather than being presented at, they decided to talk with me about our gaming experiences. Once we had another attendee, the Andrews decided to do a more formal presentation. As I said earlier, they have a lot of experience between them and some very good advice. The best summary of their advice is that players and GM's should communicate outside of the gaming session, in order to get everyone on the same page and make sure that the game is going to fulfill everyone's desires. When a GM talks with their players, they are better able to use character backstory and motivations to pull the players into the overarching campaign plot. More communication also gives the players a chance to tell the GM what is going well and what isn't.

Women in Anime Industry

The more appropriate title of this panel may have been "Woman in Anime" as Tiffany Grant was the only panelist. Still, it was interesting overall. She discussed how she moved from community theater work to anime voice over. She was the first voice actor employed for anime in Texas when she was contracted by ADV. She also talked about how her entry into voice acting was largely a product of coincidence. She had a friend from middle-school who heard that ADV was looking for actors, and sent Tiffany in their direction. She had a good audition and was hired the same day. The rest is history. Grant continues to work today both in voice acting and script adaptation.

Adult Indie Game Development

I'm not sure what I expected going into this panel, but I was definitely surprised. The guys at Team Brusken are developing a text based erotic monster breeding game. The goal is to have a Pokemon like combat and breeding system based around monster girls and monster boys. There is a reality that they are producing erotic content; however, much of the process of game development and promotion are common to any indie game development. I'm not sure that its the game for me, but its cool to see some people taking a niche audience seriously.

That's all for day one. I'll be back tomorrow with some more discussions. See you then.