Have you ever tried to make your own board game? Ever wondered what it takes to design a game that people actually want to play? Well, ideaLAB’s newest maker-in-Residence, Shawn Bowman, aims to get you playing, hacking, making, and thinking about games and the cultures that surround them.
Shawn is a craft writer and self-proclaimed amateur troublemaker. She writes books, connects kid filmmakers around the globe with appreciative audiences, empowers young comic artists, and makes art out of beer cans. Oh, and she plays lots and lots of games. She’ll be hanging out in the SM Energy ideaLAB in May, encouraging visitors to mess around and help her design a tabletop game from scratch.
In June, Shawn is hosting a workshop called The Art of Board Game Design- Tools, Resources and Ideas. You’ll learn the key structures in building games, get examples of simple games and templates which could be re-mixed for original games, and then get hands-on to use tools like SketchUp and 3d printers to design and create original boards, cards and pieces. There will be two sessions at the Central Library in the SM Energy ideaLAB:
- Saturday, June 4, 10 a.m.-12 p.m. - All Ages
- Tuesday, June 28, 6-8 p.m. - Adults (ages 18+)
You can keep up with Shawn’s project by visiting her Facebook page and website, stopping by ideaLAB, and attending the workshops. GAME ON!
Interested in being a maker-in-residence? Head to bit.ly/DPLmaker to submit your application. Please familiarize yourself with what the ideaLAB is currently doing, our schedule, and the tools we have available by visiting our pages at denverlibrary.org/idealab and teens.denverlibrary.org/idealab before applying. We are currently looking for makers and artists to participate for eight weeks during the second half of 2016.