PLAY14 – Creative Video Gaming Festival –

announcing the upcoming program:

Keynote presentations by well known international guests during our conference, training on implementing digital games in school lessons, insights into Hamburg’s game companies. PLAY14 – Germany’s largest games festival!

Hamburg, June 24, 2014. Initiated by the Initiative Creative Gaming e.V. (www.creative-gaming.eu) PLAY14 – the Creative Video Gaming Festival will demonstrate the influence digital games currently have on education, art and science.

PLAY14 has four components: See, Do, Talk and Party. These four components appear in more than 200 events such as interactive exhibitions, workshops, presentations, talks and cultural events – all of them focusing on video games in Hamburg.

We are pleased to announce our program highlights, giving you even more reasons to look forward to the upcoming PLAY14 events. This year a PLAY-Conference has been added to the festival program – a symposium focused on discussions about educational, social and political topics related to video games. The well-known participants in the discussions on educational and social influences of digital games are: Game designer and educator Katie Salen (New York), Professor of Media Education Andrew Burn (London) and MinecraftEdu-Founder Santeri Koivisto (Finland).

As Andreas Hedrich, spokesman of the Initiative Creative Gaming e.V., has said: “Already during the planning phase our idea of expanding the festival by adding the PLAY-Conference has met broad approval. This year we expanded this idea even more by inviting experts associated with the various topic areas. As a result we can offer an exceptional, exciting and informative program to both – Hamburg and our audience.”

PLAY14 addresses pupils, students, parents, teachers, artists, people in the game industry and those interested in gaming culture. But most of all we want to invite all citizens of Hamburg and people of all ages to discover and try out the great potential that is to be found in video games.

PLAY14 will show what happens, when we stop obeying the rules of digital games and accept them as an important part of our culture. During the five-day festival you will also be given an insight into different fields of work within the games industry. This year „Music and Sound in Video Games“ has center stage.

We will present an exhibition in cooperation with the „Reeperbahnfestival“ – a music festival taking place at the same time as PLAY14. Various workshops will also focus on experience in using music and sound. Beyond that other forms of creativity that are inherent in video games will be discussed.

You will find further information on our official website www.play14.de.

Program:

#SEE

PLAY14 provides a large exhibition of innovative, creative and experimental game ideas. A special focus is on media artists creating art using different digital techniques. We will exhibit paintings related to video game culture as well as the final projects of Game Studies students. A large part of the exhibition is interactive and many pieces can be tried out.

In cinemas you will be able to see machinimas in various styles and genres from all over the world as well as from Hamburg.

If you don’t want to limit yourself to our showrooms, we recommend that you go on a ‚gaming‘ city tour around Hamburg where video game companies (such as Bigpoint) and educational institutions in Hamburg will give you a glimpse behind the scenes of video game creation.

#DO

PLAY14 do-it-yourself: Invent new games and program them, shoot machinima movies inside video games, make digital games come alive in the real world by playing street games, learn what positive effects games can have in school lessons or find the right soundtrack for a game. All age groups and classes and varied interest groups are invited to visit our workshops. Choose what best suits you: all-day workshops or short courses to dabble in various fields such as game design, sound design, graphics or engines.

Those who already are familiar with games can build their favorite in-game items as large size replicas during our crafting workshops or beam themselves right into their favorite game using blue-screen compositing.

Also training tailored to fit the needs of educators will be provided: The use and integration of video games in educational contexts will be discussed and illustrated with examples.

#TALK
PLAY14 will make you want to talk. Short Input Sessions and talks will be both thought-provoking and inspiring. Scientists, experts and educators will interrupt the workshops and throw light on various fields of work and topics related to the video gaming culture.

#PARTY
Party hard with PLAY14: Bands, poetry slammers and actors are here – on stage and on the dance floor to entertain you. On Saturday the best of PLAY14 will be presented and afterwards celebrated with some good music.

#PLAY-Conference

The PLAY-Conference provides a platform for talks, speeches and workshops

It will focus on the educational perspectives of video games and their implementation in lessons as well as in extracurricular contexts in different countries. Also we will discuss the political aspects of video games.

Speakers from the USA, Great Britain, Finland and Germany will outline their country’s educational situation and discuss approaches to the implementation of video games in educational processes. We invite the audience to take an active part in the discussion.

#FAMILY DAY
On Saturday parents can discover video games together with their children. Admission is free. Our goal is to help parents and to foster the exchange of ideas. This is why we, together with the Computerspielschule Greifswald (Video Gaming School Greifswald), are offering special events which fit the needs of families.

Background Information

PLAY14 is an event created by jaf – Verein für medienpädagogische Praxis Hamburg e.V (Association for Media Education in Hamburg) in association with spielbar.de (Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), website focusing on gaming) and JIZ – Jugendinformationszentrum Hamburg der Behörde für Schule und Berufsbildung (Youth Information Center in Hamburg initiated by Ministry of Schools and Professional Training), coordinated by Initiative Creative Gaming e.V.

