10am to 2pm

Workshops & Shows

Heiko Wolf | Vera Marie Rodewald | Sergej Klein

WORKSHOP AREA 1

|

Creative gaming studio

Creative Gaming Team

(he/him)

(he/him)

(she/her)

The Creative Gaming Studio showcases a variety of media educational methods and approaches around the digital gaming culture. Here you can code your own games, build creative controllers and iron your own pixel art. Our lab for creating, sharing and experimenting together.

Workshops & Shows

Djamila Niklosz

Training as a state-approved theater pedagogue

Bachelor studies in language and communication

Professional activities (among others): School theater (subjects and AGs), cultural courses at the university, theater work with people with a refugee background, circus theater groups, exchange projects with adolescent students at a German school in Turkey, theater and language camp work.

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In this workshop, participants will explore what it means to come into play. In a completely analog way. Reacting spontaneously, accepting offers, creating a scene out of nothing, bringing characters and puppets to life - we try it all and find our way into the world of improv theater. We experiment with the rules of the game by following them, breaking them and defining new ones. Our director, Djamila Niklosz, will accompany us on our expedition.

Let's play – Getting Started with Improv Theatre (VHS)

DE / EN

|

Workshops & Shows

Djamila Niklosz

Training as a state-approved theater pedagogue

Bachelor studies in language and communication

Professional activities (among others): School theater (subjects and AGs), cultural courses at the university, theater work with people with a refugee background, circus theater groups, exchange projects with adolescent students at a German school in Turkey, theater and language camp work.

In this workshop, participants will explore what it means to come into play. In a completely analog way. Reacting spontaneously, accepting offers, creating a scene out of nothing, bringing characters and puppets to life - we try it all and find our way into the world of improv theater. We experiment with the rules of the game by following them, breaking them and defining new ones. Our director, Djamila Niklosz, will accompany us on our expedition.

Let's play – Getting Started with Improv Theatre (VHS)

DE

Workshops & Shows

S4G School for Games -
Team Rock Bottom

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We want to give young people an insight into how our dream became a reality and how they can make their way into game development.

Our project and path to game development

DE / EN

Makers’ Corner

In This Session

WORKSHOP AREAS 1-3

|

DE / EN

Speakers’ Corner

The Speakers' Corner is our stage for everyone who wants to have a say in the topic of games!

Speakers talk about their ideas, projects or topics related to digital gaming culture and share them with the festival audience.

All talks will be produced on site or via Zoom and streamed live. Speakers will have 15 minutes, plus 5 minutes for questions and discussion with the audience.

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STAGE

DE / EN

Halloween Night

For the scariest night of the year, we will bring out bizarre, humorous, and amazing games again.


For ages 18+!

Rahel & Mat

Creative Gaming Team

Stage

|

(he/him)

(she/her)

DE / EN

Makers’ Corner

Miriam Wendschoff

WORKSHOP AREA 3

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How important the story is for a good game is certainly a matter of taste. While some gamers prioritize the thrill of immersing themselves into an interactive world with an engaging plot, others may not share the same view. But how can a game be developed from a story idea? And how can topics be conveyed in the form of a game, as is the case in many serious games? In this workshop, Miriam Wendschoff, dramaturge and author of Büro für Eskapismus (Office for Escapism), will present a method for integrating classical drama and film dramaturgy into game design. The workshop invites you to develop game ideas alone or in small groups.

story driven Game Design

Büro für Eskapismus is a collective based in Hannover, Germany, that has been developing interactive experiences (analog or digital) at the intersection of theater & gaming since 2019.

Dramaturg and author at the Büro für Eskapismus (she/her)

DE / EN

Makers’ Corner

WORKSHOP AREA 1

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Most people know ChatGPT as a "helpful assistant". However, in ChatGPT's playground, we can define the character and the scenario according to which ChatGPT behaves. Here you can define ChatGPT as grumpy or sad, for example. Or you can create your own character based on a famous character like Dr. John H. Watson, Sherlock Holmes' assistant, and give it a scenario. With a little skill, you can create your own potentially infinite interactive text adventure. This is exactly what we are trying and testing. In the process, we realize that ChatGPT is not always to be trusted.

We are developing our own ChatGPT text adventure games

Gamer, game developer, media educator (he/him)

Ulrich Tausend

X: @ulrich1000

X: @ComputerSAK

Mastodon: @ulrich1000@mastodon.social

Facebook: @ulrich1000

DE / EN

Makers’ Corner

WORKSHOP AREA 2

|

The fast pace of social progress in the 21st century demands that young people acquire abilities that empower them to effectively and actively engage in the digital world. In addition to technical proficiency, "21st-century skills" are crucial. Consequently, learning environments must provide students increased flexibility regarding content and structure to cultivate interdisciplinary competencies along with technical ones. Digital MINT Escape Games offer such a learning setting.

