The Power of Play Conference in Bellevue, WA

Posted By Sculpteo on May 20, 2015 | 0 comments

12 hours North of the San Mateo Maker Faire, the Power of Play Conference had their 3D printers buzzing.

The Power of Play conference focuses on independent video game developers and technologists that want to grow the success of their products. This year’s conference also included a mini 3D printing lab complete with 6 computers and 2 desktop 3D printers. We wanted to know what they where making so we reached out to Craig Walker and he gave us the inside scoop.

Craig is a local 3D printing guru and a radio personality for TechTalk here in the pacific northwest. Craig shifted from Computer programming and computer repair to 3D printing after attending the 3D Printer World Expo some years back, and it was only after visiting the Game Development Conference in San Francisco, CA that he saw the potential for 3D Printing in the digital and physical gaming industry.

There were 60 game developers at the 2015 Power of Play Conference and roughly 500 attendees; Craig let us know that the 2 desktop 3D printers he brought along were one of the highlights of the conference. Attendees and developers flocked to his booth to discuss potential application of this technology from a gaming perspective.

Craig had this to say, “Lots of game developers and attendees considered this technology for Kickstarter giveaways, checking character designing compatibility, prototyping, and possible board game piece manufacturing”.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that this industry would be interested in prototyping and manufacturing using 3D printing, after all the files used to create the 2D characters can be tweaked and finished to create 3D printable files. 3D printing in the video game industry creates an additional product for consumers that want to bring their digital character into the real world, while also creating an additional revenue stream for the game development company.

Craig explained that the level of excitement for the technology was very high last weekend! Craig went on to tell us that gaming company Joost Das in the Netherlands (creator of Ortus Arena) currently uses 3D printing to print their pieces and they allow their models to be customized to suit the player. We can certainly expect to see 3D printing grow in the game development sector as time goes on.

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