Industry Talks

2020 archive

Grab a rare opportunity to listen to and interact with the top professionals in the industry! BLON Industry Talks are aimed at common areas of video games and animation. Our guests will speak about storytelling, world building and art development for video games, and what inspired them to choose this unique medium. They will explore the worlds of animation and game distribution, and reveal the success stories behind internationally renowned VR experiences. We hope that the speakers' experiences and insights will inspire others to step into this world, in which everyone can become a creator.

10 shown
Flying Solo or One Man Band
Talk
Flying Solo or One Man Band

A fireside chat dedicated to developers who create the games only by themselves. The creators of hit games will talk about why they chose such a lonely path, their daily life, challenges and achievements.

Arvydas Žemaitis

Arvydas Žemaitis

Successful solo game creator in Lithuania, who found his loyal audience with management style games and has released five projects globally for PC/VR/PS4/XBOX platforms.

Aurimas Garuolis

Aurimas Garuolis

The creator of piggish games, responsible for dozen titles, such as "Iron Snout", "Bacon May Die" and the latest "Card Hog".

Andrius Jovaiša

Andrius Jovaiša

Fireside chat moderator. A veteran technology journalist and avid games fan, creator of podcasts and radio shows.

Aivaras Klimas

Aivaras Klimas

Žaidimų kūrėjas pradėjęs veiklą 2013-ais metais. Sukūrė „Sector Six“ - šaudyklę su RPG elementais, šiuo metu kuria RPG „Light of the Locked World“. Meilė žaidimams gimė bežaidžiant Flash žaidimus, „RuneScape“ ir „Maximos“ lentynų klasiką: „Silverfall“, „Beyond Good & Evil“, „Akimbo: Kung-Fu Hero“.

Open Mic
Presentation
Open Mic

An interactive networking evening during which a microphone will be presented for three minutes to anyone who wants to introduce themselves, present their companies, projects, ideas, find like-minded people or colleagues.

Is it Time for Politically Conscious Games?
Presentation
Is it Time for Politically Conscious Games?

Since 2014, there has been a certain political realignment in the Western videogames industry. With that, there are plenty of takes as to what it means to be creating videogames politically. The talk would look into some examples of the 20th century conceptual fine art and compare it with the way we do political games. What's effective, what are the possibilities, what's the importance of the modes of production in this realm? Videogames industry campaigner Marijam Didžgalvytė will dive into the state of the discourse around politics in videogames and will assess what are the best examples of ideological affiliations being inflicted on cultural objects. Hear why Untitled Goose Game or Eve Online are better instruments for politics than Papers, Please.

Marijam Didžgalvytė

Marijam Didžgalvytė

Marijam is a writer on video games / technology and politics whose work has been published on GamesIndustry.biz, Kotaku, Novara Media, Waypoint and many others.

Let's Talk About Game Design
Talk
Let's Talk About Game Design

Talented and experienced game designers will share their thoughts and ideas in a discussion about modern gameplay, its creative challenges and will try to answer the all-important question – "What does a player want?". Tough questions from the audience are more than welcome!

Gediminas Tarasevičius

Gediminas Tarasevičius

Discussion moderator. Experienced and versatile game designer, game culture expert. Director of "Lithuanian Game Developers Association".

Laurynas Vainius

Laurynas Vainius

A veteran of game design, currently developing the first Lithuanian slasher in a newly formed studio "Golem House".

Dmitrijus Babičius

Dmitrijus Babičius

The expert of minimalist game design, creator of "PyroMind", "The Final Riddle" and other uniquely designed games.

Puppy's Adventure In Hollywood
Presentation
Puppy's Adventure In Hollywood

This is a presentation of animation film in development PUPPY BITES BACK, which began as short film, but after visiting Hollywood ambitiously grew in to series. Gediminas will share initial sketches, pre-production stages, working experience with Kaz Prapuolenis and insights of effort to pitch this project to US TV channels.