The workshop showcases a technical setting for participants to create their own games and discuss implementing them. This includes exploring the potentials and hurdles involved.

DIMEG 21ST DIGITAL MINT ESCAPE GAMES

(she/her)

They develop digital STEM escape games for the school context as part of the university cooperation project DiMEG21st. They expanded this effort by creating a free and ad-free Escape Game editor this year. This means that teachers, learners, and anyone who is interested can make their own interactive Escape Games.

Carina Tusche und Lisa Rühl 

DE

Speakers’ Corner

Forty years after its greatest crisis, the video game industry has still not emancipated itself from its exploitative origins. Is history doomed to repeat itself? The talk is based on an article in the publication "Let's Play Critical", which will be published in 2024.

Daniel Ziegener

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STAGE

Work Hard, Play Hard: What Atari has to do with sexism, crunch and microtransactions

(he/him)

Games journalist at Golem, Gamestar, Wired, Spiegel; managing editor of Superlevel.de

@sofakissen (Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, ...)

DE

Speakers’ Corner

This talk is about attention control in the media, using the examples of soap operas, reality TV, and persistent game elements in computer games. Olof Jebram examines how different forms of fear are used to generate and direct attention.

Olof Jebram

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STAGE

Play with your fear - the science of being unable to look away

(he/him)

Gamer for decades, instructor for games, community manager for games (on and offline) for years. Also experienced in game design and specialized in practical pedagogy for aesthetics.

DE

Speakers’ Corner

In this talk, Christian Freund shares his first experiences in game development and shows how a retro game can be developed within six months without any knowledge of game design, and how it can captivate players for several hours. He also shows how he composes the music for such a game.

Christian Freund

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STAGE

Retro Game Development on a 2005 Engine

Science Fiction und Gaming Musician (he/him)

DE

Speakers’ Corner

6 terms, 6 games. Learn here how to create games - from the initial concept to the final release.

Rolando Rodriguez

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STAGE

Learn how to make games

Game developer and manager of the games division at htk academy (he/him)

DE

Speakers’ Corner

Serious games have the potential to convey knowledge in an exciting way. They offer entertainment and room for personal experience despite heavy and serious subject matter. Marlene will illustrate this with a few examples.

Marlene Beilharz

|

STAGE

Serious Games

(she/her)

Has been playing games for 20 years. In her studies (Bachelor of Theater Studies/Master of Film and Media Culture Research) she focused on computer games (adventures, serious games, strategy). Marlene is committed to accessibility in digital games.

wordpress: digitalebarrierfreiheit.com
Facebook: Paula Marlene Beilharz, digitalebarrierefreiheit.com
instagram: marlenika96

DE

Speakers’ Corner

Léon Beckmann has developed a workshop that transfers the digital game "Among Us" into real life. In the course of the workshop, participants can take on the roles of traitors and crew members, solve tasks, sabotage, spin intrigues, discuss and live an immersive experience together.
In addition to fun and games, the focus is on independent discovery, trying things out, and getting active. In the Speakers' Corner, Léon will present the workshop and discuss how the transfer of digital games into real life can strengthen and promote the skills of children and young people.

Léon Beckmann

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STAGE

Among Us in Reallife Promoting competence by transferring digital games to real life

Media educator in the GMK-M team (he/him)

He can't remember a time when video games weren't a part of his life. Starting with various Pokémon or Mario games from Gameboy to DS to Switch, he now regularly plays games on his PC and smartphone. As part of his work in the GMK-M team, he now works with children and young people on games.

DE

Speakers’ Corner

Making of for the mobile game "Tainted Treasure", which is available on Google Play and iOS Appstore.

Marvin Wardius

|

STAGE

Making Of Tainted Treasure

Indie developer (he/him)

EN

Speakers’ Corner

The iOS MovBeats app makes it easy to capture sounds and turn them into music videos. It's a fun and creative way to engage with your environment and create music videos. The app won many hearts in the media education scene and was one of the most popular creative apps for many people. Unfortunately, since 2014, the app has stopped working :-(.

But the original developer Paul Savich and Uli Tausend are bringing it back! Better and easier to use.

Uli Tausend will tell you what to do with the app and what to expect from MovBeats in the future.

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STAGE

Playing with sounds and videos creating Soap Operas: We are bringing MovBeats back!
 

