One of the creators of the narrative game What Remains of Edith Finch will be giving this year's keynote.

The annual GameFest returns to downtown Troy and RPI this Saturday, May 5. It's a showcase of digital games and chance to talk about issues that intersect with the industry. Blurbage:

Organized by the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences Program in the School of Humanities, Arts and Sciences, the event includes a student-designed games competition judged by industry professionals, music performances, and presentations by veteran game designers, critics, scholars, and indie developers. This year's keynote talk will be given by Chelsea Hash of Giant Sparrow, creators of the acclaimed indie game What Remains of Edith Finch. ...

Since 2003, GameFest has grown into a regional event that brings together game design students from schools throughout the Northeast. Talks and panels include topics from serious games and entrepreneurship to deep design questions and the democratization of independent game development. Music performances range from music made with repurposed game consoles to an orchestra performing classical arrangements of music from games.

There's a growing cluster of video game companies located in Troy, and developers from many of those studios will be at GameFest for short talks.

The student games showcase and series of short talks will be at the Atrium in downtown Troy on Saturday from 11 am-4 pm. Then things head up the hill to RPI for presentations, the keynote, and awards at 5 pm. (See the link above for details.)

GameFest is free and open to the public.