EGW 2014 - Another Success!

Thanks to all the amazing developers who participated in this year's EGW - we had a stellar session with amazingly high marks, and many wonderful games!!! Check out this lovely writeup which lists the games and links to them as well!

We'd like to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone who submitted and participated, and offer our congrats to those who also picked up noms and awards at this year's IGF!

Finally - a huge shout-out goes to the great AV staff at GDC who worked pretty tirelessly with the devs and organizers to make sure we had all the tech we needed to bring you these amazing games. We look forward to seeing you all at next year's session!

2014 CFP Opens January 1, 2014

Hello game design explorers! Just a quick note to let you know that we will begin accepting submissions for this year's Experimental Gameplay Workshop session starting on January 1, 2014. Submissions will close on February 1, 2014 at midnight. We will post the official CFP on New Year's Day - but you can refer to last year's CFP in the meantime.

The session will be held on the Friday of GDC 2014 (March 21st) - from 2:30-4:30 pm. As always, we look forward to your submissions and to a packed and exciting session!

GDC 2012: Hardware-tastic!

This year's write-up must start with a tremendous thank-you to the amazing audio/visual staff at GDC 2012. Because we had so many different types of games being demonstrated, and several were focused on alternative audio/visual mechanics, We had *several* evening sessions in the conference hall, setting up and testing the various games.    We simply could not have done it without your help.

The tireless folks over at Gamasutra wrote up a nice piece comparing us to a high fashion show (nice!!) and listing the prototypes in all their glory. My favorite photo from the event is definitely this shot of all of us on stage together - what a sight! Not sure that we can commit another insanity like the show that was our 2012 lineup - but you never know, do you?

See you in 2013!

IndieCade 2011

This year's  IndieCade Festival of Independent Games featured a special Experimental Gameplay session. Our annual GDC session typically focuses on rapid-fire demonstrations of digital games. In contrast, the IndieCade session is designed to give creators an opportunity for a more involved discussion about the processes and inspiration behind experimental work. This particular gathering brought together several experimental duos, to discuss their work and how it is influenced by the act of collaboration.

Eric Zimmerman and Nathalie Pozzi talked about their collaboration Starry Heavens, in the context of several projects they have been working on for festivals and museums. In addition, the panel discussed how  Nathalie's background in architecture both compliments and challenges Eric's sense of game design & design process.

Auriea Harvey and Michael Samyn who comprise Tale of Tales (participating in the session over Skype) introduced their in-progress work CnCnTrC.  Because this experiment explores intellectual and physical intimacy, Auriea and Michael each created half of it individually, and then combined the parts later.

Heather Kelley and Damien DiFede explored their long-standing relationship as collaborators - first   as part of the Kokoromi collective, and later on Body Heat (now OhMiBod app) project that allows users to use an iPod touch to control the OMiBod vibrator.Heather reflected upon her experiences as a travelling designer, touching on more recent museum installations, as well as her work with DareDroid.  In closing, Damien was then joined by his most recent collaborator Matt Piersall, to demonstrate Noddables - their protoype of an iPad jam-session/DJ toy (now Cosmic DJ).

Overall, the session touched on several deep and meaningful themes related to collaboration - including authorship, communication, critique and the joy of mutual discovery. We look forward to further sessions exploring how the work of experimental game designers can be discussed/demonstrated in new ways.