Gediminas Šiaulys

Gediminas Šiaulys

Gediminas's works have gained recognition at some of the world’s leading art and design magazines and have become a synonym for the “New Eastern European Design”. In 2009 Canadian magazine Boards included PetPunk in the top 6 of its “New Wave of Designers”, and in 2010 leading UK's design magazine Computer Arts featured PetPunk as “The New Wave of Animation”. Gediminas Šiaulys, together with PetPunk, are the first Lithuanians to win the “Young Guns” prize from the Art Directors Club of New York and have also been invited to numerous international festivals. These include the European Design Conference (Stockholm), Visuelt (Oslo), Picotplasma (Berlin), Onedotzero (London), Anima (Brussels), Arsenale (Florence), the Holland Animation Film Festival (Utrecht), Anima Mundi (Brazil), Zlin (Czech Republic) and many others.

Making of AWAY
Presentation
Making of AWAY

In the presentation Gints Zilbalodis will talk about how he made his first feature film AWAY by himself. What led up to it, lessons learned and what he is working on next.

Gints Zilbalodis

Gints Zilbalodis

Gints Zilbalodis (1994) is a Latvian filmmaker and animator. His fascination for filmmaking began at an early age watching classic films and making shorts and commercials. He has made 7 short films in various mediums including hand-drawn animation, 3D animation and live-action and often mixing their characteristic aesthetics.

How Heretic was made
Presentation
How Heretic was made

Dominykas will tell us how their team has created Heretic demo. We will cover various technical pillars of the demo - from special effects to realistic human rendering.

Dominykas Kiauleikis

Dominykas Kiauleikis

Dominykas has been working in Unity Demo Team since creation The Blacksmith Demo (2015). He has worked on The Adam, Book of the Dead and Heretic demos.

How to produce a high-grossing low budget film
Presentation
How to produce a high-grossing low budget film

Thorbjørn Christoffersen and Anders Mastrup will talk about the creative challenges in the production of Chequered Ninja in the perspective of keeping the budget low. Also, how to finance, plan and produce a low budget film like Chequered Ninja.

Anders Mastrup

Anders Mastrup

Anders Mastrup (b. 1957) is educated in history, but by accident he ended up as an animation producer. During his student time he participated in and organized radio programming, documentary films, cultural festivals and …….. In 1985 Anders started on the animated feature film “Valhalla”. In 1988, together with 4 animators, he started A. Film. A. Film has ever since been doing feature films, tv series, short films and commercials (all animated). Anders has various credits on films like “FernGully, The last rainforest”, “All Dogs goes to Heaven 2” and “Quest for Camelot”. And he holds producer/exec. producer credits on films like: “Jungo”, “Asterix and the Vikings”, “Luis and the Aliens”, “Up and Away”, “Albert”, “The incredible story of the Giant Pear”, “Pettson & Findus –Pettson’s promise”, “Terkel in Trouble, “Niko and the way to the Stars” and “Chequered Ninja”.

Thorbjørn Christoffersen

Thorbjørn Christoffersen

Thorbjørn Christoffersen (b. 1978) is a self-taught animator and illustrator. He made his debut as a co-director on the film “Terkel inTrouble” (2004) and has since, among other things also co-directed the huge success “Chequeredt Ninja” (2018) together with Anders Matthesen. He also works as an illustrator in collaboration with the author Thomas Brunstrøm. The two have created more than a handful of picture books in the series about Sally's father, which has become a big hit with Danish families with children.

Lithuanian Gamedev Industry Overview
Presentation
Lithuanian Gamedev Industry Overview

“Lithuanian Game Developers Association” (LŽKA) for the last several months conducted a research of Lithuanian games industry, and together with “Lithuanian Innovation Center” prepared a detailed overview of the industry and recommendations for its growth. Ričardas will share the main facts about the current situation and ideas for the future.

Ričardas Jaščemskas

Ričardas Jaščemskas

Following games industry inside and out for more than 20 years. From writing and editing gaming magazines to covering social media, events and communications for several Lithuanian game development studios.

I have an idea! What's next?
Talk
I have an idea! What's next?

During the discussion, representatives of the Lithuanian Film Center, Creative Europe Desk Lithuania MEDIA office, the Lithuanian Council for Culture, the Agency for Science, Innovation and Technology will talk about the possibilities for animation and video games in Lithuania and how to finance the idea you have.