It’s still a long time to November and PLAY17. If you are in Hamburg and interested in Games and Manga, you should definitely visit our friends of Magnology 2017 in June. We will be there as well.

Bei der TINCON am 19. Mai 2017 in Hamburg, dem Festival für digitale Jugendkultur, ist die Initiative Creative Gaming mit PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival prominent vertreten. Die Ausstellung mit interaktiver Gameskunst auf Kampnagel ist von den PLAY-Macher*innen kuratiert. Dazu gibt es Workshops unter anderem zum Produzieren eigener Let’s Play Videos.

Mit der Einbindung von PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival in das Programm der TINCON haben die Veranstalter um Jonny und Tanja Häusler erkannt, welcher Wert in der Verbindung von Medienkunst und Medienpädagogik. Die Kooperation mit der TINCON bietet einen großartigen Einblick auf das PLAY Festival 2017, das vom 1.-5 November 2017 in Hamburg stattfindet.

Wir freuen uns, Hamburger Schüler*innen  die Möglichkeit zu geben, selbst mit Games aktiv und kreativ zu werden. Die Auswahl der digitalen Spiele von Autoren*innen aus der ganzen Welt, die wir bei der TINCON zeigen, macht deutlich, dass mit Games die Grenzen von Installationen, klassischen Künsten und interaktiven Erfahrungen verschwimmen. Wir denken, den Jugendlichen die die TINCON besuchen einen guten Vorgeschmack auf PLAY17 – Creative Gaming Festival zu geben. Ausstellungen und Workshops sind auch beim Festival vom 1.-5.11. die zentralen Veranstaltungen.

Alle Infos hier:
www.tincon.org/tincon-hamburg-das-event/

File downloads can be found here.

Hamburg, October 9th, 2017: The 10th edition of the PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival is rapidly approaching. PLAY17 will be held in one month, from November 1st to 5th. Those who can hardly wait may obtain a ticket now. Effective immediately tickets can be purchased at the official ticket shop: http://shop.playfestival.de. There is a reduced price for school children and students; entrance is free for those under age 14.

There are many reasons to visit the Creative Gaming Festival. From Wednesday to Saturday, over 120 program events await attendees. In addition, the Games Exhibition in the Barlach Halle K is open through to Festival-Sunday.

Visitors can create their own individually tailored Festival plans by selecting from a broad, diverse variety of events: exhibitions, workshops, presentations, and staged evening events. Numerous discussion groups made up of games designers, innovators and cultural experts focus on the various aspects of this year’s theme “The Time is Now!”.

Thus in the context of its 10th anniversary celebration, the Festival features a broad cultural program during afternoon and evening sessions. Among many other events the legendary “PLAY Poetry Slam” will be held. On Friday evening enthusiastic Slammers from all over Germany will recite, philosophize, bluster and – when nothing else works – shout, rant and rave. By contrast, in the “Escape the Room” participants themselves are characters in an Adventure Game become reality where the players must cooperate in a team in order to solve tricky and in part ethical riddles. Again, this year the gaming milieu is excitedly anticipating the conferring of the Creative Gaming Award. Six nominees have been selected from over 150 submissions (See attachment.). “The nominated games clearly illustrate in many different ways and on several levels the creative and artistic potential of computer games.” So Valentina Birke, Director of the Awards and the PLAY-Exhibitions. The Creative Gaming Award will be conferred for the third successive year. All of the nominated games will be on display both for examination and for playing at PLAY17.

The presentation by the feminist, media critic and video blogger, Anita Sarkeesian is among this year’s program highlights. Some of the other stars of the Festival are: Sofia Kats and Gunnar Krupp of Rocket Beans TV, the “Games-Maker” Matthias Kempke from the development studio Daedalic Entertainment, and Linda Kruse from the Good Evil. In addition, performance artists Yves Regenass and Robin Hädike from machina eX will be on hand. The entire program of events can now be found at: http://programm.playfestival.de.

Matthias Kempke, game designer at Daedalic Entertainment is really looking forward to PLAY17: “I find it unbelievably exciting that the entire city is involved in PLAY and that artists, pedagogues, games creators, critics, theorists, teachers, students, and above all young people together can simply transform the city into a playable site.”