Since 2007 Initiative Creative Gaming e.V. has organized training, workshops and an annual festival to highlight the media educational, artistic aspects and the creative use of video games. Our association is supporting an alternative and artistic way to handle video games, thereby paving the way for an inventive and critical debate about video gaming by pupils, parents and teachers. At the same time events conducted by the initiative provide insight into jobs in the game industry.

Further Information

Should you have any questions or need photos/footage, please contact Tina Ziegler
Tel.: +49174-4440454 oder +4938821-889888
Mail: tina.ziegler@creative-gaming.eu
Web: www.play14.de

pr 3 PLAY14 Digital in Hamburg

Oh, how things have changed. Happily, games no longer sit at the margins of academic research, have moved into a starring role in the debates surrounding the future of learning, and contribute daily to innovations in the business, entertainment, creative arts, education, and technology sectors. And what better places to see, reflect upon, and debate these innovations than at a conference like Play 14? The conference is perfectly poised to fuel games’ transformative trend. So get in the game. It’s easy—all you have to do is engage.“

Katie Salen Tekinba is the founding Executive Director of Institute of Play, Professor of Games and Digital Media at DePaul University, and once co-designed a karaoke ice cream truck driven by a squirrel.

PLAY14 – Creative Video Gaming Festival –

Keynote presentations by well known international guests during our conference, training on implementing digital games in school lessons, insights into Hamburg’s game companies. PLAY14 – Germany’s largest games festival!

Hamburg, June 24, 2014. Initiated by the Initiative Creative Gaming e.V. (www.creative-gaming.eu) PLAY14 – the Creative Video Gaming Festival will demonstrate the influence digital games currently have on education, art and science.
PLAY14 has four components: See, Do, Talk and Party. These four components appear in more than 200 events such as interactive exhibitions, workshops, presentations, talks and cultural events – all of them focusing on video games in Hamburg.

We are pleased to announce our program highlights, giving you even more reasons to look forward to the upcoming PLAY14 events. This year a PLAY-Conference has been added to the festival program – a symposium focused on discussions about educational, social and political topics related to video games. The well-known participants in the discussions on educational and social influences of digital games are: Game designer and educator Katie Salen (New York), Professor of Media Education Andrew Burn (London) and MinecraftEdu-Founder Santeri Koivisto (Finland).

As Andreas Hedrich, spokesman of the Initiative Creative Gaming e.V., has said: “Already during the planning phase our idea of expanding the festival by adding the PLAY-Conference has met broad approval. This year we expanded this idea even more by inviting experts associated with the various topic areas. As a result we can offer an exceptional, exciting and informative program to both – Hamburg and our audience.”

PLAY14 addresses pupils, students, parents, teachers, artists, people in the game industry and those interested in gaming culture. But most of all we want to invite all citizens of Hamburg and people of all ages to discover and try out the great potential that is to be found in video games.
PLAY14 will show what happens, when we stop obeying the rules of digital games and accept them as an important part of our culture. During the five-day festival you will also be given an insight into different fields of work within the games industry. This year „Music and Sound in Video Games“ has center stage.

We will present an exhibition in cooperation with the „Reeperbahnfestival“ – a music festival taking place at the same time as PLAY14. Various workshops will also focus on experience in using music and sound. Beyond that other forms of creativity that are inherent in video games will be discussed.

Program:

#SEE
PLAY14 provides a large exhibition of innovative, creative and experimental game ideas. A special focus is on media artists creating art using different digital techniques. We will exhibit paintings related to video game culture as well as the final projects of Game Studies students. A large part of the exhibition is interactive and many pieces can be tried out.

In cinemas you will be able to see machinimas in various styles and genres from all over the world as well as from Hamburg.

If you don’t want to limit yourself to our showrooms, we recommend that you go on a ‚gaming‘ city tour around Hamburg where video game companies (such as Bigpoint) and educational institutions in Hamburg will give you a glimpse behind the scenes of video game creation.

#DO
PLAY14 do-it-yourself: Invent new games and program them, shoot machinima movies inside video games, make digital games come alive in the real world by playing street games, learn what positive effects games can have in school lessons or find the right soundtrack for a game. All age groups and classes and varied interest groups are invited to visit our workshops. Choose what best suits you: all-day workshops or short courses to dabble in various fields such as game design, sound design, graphics or engines.
Those who already are familiar with games can build their favorite in-game items as large size replicas during our crafting workshops or beam themselves right into their favorite game using blue-screen compositing.

Also training tailored to fit the needs of educators will be provided: The use and integration of video games in educational contexts will be discussed and illustrated with examples.

#TALK
PLAY14 will make you want to talk. Short Input Sessions and talks will be both thought-provoking and inspiring. Scientists, experts and educators will interrupt the workshops and throw light on various fields of work and topics related to the video gaming culture.

#PARTY
Party hard with PLAY14: Bands, poetry slammers and actors are here – on stage and on the dance floor to entertain you. On Saturday the best of PLAY14 will be presented and afterwards celebrated with some good music.

#PLAY-Conference
The PLAY-Conference provides a platform for talks, speeches and workshops
It will focus on the educational perspectives of video games and their implementation in lessons as well as in extracurricular contexts in different countries. Also we will discuss the political aspects of video games.