Gamer, game developer, media educator (he/him)

Ulrich Tausend

X: @ulrich1000

X: @ComputerSAK

Mastodon: @ulrich1000@mastodon.social

Facebook: @ulrich1000

DE

SCHOOL PROGRAM (fully booked)

This year there will be 16 workshops for classes: During their five-hour visit to the festival, students participate in two game design and creative gaming workshops, go on a scavenger hunt, and take part in a digital house visit with game designers, who provide insights into their work and practical experience. Afterwards, there will be a presentation of the results .

WORKSHOP-AREAS 1-3

|

Heiko Wolf | Vera Marie Rodewald | Sergej Klein

Creative Gaming Team

(he/him)

(she/her)

(he/him)

DE

Together with PLAY visitors, we visit artists and game studios at home and gain insights into their practice and work.
Today we are guests of author and writing coach Dennis Frey.
How do I tell a story? How do I make sure that my audience is rooting for me? That they never forget my characters?
Dennis Frey has been answering these and other questions as an author and writing coach since 2011.
Whether it's a book, a TTRPG or a computer game - we are constantly telling and experiencing new stories.

Dennis Frey

|

With: Andreas Hedrich

STAGE

Creative Gaming Team (he/him)

Home Visit & Workshop Presentation

Author and writing coach

WORKSHOP AREA 1

|

4 - 7pm

Heiko Wolf  & Rieke thom Suden

Creative Gaming Team

(he/him)

(she/her)

Workshops & Shows

Creative gaming studio

The Creative Gaming Studio showcases a variety of media educational methods and approaches around the digital gaming culture. Here you can code your own games, build creative controllers and iron your own pixel art. Our lab for creating, sharing and experimenting together.

DE / EN

Workshops & Shows

Svenja Brandt & Constantin von Brackel-Schmidt

Jugendinformationszentrum

Welcome to the Prompt-a-thon - the fusion of hackathon and generative AI. Here, participants develop a new concept for a computer game using the categories goal, game environment, story, game mechanisms, game objects and game rules. They continually use generative AI as a tool to spin compelling stories, create stunning game worlds, and generate memorable characters. The Prompt-a-thon is an opportunity to explore human-machine collaboration and the resulting possibilities in game design.

Promt-a-thon (jiz & UHH)

Hamburg University

WORKSHOP AREA 2

|

4 - 7pm

DE / EN

Workshops & Shows

BIRTE FRISCHE

Organization Jugend Hackt Hamburg

STAGE

|

From October 27th - 29th, Jugend Hackt Hamburg took place - a big hackathon for young people from 12 to 18 years. Here you can see the best results of the young hackers!

BEST OF JUGEND HACKT HAMBURG

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Creative Gaming Team

(she/her)

(he/him)

(he/him)

DE/EN

Coop soap opera Games

STAGE

|

As the last activity of the day, we play soap opera games live on stage - each day a different one, and each one wilder than the last. The audience gets to make all the decisions - sometimes together, sometimes all for themselves. Cooperative multiplayer often unfold a drama of its own ...

Rahel & Mat

Creative Gaming Team

(she/her)

(he/him)

DE

Heiko Wolf | Vera Marie Rodewald | Sergej Klein | Rieke thom Suden

Creative Gaming Team

(he/him)

(she/her)

(he/him)

(she/her)

SCHOOL PROGRAM (fully booked)

This year there will be 16 workshops for classes: During their five-hour visit to the festival, students participate in two game design and creative gaming workshops, go on a scavenger hunt, and take part in a digital house visit with game designers, who provide insights into their work and practical experience. Afterwards, there will be a presentation of the results .

WORKSHOP-AREAS 1-3

|

DE

Together with PLAY visitors, we visit artists and game studios at home and gain insights into their practice and work.

Today we are guests of game developer Jannik Boysen.

Jannik (they/them), is a developer at Tivola and currently responsible for the programming tasks of the game Cat Rescue Story, in which players take over a home to care for cats and find them a new home. As a solo developer, they create games & experiences that encourage self-expression and free play, such as the photography simulator Shutter Stroll.

Jannik Boysen

Mit: Andreas Hedrich

Creative Gaming Team (he/him)

Developer at Tivola (they/them)

|

STAGE

Home Visit & Workshop Presentation

DE/EN

Daniel Roßberg

Creative Gaming Team

(he/him)

WORKSHOP AREA 1

|

4 - 7pm

Workshops & Shows

Creative gaming studio

The Creative Gaming Studio showcases a variety of media educational methods and approaches around the digital gaming culture. Here you can code your own games, build creative controllers and iron your own pixel art. Our lab for creating, sharing and experimenting together.

