Sometimes there is just too much to share on twitter, google+, fb, tumblr and other outlets.
I decided to share a little bit of the most interesting stumble upons on the website. Might do that more often in the future.
Here it goes:
::Finnish Games Industry::
Neogames has published a report on the Finnish Games Industry for 2010-2011. The industry has grown in the last couple of years and today has about 70 companies. As in The Netherlands, many startups work on games for iOS or other mobile platforms.
The full report can be downloaded from the Neogames website.
Interested in a report about the Dutch Games Industry? Deloitte and the Dutch Games Association (DGA) did a market study (pdf) in April 2011.
::IndieCade 2011::
IndieCade 2011 took place last week in Culver City. It’s a fun-spirited stand-alone independent focussed game event with many playable indie games, big games and great panels. I wasn’t able to attend, so followed most of it via twitter and blogposts by others.
IndieGames.com has some great round-up posts:
[list type=star]
- “TakeAway”: Indie game developers, among them good friend Doug Wilson (Copenhagen Game Collective), talk about what their takeaways from the festival were:
http://indiegames.com/2011/10/indiecade_2011_the_takeaway.html - “What brings you here?”: Indie developers talk about what brought them to IndieCade 2011:
http://indiegames.com/2011/10/indiecade_2011_what_brings_you.html
[/list]Jeriaska has a wonderful photoset on flickr with amazing IndieCade 2011 pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeriaska/sets/72157627712311295/
Three of my favourite games got awards:
Fez won two awards: One for Story/World Design and the other for Best in Show.
Johann Sebastian Joust also won two awards: One for Best Technology and the second one for Impact on Community.
Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP won one award for Best Visuals.
These IndieCade trophies are rad by the way. How about a view-master statue?
All thirty six IndieCade 2011 finalists can be found here. Among them are nine games from Europe:
[list type=star]
- At a Distance by Terry Cavanagh (Ireland)
- Hohokum by HoneySlug and Richard Hogg (UK)
- Johann Sebastian Joust by Doug Wilson (Denmark)
- Loop Raccord by Nicolai Troshinsky (Spain)
- Ordnungswissenschaft by Till Wittwer, Marek Plichta, Jacob Penca (Germany)
- Papa Sangre by Somethin’ Else (UK)
- StarDrone by Beatshapers / Tastyplay (Ukraine)
- The Dream Machine by Cockroach Inc. (Sweden)
- The Swapper by Facepalm Games (Finland) [/list]
*Featured blogpost image by Jeriaska
:: Art & Games vs Museums::
Last Thursday I went to an evening about games and art in “Het Stedelijk Museum” called “do it!- load it!“. For a write up about the event itself please go read this excellent and nuanced post (in Dutch) by Arjen de Jong at Bashers.nl.
The evening featured a panel discussion about ‘how games could be positioned in a museum context’. The event also revolved around ‘the presentation of three video games developed by visual artists in collaboration with game designers’.
To me, the evening raised a lot of questions about curators and the Dutch museums as a context for games. I’m glad I got to speak to Isabelle Arvers afterwards, she has curated some wonderful game related exhibitions in Paris. She also shared her slides with me as she wasn’t able to show this during the panel discussion itself. But please go check it out as there is some great stuff in there. Can definitely see some shared opportunities.
The “Stedelijk Museum” was also the site for the release party of the first album by AuxPulse, a collaboration between DS-10 Dominatör (Rutger Muller) and my old colleague Sinqloque (Michael Vultoo). They use portable game devices (NDS) to make their tunes. The two met at Indigo, the Dutch Indie Games showcase that I organized in 2010, when Rutger was playing his set and Michael joined him spontaneously whipping out his own DS. Very exciting to see the release of an album a year later!
Other articles about Do it! Load it! (Dutch):
[list type=star]
- Bashers: http://bashers.nl/de-echte-kunst-ervaar-je-als-je-zelf-speelt (NRC Next Level Article by Niels t Hooft)
- Virtueel Platform: http://virtueelplatform.nl/kennis/loadit-en-de-relatie-tussen-games-en-musea (by Klaas Kuitenbrouwer)
- Het Stedelijk Museum Journal: Interview with Bart Rutten, curator of ‘do it! – load it!’ (English)
- Kunstbeeld: photo report
- Trendbeheer: photo report
- Virtueel Platform photos
- Mediafonds news
[/list]