Speakers from the USA, Great Britain, Finland and Germany will outline their country’s educational situation and discuss approaches to the implementation of video games in educational processes. We invite the audience to take an active part in the discussion.

#FAMILY DAY
On Saturday parents can discover video games together with their children. Admission is free. Our goal is to help parents and to foster the exchange of ideas. This is why we, together with the Computerspielschule Greifswald (Video Gaming School Greifswald), are offering special events which fit the needs of families.

Background Information

PLAY14 is an event created by jaf – Verein für medienpädagogische Praxis Hamburg e.V (Association for Media Education in Hamburg) in association with spielbar.de (Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), website focusing on gaming) and JIZ – Jugendinformationszentrum Hamburg der Behörde für Schule und Berufsbildung (Youth Information Center in Hamburg initiated by Ministry of Schools and Professional Training), coordinated by Initiative Creative Gaming e.V.

Since 2007 Initiative Creative Gaming e.V. has organized training, workshops and an annual festival to highlight the media educational, artistic aspects and the creative use of video games. Our association is supporting an alternative and artistic way to handle video games, thereby paving the way for an inventive and critical debate about video gaming by pupils, parents and teachers. At the same time events conducted by the initiative provide insight into jobs in the game industry.

Further Information
Should you have any questions or need photos/footage, please contact Tina Ziegler
Tel.: +49174-4440454 oder +4938821-889888
Mail: tina.ziegler@creative-gaming.eu
Web: www.play14.de

pr2 play14 upcoming program

Doing, seeing, talking, celebrating –and all that with computer games? For the initiators of PLAY14, these are no contradictions but rather expressions of gaming culture. At the festival, guests can see what digital games have to offer these days: From 16th to 20th of September 2014, Hamburg city center will turn into a playground for “Creative Gaming”.

Hamburg. Computer games are a waste of time and make you fat, stupid and lonely? The Festival PLAY14 opens up a new perspective on the digital gaming world and demonstrates that computer games play an important role in education, art and the economy these days. In four and a half days, experts will show how much creative diversity and motivational incentive are to be found in computer games. Poetry and gaming? Go surprisingly well together, as this year’s Poetry Slam will show, where wordsmiths shine as Games-Flow-artists. Are computer games suitable vehicles for artistic expression? That’s exactly what a new interactive exhibition during the festival is about: On show is unique “gaming”-art that invites the viewer to participate and experiment.

The sound of digital games in the heart of the city
The festival is located where digital games arrived a long time ago: in the heart of society. Hence, the festival too will take place in the middle of the city: On stages and squares in the city center, in theatres and museums, clubs and cinemas and many other places in central Hamburg. A huge spectrum of cultural activities to do with digital games will be on offer. A main thematic focus in many workshops and also the exhibition will be “music and sound in digital games”. Here, for example Gameboys will be turned into musical instruments, and visitors will gain insight into sound designs for computer games.

International play-conference
For the first time, the extensive range of workshops, exhibitions and presentations will be accom­panied by a conference. International experts from education institutions and the games­in­dus­try as well as politicians will be exchanging ideas in discussions and workshops. The PLAY-conference will be dedicating itself to the culture of digital games and discuss sociopolitical and educational aspects of computer gaming.

Computer games in school and family
The PLAY14 has a lot to offer for school classes and teachers. Countless workshops on computer games provide a pleasant change to everyday school life and demonstrate how schools too can work with computer games. With one-day workshops on popular games such as “Minecraft” or “Let’s Plays”, the media educators easily capture the students’ attention with subjects they are already familiar with from their leisure time. Together with the pupils, they then proceed to push the limits of the possibilities offered by digital games. Teachers can already register for workshops, trainings, lectures and performances in schools on “creative gaming” – or simply find out more.

Festival-Saturday will offer many activities for families. Here, parents can try out their children’s game worlds and kids can test their gaming skills in real world play areas. In addition, there will be many information events and hands-on-activities.

Background:
PLAY14 is geared towards pupils, teachers, students, researchers, people from the games industry and those interested in culture and arts. First and foremost however, people from Hamburg of all ages and interests are invited to find out about the many possibilities computer games offer – and to try them out!

PLAY14 is a joint project of many partners in the city of Hamburg. It is organized by jaf – Verein für medienpädagogische Praxis Hamburg e.V. in cooperation with spielbar.de, platform of the Bundes­zentrale für politische Bildung/bpb on computer games and the JIZ –Jugendinformations­zentrum Hamburg der Behörde für Schule und Berufsbildung, coordinated by the Initiative Creative Gaming e.V.

Since 2007, the Initiative Creative Gaming e.V. organizes training, workshops and a yearly nationwide festival on the artistic and educational aspects of creative computer gaming. The Initiative promotes an alternative and artistic approach to computer gaming and therefore opens pupils, parents and teachers new perspectives and strategies for a productive and critical reflection of the medium. At the same time, through its events, the Initiative offers fascinating insights into careers in the games industry.

Further Information
For further information or photo requests, please contact Tina Ziegler
Tel.: 0174.4440454 or 038821.889888 tina.ziegler@creative-gaming.eu / www.play14.de