Mantic OPEN DAY (25/11): Learning

On November 25^th Mantic Games invites you, our friends, to join us for our biannual OPEN DAY. You can choose a single ticket , or the Group ticket which covers four attendees for the price of three!

The OPEN DAY has been steadily evolving and inevitably this one will be the biggest yet. Previous attendees know that the Main Hall is at capacity, so we will be utilising a couple of extra rooms to add in more and varied things to do. Our ultimate aim is to create an aspiring environment that will inspire your own hobby and captivate you for 4 or more hours!

We began this process by asking what we want in an Open Day, then we addressed each point. We believe this is our best offering to date and we believe you'll agree.

There are three blogs in this series, each describing one of the following zones of interest:

1. Participation and Cool Stuff,
2. Learning,
3. Open Day and Black Friday Weekend deals

2. LEARNING

Looking back at our list we realised that while we all love hearing about what's happening in gaming, there were also about 1/3 of us who enjoy to pick up new tips, skills, or insights. With this in mind, we will be presenting small seminars alongside our Main Event and Special Guest.

Special Guest: Mark Latham (The Walking Dead)

We are delighted that Mark Latham will be with us for the afternoon of the OPEN DAY. Mark designed The Walking Dead: All Out War for Mantic Games and it's proving to be an exceptional piece of games design. (The Walking Dead: All Out War is available to play in the Main Hall.) Mark is an author and games designer extraordinaire with an impressive CV. The first of our two featured seminars in the Studio Room is an interview with Mark, followed by a Design Insight Q&A. Come along and learn about the black art of game development - just don't enquire about release dates as he's not the chap to ask!

The Main Event: Ronnie Renton

At 2pm the charismatic ball of energy, excitement, and inspiration that we call Ronnie is unleashed for a full hour to talk about what Mantic have been up to - and what we're about to get involved with! During this wild ride, Ronnie will also be fielding questions, so bring something interesting for the Bard of Mantica to cogitate on.

For the rest of the day Ronnie will be around and looking to be stopped and chatted with. He loves meeting our friends, so please do him that honour.

The Seminars

Each seminar fits into a 1-hour slot. By staggering the seminars and repeating them, many of you will be able to attend all four should you wish! There is a timetable presented below and we should have something for everyone here, so what do we have on offer?

1. Painting: Faces & Bases. Tuition from a skilled painter to teach you quick tricks to make the important parts of your models 'pop'. Practice models, paints and brushes are supplied for the duration of this seminar.

2. Terrain: Weathering. Learn how to quickly get your terrain from undercoated to 'well worn' in only a handful of stages. We'll supply some terrain pieces to help you practice your skills, as well as paints, brushes, etc. to use during the seminar.

3. Game Design: Scenarios and Balance. Stewart Gibbs (Star Saga, Warpath, The Walking Dead) will be discussing how to create a fun, challenging, and balanced scenarios for your games.

4. Model Production: Resin & Metal Casting. Our experienced Master Mould-maker, Ricky Dove, will describe the stages of getting a model from the sculptor's workbench to your hand! There will be practical examples of each step on hand as well as lots of photos.

There will be more to be revealed in the companion blogs, so check back! In the meantime, here is the timetable for the day - we did say it would be busy, right? Pick up your ticket now!