It is a new but fast developing educational project where creators of the animations that have drawn a few millions of viewers meet their young audiences. In previously held workshops, participants watched Animotukas animated fairy tales and listened to Tilidūda children’s songs as well as created their own animation characters. This time in Klaipėda we invite our young friends to construct together a never-seen-before dreamcatcher!

Vitalijus Žukas Cinema and Animation Producer; Co-founder and CEO of OKTA Studio (Lithuania)

Vitalijus is a cinema and animation producer as well as a co-founder and CEO of OKTA Studio. The named studio was responsible for the special effects of a well-recognised Lithuanian science fiction film Vanishing Waves (dir. Kristina Buožytė). Having worked for more than 20 years in the media and creative industries, Vitalijus has contributed to many internationally awarded projects.

Art in VR. April 14th 12:00Cinema and Animation Producer; Co-founder and CEO of OKTA Studio (Lithuania)

Vitalijus is a cinema and animation producer as well as a co-founder and CEO of OKTA Studio. The named studio was responsible for the special effects of a well-recognised Lithuanian science fiction film Vanishing Waves (dir. Kristina Buožytė). Having worked for more than 20 years in the media and creative industries, Vitalijus has contributed to many internationally awarded projects.

Art in VR. April 14th 12:00

Open discussion for all BLON festival guests, moderated by GameOn and Lithuanian Game Developers Association, everyone is welcome to participate, ask questions or submit ideas. We will introduce the concept of partnership, developed to bring game industry communities closer together. We will try to understand if now is the right time and how we can make this happen.

Alanay Çekiç Co-founder, Visual Artist, Public Relations at Turtleneck Studios (Germany)

Alanay Çekiç is Co-Founder and Creative Director at Turtleneck Studios, currently tackling the creation of cooperative exploration-adventure RITE of ILK. After having worked on Killzone: Shadow Fall and Horizon: Zero Dawn as a visual artist, the dream to work on impressive projects was more than fueled. With a growing desire for complete creative freedom and the wish to start his own projects, Alanay turned to similar-minded friends and colleagues he had met along the way and embarked on a new journey. His new adventure consists of turtle shells, dreams, and the eagerness to pack triple A-quality together with a blazing indie experience.

Johan Edström CEO at Apparat, Producer at Goodbye Kansas Group, Stockholm, Sweden Baltic Sea-Nordic Animation and Games Network member

Highly recognised producer and director specialising in animation and visual effects for feature and short films, documentaries, music videos, commercials, TV on-air design, projection design for theatre. Johan started his career with animated film before computers in 1977. Since then he worked in many European countries, Japan, United States and Canada. His clients include Swedish Television SVT, Kraft, Nestlé, Heineken, Carlsberg, Nissan, Chevrolet, Kia as well as animated TV series Doug (Nickelodeon) for which Johan was nominated twice for an Emmy Award as a director. He also frequently works as a guest lecturer at The Stockholm University of the Arts, Animationsakademien, Stockholm and other schools and institutions.

Creating work for multiple platforms. April 13th 15:00

Andrius Lekavičius Andrius lekavicius is all-around media storyteller and interactive orchestra conducting images, forms, and medias. He has built a profile of projects on various media platforms: from creating brand‘s image to vr experiences, from directing high-end commercials to his first feature documentary ‘game of the nation’.

How to survive in vr game. April 13th 16:00

Bartosh Polonski Artist, programmer, co-founder of gluk media (lithuania)

Bartosh lives and works in vilnius. While creating for ars electronica futurelab in linz and for urbonas studio mit in cambridge, he developed new forms of user interface experience. Over the last decade all of his work was centered to interactive solutions used in public areas, interior and architecture all over the world. Biometrics, sign recognition, image processing and other hci technologies are those bartosh uses in his projects. Recently with his team he’s been involved in developing architectural and educational applications in virtual reality context.

How to survive in vr game. April 13, 16:00

Claudia Cazzato

Head of Community at CRAFT (Denmark) Member of the Baltic Sea-Nordic Animation and Games Network

Claudia holds a B.A. in Management for the Arts, Culture, and Communication from Bocconi University in Milan as well as an M.Sc. in International Marketing Management from Copenhagen Business School. Throughout her working experience, she has built on her expertise in marketing and operations in different multinationals in Italy, Denmark, Spain, the UK, and Switzerland. Her fascination for the creative industries motivated her to return to Denmark to serve the creative community. Since 2017, she has worked for CRAFT where she is responsible for festival collaborations and soft-funding. Her personal mission is to bridge creative professionals with business people.

How we crafted How We Crafted. April 14, 11:00

Short presentation by Tag of Joy, first Lithuanian team to ever talk on GDC stage. Žilvinas and Šarūnas Ledai will be accompanied by industry veteran Aras Pranckevičius (Unity), who will share his insights from a veteran perspective. The presentation will be followed by Q&A session in an open discussion format. Dream to talk at GDC? Perhaps your trip to GDC can start by simply asking a question.

Paper Panther Travelling Workshop. Hand Drawn Animation workshop for kids aged 8+ with animation directors Pádraig Fagan and Carol Freeman from Ireland.

In this workshop, participants will work individually to draw morphing character animations on paper. Using traditional hand drawn animation techniques, you can bring a bit of magic into your filmmaking and expand your imagination.

Classical point and click adventure games are somewhat defined by their genre and yet they take a myriad of shapes and forms. How to find an approach that fits You best. What are the dangers and challenges for a modern-day developer interested in classical genres? It’s an open discussion for every guest of BLON festival since classical adventure games and animated storytelling has so much in common!

Catharina Due Bøhler

CEO and Co-founder of Sarepta Studio (Norway) Member of the Baltic Sea-Nordic Animation and Games Network Sarepta

Studio is an award-winning indie company and part of the Norwegian game developers hub Hamar Game Collective. Catharina has been working in the industry for 7 years, primarily within the fields of game design, marketing and funding. One of the projects My Child: Lebensborn, is a story driven nurture game about children born of war, which experienced a successful Kickstarter campaign in April 2017. My Child: Lebensborn is a co-production between the production company Teknopilot AS and the game studio Sarepta Studio AS. The two companies work closely on the project.

Success Story: developing a video game for social impact My Child Lebensborn. April 14th 15:00

Ole Tillmann Art director, illustrator at slow bros (germany)

Ole Tillmann is an illustrator and animator working internationally from germany. He studied illustration at the rhode island school of design in the us and has since returned to co-found the game studio slow bros. After working for a broad range of clients, including disney, vice media, time inc. And german television he has most recently been working as the art director of „harold halibut – a handmade adventure game“.

Stephan Hövelbrinks Indie game developer (germany)

Stephan is a self-taught artist and programmer. Creator of dozens of small games, including a series of ‘one game a week’. Creator of death trash, a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game. Painting daily art for over 1000 days now. Member of the first german indie games collective saftladen berlin.

Goran Saric Co-founder of Okomotive (Switzerland)

Goran Saric is currently working as the tech lead on Okomotive’s debut title, “FAR: Lone Sails”, which will be released on Steam this May. The game is a 3d side-scrolling vehicle adventure wherein a tiny little girl needs to maintain a huge ship on wheels, driving it alone across a dried out seabed. FAR: Lone Sails has already won several awards and was nominated for the Best Student Game at IGF in 2017. Since February this year, he’s also working as a game design teacher assistant at the Zurich University of the Arts.