Ludicidal Tendencies

The Come Out & Play Festival is going to Amsterdam -- unfortunately, it's going at the same time as the Tokyo Game Show and DiGRA, so I can't go. But for those of you interested in Big Games, they are looking for submissions -- see below.

More from Greg Trefry:
The festival offers a chance to explore new styles of games and play. Last year the festival featured games from the creators of I Love Bees, PacManhattan, The Go Game, Conqwest, Big Urban Game and more. From massive multi-player scavenger hunts to public play performances, the festival gives players and the public the chance to take part in a variety of different games. We are extremely excited to announce that Come Out & Play will be landing in Amsterdam, Netherlands this September for a two day festival. In collaboration with the PICNIC'07 cross media week, Come Out & Play will be running a two-day mini-festival in Amsterdam this September.

From last year's festival:

The Come Out & Play Festival 2007 will take place September 22-23, 2007 in Amsterdam. Games will occur throughout the day in locations around the city. The full festival schedule will be made available in August.

For more information visit:
www.comeoutandplay.org

SUBMIT TO THE FESTIVAL

Have you got a game? We want to include as many different types of games as possible in the festival schedule.

We are looking specifically for games with defined goals and interesting, meaningful choices for the players. These games should be interactive and directly engage the participants. Your game can have a technology component or it can be old school with absolutely no tech; to us, it's much more important that the game produce an interesting experience for the players. We will be reviewing submissions focusing on these criteria when we select games for the schedule:

Most importantly, your game must be playable in Amsterdam during the festival.

Your submission will be reviewed by a panel of street game "experts" brought together to assemble the lineup for this most sacred event. Okay, we are actually a bunch of yahoos. But we have run a few games and we really like playing in fun ones. So make sure your game sounds fun and interesting. We like innovative use of public space. We like games which make people interact in new ways. We like games that alter your perception of your surroundings. But most importantly, we just want the players to have fun.

APPLICATION :: To apply, visit www.comeoutandplay.org and download the application form.
Download directly at: http://www.comeoutandplay.org/submissions/COAP07AmsterdamSubmission.doc

SUBMISSION DEADLINE :: July 15, 2007

NOTIFICATION :: We will notify you by e-mail if your game has been accepted into the festival schedule by July 31, 2007..

We look forward to reading your proposal.

SCHEDULE

- Submission deadline: July 15
- Notifications: July 31
- Festival: September 22-23

INQUIRIES?

Email us at info@comeoutandplay.org

PLAY or VOLUNTEER

Don't have a game, but still want to play or be involved? Visit comeoutandplay.org to sign up for alerts about the festival.

URL

http://www.comeoutandplay.org
http://www.picnicnetwork.org/

WHAT ABOUT NEW YORK?!

The Come Out & Play Festival will return to New York City in the Spring of 2008 for more city-sized fun.

Posted by at 5:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Georgia Tech's Emergent Game Group (http://egg.lcc.gatech.edu) headed up by Celia Pearce, in collaboration with the Design Studio for Social Intervention (http://www.ds4si.org) will present ActionQuest: ATL, an activist Big Game being produced in conjunction with the US Social Forum, taking place in Atlanta June 27-July 1. Built on the premise that "Play is a renewable resource," ActionQuest: ATL takes players around Atlanta for a hands-on experience of what it might be like to realize the USSF's vision that "Another world is possible." Players discover and uncover past successes in local activism, and perform activist actions to help make the world a better place in both the present and the future. In the process, they will be delighted and rewarded by this encounter with "serious fun" that dynamically fuses real-world activism with socially engaging cooperative play.

ActionQuest: ATL runs daily from noon to 8PM, June 28-July 1, 2007. Players can register online at http://www.actionquest.us or in-person at one of two base camps at the Little Five Points Community Center (1083 Austin Ave. N.E. 30307) or Renaissance Park (Piedmont & Pine). Details can be found at http://www.actionquest.us and http://www.gatech.edu/news-room/release.php?id=1407 . For more information or to volunteer as a Game Master, send e-mail to info@actionquest.us .

Posted by at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here is a great opportunity for anyone interested in publishing a casual game. Play First is holding an open contest called "Developer Dash" and is offering $100,000 in development money to an undetermined number of student developers. Here is more info and a link to their SDK:

About Developer Dash:
The Developer Dash program puts $100,000 up for grabs to developers at all skills levels throughout the world. We have allocated $10,000 especially for student developer submissions. PlayFirst at its sole discretion, may choose one, two, ten or even hundreds of games to qualify for a Developer Dash award. The more we like a prototype, the more money we may award. We’re looking for developers who are eager to break genres, change expectations, and re-write the rules in casual games.

There is absolutely no requirement to publish or distribute your game with PlayFirst to qualify for Developer Dash funds (though of course we’d love to talk to entrants). Prototype submissions will be at PlayFirst’s sole discretion and will be considered for award if your prototype meets the following criteria:

- Built in Playground SDK.
- Commercially viable casual game (i.e. no offensive themes, gratuitous violence, sex or orcs).
- Submitted to PlayFirst before December 31, 2007.

This is a fantastic opportunity for young student developers to demonstrate their talent and transfer their education into real world recognition. Additional information on Playground SDK and Developer Dash can be found at https://developer.playfirst.com/home.

Posted by at 4:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)