DE/EN

Workshops & Shows

Svenja Brandt & Constantin von Brackel-Schmidt

Jugendinformationszentrum

Welcome to the Prompt-a-thon - the fusion of hackathon and generative AI. Here, participants develop a new concept for a computer game using the categories goal, game environment, story, game mechanisms, game objects and game rules. They continually use generative AI as a tool to spin compelling stories, create stunning game worlds, and generate memorable characters. The Prompt-a-thon is an opportunity to explore human-machine collaboration and the resulting possibilities in game design.

Promt-a-thon (jiz & UHH)

Hamburg University

WORKSHOP AREA 2

|

4 - 7pm

DE/EN

|

Creative Gaming Team

(she/her)

(he/him)

(he/him)

EN

|

DE/EN

Coop soap opera Games

STAGE

|

As the last activity of the day, we play soap opera games live on stage - each day a different one, and each one wilder than the last. The audience gets to make all the decisions - sometimes together, sometimes all for themselves. Cooperative multiplayer often unfolds a drama of its own ...

Rahel & Mat

Creative Gaming Team

(she/her)

(he/him)

DE

SCHOOL PROGRAM

This year there will be 16 workshops for classes: During their five-hour visit to the festival, students participate in two game design and creative gaming workshops, go on a scavenger hunt, and take part in a digital house visit with game designers, who provide insights into their work and practical experience. Afterwards, there will be a presentation of the results .

WORKSHOP-AREAS 1-3

|

Heiko Wolf | Vera Marie Rodewald | Sergej Klein | Rieke thom Suden

Creative Gaming Team

(he/him)

(she/her)

(he/him)

(she/her)

DE

Together with PLAY visitors, we visit artists and game studios at home and gain insights into their practice and work.

Today we are guests of CG character animator Carsten Seller.

Carsten took his first animation steps when phones still had buttons, working on the first computer-animated feature film from Germany "Back to Gaya".  His journey took him to the Hobbits on the other side of the world, for Wētā Digital he worked on Tintin, Planet of the Apes and Avengers. He has tamed dragons of the House Targaryen and helped Findus the cat chase away the fox.

 

Since 2022 he leads the in-house animation team at Fishlabs in Hamburg.

Carsten Seller

Creative Gaming Team (he/him)

|

STAGE

Home Visit & Workshop Presentation

DE/EN

|

Philipp Mallmann

Creative Gaming Team

(he/him)

Workshops & Shows

Creative gaming studio

The Creative Gaming Studio showcases a variety of media educational methods and approaches around the digital gaming culture. Here you can code your own games, build creative controllers and iron your own pixel art. Our lab for creating, sharing and experimenting together.

DE/EN

Workshops & Shows

Svenja Brandt & Constantin von Brackel-Schmidt

Jugendinformationszentrum

Welcome to the Prompt-a-thon - the fusion of hackathon and generative AI. Here, participants develop a new concept for a computer game using the categories goal, game environment, story, game mechanisms, game objects and game rules. They continually use generative AI as a tool to spin compelling stories, create stunning game worlds, and generate memorable characters. The Prompt-a-thon is an opportunity to explore human-machine collaboration and the resulting possibilities in game design.

Promt-a-thon (jiz & UHH)

Hamburg University

WORKSHOP AREA 2

|

4 - 7pm

DE/EN

|

DE/EN

Coop soap opera Games

STAGE

|

As the last activity of the day, we play soap opera games live on stage - each day a different one, and each one wilder than the last. The audience gets to make all the decisions - sometimes together, sometimes all for themselves. Cooperative multiplayer often unfolds a drama of its own ...

Rahel & Mat

Creative Gaming Team

(she/her)

(he/him)

EN

WORKSHOP AREAS 1-2

|

Makers’ Corner

In this session

Makers’ Corner

DE / EN

|

Workshops & Shows

STAGE

VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS BODYBUILDING (Fundus Theater)

CHRISTOPHER WEYMANN

Fundus Theater

DE / EN

|

Workshops & Shows

STAGE

CHRISTOPHER WEYMANN

Fundus Theater

VIDEO GAME CHARACTERS BODYBUILDING (Fundus Theater)

DE / EN

YOUNG PLAY

Organized by the junior team of the PLAY

WORKSHOP AREA 3

|

Game jam

Create a complete game in just 6 hours? Sure you can! No prior knowledge is required, but an interest in drawing, storytelling, writing, programming, or music helps. The theme will be announced on site, and teams can find each other afterwards. Several game experts will be on hand to help, such as Till Gilsbach, who will be presenting FPS exploration games with Unity.

