What is PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival?

The Creative Gaming Festival is about hands-on experience, experimenting, exchanging information, enjoying games, inspiration and above all a sense of community. PLAY is the platform for everyone who works with, develops and loves games.
The program consists of over 120 events; some program highlights are: workshops, exhibitions, international guest speakers, unique action art events and the international Creative Gaming Award. The 10th edition of PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival runs from November 1st through 5th. It transforms Hamburg into an experimental space for digital games.

And what is so special about the Festival?

PLAY is important because it makes clear that digital games have nothing to do with fat dumb players; rather they are a defining culture. Games tell stories, provide impulses and stimulate creative processes. They influence other cultural forms such as contemporary theater or the visual arts; and they provide opportunities for active participation.
Games are not aliens. They have grown out of our culture. They satisfy a basic human need to play, to try things out and to slip into other roles. And the Creative Gaming Festival offers a program through which you can understand what is meant by the digital games culture. Here you can get your hands around it and try it out.

PLAY is in its 10th year. Why has the Festival survived so long and grown from year to year?

PLAY is significant each year because it focuses on the changes that occur from year to year. Only someone who tinkers with systems and thinks beyond their boundaries can effect changes. This is only possible through a worldwide, unique, multidimensional approach. In order to continue to be innovative and “game changing”, each year the Festival takes up a significant, socially relevant new theme.
 
 
Christiane Schwinge – Artistic Direction

PLAY17’s motto is “The Time is Now”, what does time have to do with digital games?

There are many different connections. One is time critical games where the player must complete a set of tasks within a fixed time span, that is playing against time. Another is games in which the player can turn back time and thereby influence the game plot. An important theme in this context is, of course, the future of games: What will games look like in 10 years? What interfaces will be used and how will virtual and augmented reality games evolve? How, in the future will a player merge with the game? In addition, many other questions come to mind concerning the roles played by death, historical representations or archeological exploration in games. Also, the program will take up themes such as time management in games development as well as in game playing sessions.

And how does the program reflect this theme?

Again, this year the Festival theme is a common thread running through all Festival formats. So, for example, there will be game design workshops for school children that will closely examine the time variable or explore phenomena such as speedruns and walkthroughs. Impulse sessions about time in story telling are part of the program as are roundtable discussions during which prominent guests exchange different ideas and perspectives on the “Time is Now” theme. In the exhibition attendees will be able to view installations that employ unusual access methods to time in games. Finally, our Festival theme is reflected in our 10-year anniversary celebration. For example, we will show the results of PLAY Labs from previous years and there will be a gala with the best PLAY formats from earlier festivals.
 
 
Vera Marie Rodewald – Artistic Direction

What highlights can visitors to this year’s PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival expect; what type of visitors can you anticipate?

This year we will devote time to that which is past, that which is to come and that which is current. This is evident in the program. At the PLAY Birthday Gala on Thursday evening we will look back on the 10-year media-pedagogical work we have done with games and will commune with our Initiative Creative Gaming travelling companions. Attendees can directly explore how digital games can be used creatively at numerous hands-on exhibits in the Zentralbibliothek (Central Library) and the Markthalle. The third edition of our poetry slam with games poetry occurs on Friday evening; over three days at LABOURGAMES, 50 school children will develop new games ideas and on Saturday evening, the Creative Gaming Award will be given to the most innovative next generation games and concepts.
PLAY is a festival for doers, players, visionaries and for innovative thinkers. But, PLAY is also a place for all those who are curious and who still ask, what is so fascinating about games. Teachers can become acquainted with games as a new technique to be used in the learning process. Young people can discover how to become programmers themselves. Students can come to the realization that games are not just a science unto itself. And finally, PLAY addresses people who love culture.
This year we are expecting around 8,000 visitors. Based on the distribution of the previous year, that breaks down to approximately 1,500 school children, 600 teachers, 1,200 students and 1,500 game professionals.

The Festival takes place in venues that are established Hamburg cultural centers. What significance does that have for the Festival?
PLAY is at home where culture becomes visible. From November 1st to 5th in the Markthalle, the Barlach Halle K and the Central Library visitors will be able to try out, discuss and develop games. This year the Creative Gaming Festival will be held at these three venues in the vicinity of the Hamburg Main Station. As always, we have selected different, unusual and surprising locations; places where games are not usually found.

You are always talking about education; but, games are really about having fun. How do these two ideas fit together?

Games are above all an experimental space. As a player, you can slip into other roles, penetrate other worlds and move beyond the boundaries of reality. You can view things from a different side by changing your perspective and you can structure the experience space yourself. This is an important driver of the educational process. The motto of Creative Gaming is “Gaming with Games”; this means to experience how you can change, manipulate, create and further develop digital games. The role of digital games is taken into account especially in the fields of education, science, society and culture.

