Talk & Play is a free event, taking place every two months, that provides the opportunity to game enthusiasts, players and makers to meet and exchange knowledge in a friendly, relaxed and safe environment. 

Everybody’s welcome, regardless of their background and knowledge level: if you like games, we’ll make sure you have a good time! Important: this is NOT an event only aimed at developers.

Important: RSVP via meetup.com is mandatory to attend the talks, due to limited seating capacity. Registrations will open on Wednesday, January 27th at 2pm CET (Berlin time). Please note that registration won’t be required to attend the event from 9pm for the game showcase part. 

HOW IT WORKS

The event is structured in two parts:

— TALK: A couple of short game-related presentations, followed by a Q&A session.

— PLAY: All participants are welcome to bring games they’ve made or are still working on so that the audience can play them – a perfect opportunity to discover and play new games, collect feedback and, who knows?, maybe find collaborators for future projects.

THE TALKS

This time we’re trying a new format: short talks only, 5 minutes each!

Making Fabulous Beasts: a videogame with bits that fall over by George Buckenham

Over from London, George will talk about the design process behind Fabulous Beasts, a digital physical hybrid game about making a world of fabulous creatures by stacking game pieces in a precarious tower.
—
George Buckenham is a game designer and curator who has made games with custard, electronics, pianos and computers. @v21 // v21.io // playfabulousbeasts.com

The Future of Cardboard by Chris Ward

How digital games are influencing board games and vice versa. Chris will discuss the numerous ways that board games are joining the digital era.
—
Chris Ward: Developer Relations, Technical Writing and Editing, (Board) Game Design, Education, Explanation and always more to come. @ChrisChinch // http://gregariousmammal.com

Social fiction games by Christiane Hütter

How to play(test) complex future societies?
—
Christiane Hütter/Frau Hue is berlin based artist and designs games worldwide with Invisible Playground or the Society for Cultural Optimism. She is breeding an egg. @aergernistin // futurewithplay.de // invisibleplayground.com // culturaloptimism.org

How to talk without talking by Maximilian Kiese

This short talk is about how and why to give information to the player, by using the game elements themselves instead of classical UI or language.
—
Maximilian Kiese is learning how to make things – most of all games – that’s why he is currently a student of Game Design at the University of Applied Science in Berlin. @MxKiese

Wolf in game’s clothing: a manifest by Sebastián Uribe

Videogame developers are not always aware of the different messages that their videogames – like other forms of media – carry, and may end up repeating a mainstream discourse with which they not agree.
—
Sebastián Uribe is an independent videogame developer who cares about content and context in videogames. @suribe // wolfingamesclothing.wordpress.com

Games for science. Entangled between work and play. by Sonia Fizek

In this talk I will make an attempt to unpack the recent fascinating and contradicting phenomenon of online citizen science games, which combine the world of frivolous play with that of serious work.
—
Dr. Sonia Fizek is a games scholar, a digital wanderer and an aspiring game designer. @SFonic // leuphana.academia.edu/SoniaFizek 

The schizophrenic mind of a one-man team by Stephan Hövelbrinks

Lessons learned and not learned while juggling programming/art/design/writing/marketing.
—
Stephan Hövelbrinks is an independent game developer working on post-apocalyptic roleplaying game Death Trash. @talecrafter // deathtrash.com

THE GAMES

This is the list of confirmed games that will be shown during the second part of the evening:

— 3030 Deathwar Redux by Bird in Sky & Crunchy Leaf Games
— A truth about sex by Team Hatchlings
— Card Thief by Tinytouchtales
— Catcher by Tobias Wehrum
— Daiichi Dash by KKM Interactive Entertainment UG
— Death Trash by Stephan Hövelbrinks
— DYO by Team DYO
— Fabulous Beasts by Sensible Object
— Gibbl by Alexej Grohe
— King of Kalimpong by piinecone
— Magical Renaissance by Luca Beisel
— Mixup by Mixdown
— Morning Rush by Team Morning Rush
— Of Carrots And Blood + Darwing by Trite Games
— One Show Only by Tristan Dahl
— OP90 by Daniel Schüler, Andrey Thomas
— Perlinoid by Jumpsuit Entertainment
— Satan Summoning Simulator by ggj-rats
— Starfallen by What Games
— Super Walljump by Dinesh
— Tama by Team Tama
— Twisted Lines by Megagon Industries

Game showcase registrations are now closed. If your game is not on the list above you’re still welcome to bring it, but we can’t guarantee there will be space to show it – please check with a member of the team from 9pm.

AGENDA

— 19:00 Doors: come early to get one of the best seats

— 19:30 Talks

— 21:00 Game showcase & networking: play games and chat with their creators, or just hang around and meet new people

— 23:00 The end aka “Gone Home”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Our Safe Space Policy encourages the behaviour at Talk & Play. We request that everyone who is affiliated with and participates to the event honours it.

Check out the recap of the previous event if you want to get a better idea of what Talk & Play is like.

The event is free to attend.

FINAL NOTES

Do you have any questions? Would you like to give a talk in the future? Then get in touch!

Talk & Play is organised by BerlinGameScene.com with the promotional and technical support of the monthly Berlin Mini Game Jam and A MAZE.