Ticket Overview
Day Ticket: 10,00 Euro (reduced: 6,00 Euro)
Festival Pass: 25,00 Euro (reduced: 15,00 Euro)
Supporter-Ticket: 40,00 Euro

Festival Venues (http://www.playfestival.de/de/category/venues/)
Markthalle Hamburg (Festival Headquarters, Workshops, Exhibitions, Opening Festivities, PLAY Birthday Celebration, Award Show, Evening Events)
Klosterwall 11, 20095 Hamburg

Barlach Halle K (Exhibitions)
Klosterwall 12, 20095 Hamburg

Bücherhalle Hamburg / Hoeb4U (School Workshops, Open Workshops, Escape the Room)
Hühnerposten 1, 20097 Hamburg

Download Press Information 2 (PDF)

Hamburg, August 03, 2017. “The Time is Now!” Under this motto the Initiative Creative Gaming e.V. in cooperation with the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung and JIZ – Jugendinformationszentrum Hamburg is staging PLAY17 from November 1st to 5th in Hamburg: Five days to look back into the past and forward into the future of Gaming – and incidentally to reflect on its own 10-year anniversary.

Since its inception the PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival has had as its mission bringing the areas of media art, discourse and education together with the digital gaming culture and producing a balanced, informative, creative and entertaining framework for the attendees. Above all PLAY17 invites participants to invent, build, tinker, modify, program, dance and discuss. We anticipate over 8,000 visitors from educational and cultural institutions and the Games sector in Germany and Europe to visit the three established Games venues in the heart of Hamburg.

“The creative debate on computer and video games in the social, political, cultural and educational establishment is more relevant than ever”, so Andreas Hedrich of the PLAY17 Festival management team. “Now is the right time for a festival like PLAY that, far removed from economic considerations, focuses on all facets of gaming.”

This year PLAY17 will offer its public more than 120 program events from over 100 visiting specialists and speakers – and of course, many, many games. Visitors will be able to experiment and test out new and especially creative computer and video games on the spot. In talks and impulse presentations, the key questions concerned with the interaction of Time and Games will be explored: How has gaming culture and its role in society changed over time? How are actual contemporary historical events represented in digital games? How do time and time mechanisms influence game design and story telling? The Festival program and evening events will be announced on http://www.playfestival.de bit by bit over the next weeks up to the start of the Festival. Tickets for PLAY17 will also be available in the coming weeks on the official website.

“The Creative Gaming Festival takes the importance of the medium seriously and requires of the attendees creative treatment and critical discussion of digital games.” So the statement of Thomas Krüger, president of the Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, once again this year a cooperation partner and supporter of PLAY17.

Download Press Information 1 (PDF)

Hamburg, August 15, 2017. From the 1st to the 5th of November in Hamburg PLAY17 takes a look at the past and future of gaming. Under the motto “The Time is Now!” the Creative Gaming Festival examines the many facets of computer and video games. The scope and the motto of the many-sided program focuses on the examination of the relationship between time and games – from development time to speedrun.

During the gamescom, representatives of the PLAY Team will give an impulse presentation on the “Campus Stage” (Hall 10.2) on August 24th at 12:15 pm which will provide a detailed preview of what PLAY17 will offer. It is an opportunity for journalists and visitors to learn more about the Festival and to establish contact with its organizers.

In over 120 program events the PLAY17 Festival promises games enthusiasts new perspectives and an intensive encounter with their hobby. Naturally numerous specially selected games occupy a prominent place; within the context of an interactive exhibition, visitors will be able to try out exclusively premiered new games. Stars from gaming formats on YouTube or podcasts, Sofia Kats und Gunnar Krupp from Rocket Beans TV for example, explain their favorite games live. In Escape Rooms visitors can experience the transfer of virtual game ideas into the real world. The Creative Gaming Award will be chosen from hundreds of submissions of the best and most creative game ideas in Europe. And in the “LABOURGAMES” project young gamers will, during a game jam, be able to develop their own games.

The program and evening events will be announced on http://www.playfestival.de bit by bit over the next several weeks up to the start of the Festival. Tickets for PLAY17 will be available on the official website starting in September.

Current information on PLAY17 can be found on
Facebook under https://www.facebook.com/play.festival.germany and
Twitter under https://twitter.com/playfest_hh.

If you are interested in a background session on the PLAY17 – Creative Gaming Festival during gamescom in Cologne please contact Tina Ziegler at: tina.ziegler@creative-gaming.eu.

Download Press Information 1b (PDF)