How is PLAY17 structured?

The Festival opens with a large vernissage on Wednesday evening, November 2nd, in the Markthalle and the Barlach Halle K. A variety of workshops for, among others, school classes, students and teachers are conducted on Thursday, November 2nd, and Friday, November 3rd. On Saturday, November 4th, workshops for advanced practitioners and experts will be held. Sunday, November 5th is Family Day. For the entire Festival attendees can visit the exhibition space in the Barlach Halle K. In addition, there are plays and happenings, roundtable discussions and an entertaining evening program; for example, the PLAY Poetry Slam that we are bringing back to the stage in celebration of the Festival’s 10th anniversary.

Download Interviews (PDF)

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, October 25th, 2017. PLAY17, Hamburg’s Creative Gaming Festival, announces an additional high-calibre program event: media critic Anita Sarkeesian, who created an international sensation with her organization Feminist Frequency, will give a presentation on November 3rd, within the context of the Festival motto “The Time is Now”, about the role of women in video games over the course of time. The presentation will be delivered from 10:30 to 11:30 in the Markthalle. In addition, Anita Sarkeesian will take part in a question and answer session with Rocket Beans TV Moderator Gunnar Krupp within the framework of an “Artist Talk” on the evening of November 3rd from 17:00 to 18:00. Both sessions will be conducted in English. PLAY17 itself takes place from November 1st to November 5th in Hamburg. For all relevant information on the Festival, visit the official website www.PLAYfestival.de. Tickets for PLAY17 are still available at our online ticket shop.

„Over the past 10 years, the PLAY Festival has continued to focus on a wide variety of computer and video game perspectives and issues” explains Andreas Hedrich, member of the PLAY17 leadership team. “In the last few years, Anita Sarkeesian has initiated long overdue discussions precisely on the role of women’s images in games. She tells it like it is and raises critical questions about the status quo. In doing so, she is a perfect fit for PLAY’s goal of providing a platform for discussion and debate on games and their significance in modern society.”

Anita Sarkeesian is an award-winning media critic and is the creator and executive director of Feminist Frequency, a non-profit organization that examines the representation of women in pop culture narratives. Her work focuses on the deconstruction of stereotypes and clichés as they are evidenced in popular culture as well as the question of targeted harassment of women in online and gaming spaces.

She was a consultant at the United Nations and guest speaker at numerous fan, media and technology conferences, among which were XOXO, The Media Evolution Conference, Women in the World and GeekGirlCon. Sarkeesian has been interviewed by and has appeared in publications such as Wired, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and the Colbert Report. In 2014 she received the Game Developers Choice Ambassador Award and in 2015 was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people. In 20016 Sarkeesian was awarded an honorary PhD from the New School in New York City.

Download Press Information 3 (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)

Arne Busse from the German Federal Center for Political Education explained: “Creative Gaming makes it possible, in our current situation, to experience our society as configurable, playable and negotiable. The essence of the PLAY Festival is exactly that; to show and exhibit these capabilities. In doing this the 10th edition of the festival was bright and radiant.”

Among the highlights of this year’s Creative Gaming Festival was the presentation by Anita Sarkeesian the internationally acclaimed media critic of Feminist Frequency on the changing images of women’s roles in video games over time. The presentation was followed by a lively debate with the audience. The indie games exhibits provided an overview of fascinating design developments worldwide. In numerous workshops teachers acquired supplementary education, games designers passed on their knowledge and experience and in morning sessions school children designed their own games. Fine entertainment was provided in various formats every evening by PLAY on Stage, the Poetry Slam for example; the Birthday Gala offered a fast-moving retrospective with guests from PLAY’s 10-year history.

The presentation of the European Creative Gaming Award brought the Festival to a motivational conclusion. The three-person jury: Daniel Zils, media pedagogue, and games designers Linda Kruse (the Good Evil) and Matthias Kempke (Daedalic Entertainment) presented the “Most Innovative Newcomer Award” to the Danish developers Pesky Bees for the innovative VR-Coop-Game “Tell Me What You See”. The prize for the “Most Creative Game” also went to Denmark: “Keyboard Sports” from Triband with its creative keyboard-control was the most persuasive candidate. On the other hand, the Attendees Prize stayed in Hamburg; it was awarded by the PLAY17 visitors to indie developer Henning Steinbock for “Close the Leaks”. In this game four players together must guide a spaceship to a common goal by regulating the pressure in the spaceship through a self-developed control consisting of vacuum cleaner tubes.

Download Press Information 3 (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)