London Games Festival Fringe looks beyond the mainstream to new audiences and new content
Posted by: Aaron Lockard on August 25, 2006 8:04:52 AM (86 Reads)

The first ever London Games Festival will include a fringe exploring aspects of interactive entertainment as culture, creative form and a market that often falls outside the recognised games industry.

The first ever London Games Festival will include a fringe exploring aspects of interactive entertainment as culture, creative form and a market that often falls outside the recognised games industry. The fringe is designed to recognise that many computer games and most digital play falls beyond the scope of the mainstream games industry.

The Fringe will reflect a spectrum of activity: independent game development and distribution, participatory community play, the future of game design, artists' games, live action role-play, augmented reality games, interactive storytelling and more. The Fringe will involve performance, exhibitions, master classes and seminars, participatory workshops and, of course, opportunities to play.

The London Games Festival and Fringe is supported by the London Development Agency's Creative London, TIGA, ELSPA, Bafta, 01zero-one and a range of developers, publishers, retailers, media and education institutions.

Wendy Wyatt of Creative London said: "Games development is one of London's leading creative sectors, and Creative London has been instrumental in helping to establish the new London Games Festival. With a fantastic talent base, a big investment community and a wealth of gamers, London has all the ingredients necessary to make this industry showcase one of the UK's most vibrant and unique events."

Bringing together a mix of consumer led and trade focused events, the LGF seeks to bring gaming to the forefront of the public eye.

Fringe highlights include:

Sense of Play
A one-day game design symposium co-sponsored by University College for the Creative Arts, Farnham, seeking to promote lively debate on the nature of computer game design and what it means to different people "both inside and outside the industry.

Viewing game as a discipline and craft, Sense of Play will explore debates from and academic and industry context, drawing participants from developers, publishers, HEI's, industry bodies, funding agencies and research councils.

Jump Start
JumpStart is a one day game concept design workshop. The workshop is aimed at those seeking to develop original content for games and who are excited by the potential of the medium and what they can bring to it. The intensive, expressive, team-based approach will nourish existing practice, and may even suggest the pursuit of game design as a new career path.

PlayTime!
A one day series of presentations, performances, web & mobile interactions and walk-in workshops , “Playtime' will focus on the role of games and play in all of our lives.

Hosted by digital writer Tim Wright (internationally recognized expert in interactive storytelling), the aim of the day will not only be to introduce the general public to the many different types of play that can occur away from the console, but also to demonstrate how emerging web and mobile technologies are changing opportunities for serious and not-so-serious play.

PlayTime! is an important first step for the Festival Fringe in raising awareness of the rise in digitally mediated play that falls beyond the scope of the recognised games industry.

Artful Gaming Forum / Artful Gaming Exhibition
The Artful Gaming Forum (5th October, Science Museum's Dana Centre) and the Artful Gaming Exhibition (2nd - Friday, 6th October Science Museum's Dana Centre), will see a joint venture by the Cybersalon team, bringing together a one-day forum, series of “hands-on' workshops and extended exhibitions, that spotlight innovation and platforms new work, new developments and new thinking in gaming culture.

These events will make the case that art games are to the game industry what short films are to the film industry; that you don't have to work in the industry to experiment with game design/development; and that gaming is a medium for any use, not only 'entertainment'.

Game/Play
Game/Play is a national touring exhibition that explores goal-orientated gaming and playful interaction through media arts practice. This collaboration between Q-Arts, Derby and HTTP, London has provided a framework to develop a context for creative exchange between visitors to the exhibition focusing on the rhetorical constructs game and play.

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