With: Jannik Boysen & Till Gilsbach

Game developer

DE / EN

STAGE

|

House Visit

Together with PLAY visitors, we visit artists and game studios at home and gain insights into their practice and work.

Today we are guests of prop master, set designer, costume designer at Game Two Miriam Poppke.

Miriam Poppke

Creative Gaming Team (he/him)

DE

WORKSHOP AREAS 1-2

|

Makers’ Corner

In this Session

EN

STAGE

|

Speakers’ Corner

2 - 6pm

The Speakers' Corner is our stage for everyone who wants to have a say in the topic of games!

Speakers talk about their ideas, projects or topics related to digital gaming culture and share them with the festival audience.

All talks will be produced on site or via Zoom and streamed live. Speakers will have 15 minutes, plus 5 minutes for questions and discussion with the audience.

YOUNG PLAY

 STAGE

|

Game Jam Presentation

The games developed on site within 6 hours will be presented and can be played afterwards.

Organized by junior team of the PLAY

DE / EN

Moderation: OddNina & Manu

Janina Dreßler aka OddNina (she/her) plays games on the Internet and writes blogs about topics that move her and are close to her heart. In her regular streams on Twitch, the Hamburg native chats about topics that would otherwise go unspoken and make some people uncomfortable.

STAGE

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The ceremonial presentation of the Creative Gaming Awards is also the crowning event at PLAY23. The jury of experts had several days to test all the nominated games in advance and to talk to the developers. On this evening, they will announce the winner of the Most Creative Game Award.

In addition, the audience award will select their favorite game from all the works in the PLAY23 exhibition.

Manuel Fritsch aka Manu (he/him) is a freelance games journalist and podcaster and has been running the Insert Moin format for over 10 years. With a total of over 3000 episodes, it is one of the most enduring podcast projects in Germany. There he passionately deals with all games from indie to AAA, debates with guests about gaming culture and reports on current events from the industry.

EN

|

Makers’ Corner

Niall Moody

WORKSHOP AREA 1

Making it up as we go along:
Designing a board game as we play it

EN

Makers’ Corner

Öykü İnal

Let's Make Inclusive Sex and Gender Education Fun with Sibel's Journey!

|

WORKSHOP AREA 2

(for educators, teachers, pedagogues)

EN

Makers’ Corner

Diego Alatorre

Play~Design

(he/him)

 

Diego plays, studies and designs video games.

 

 

@didi3gogo

|

WORKSHOP AREA 1

EN

Makers’ Corner

Mini-games for Major Effects

|

WORKSHOP AREA 2

Öykü İnal

DE

Makers’ Corner

Building worlds out of paper - We'll create our own island paradise

|

WORKSHOP AREA 1

Olof Jebram

(he/him)

Gamer for decades, instructor for games, community manager for games (on and offline) for years. Also experienced in game design and specialized in practical pedagogy for aesthetics.

DE

Makers’ Corner

Kian Ben Claußnitzer

This workshop will show analog techniques for visualizing ideas. The focus will be on characters and creatures in the horror genre. Thumbnailing and sketching are the main part of the participants' activities. Finally, the results will be reviewed and methods will be shown for further use of what has been created digitally.

Analog Creature & Character Concepting

Bachelor's degree in Game Art & 3D Animation.

Department assistant at SAE Hamburg since 2022.

(he/him)

|

WORKSHOP AREA 2

DE

Makers’ Corner

Advanced training: Creative Gaming - Playing with games

Vera Marie Rodewald & Andreas Hedrich

Creative Gaming Team

|

WORKSHOP AREA 2

Play with games! This training is about the methodological approaches of Creative Gaming. It provides insights into tools and projects in educational contexts. Practical exercises and an insight into the PLAY23 program round off the afternoon.

(he/him)

(she/her)

(fully booked)

EN

|

Speakers’ Corner

Games and gamified applications have been used to address pro-environmental behavior and its determinants. In this context, games can provide safe environments to interact with environmental issues and experience possible solutions. For instance, games were found to convey risk perception and situation awareness. However, some potentials of game-based approaches yet remain unclear or unused. Here, I will discuss what role games can play in pro-environmental behavior with a focus on game design and evaluation.

Marco Rüth

STAGE

What role can games play in pro-environmental behavior?

Researcher in media psychology (he/him)

 

https://linktr.ee/marcorueth

EN

Speakers’ Corner

Nomic is an unusual game created by the philosopher Peter Suber in the 80's, where - unlike most games - the rules are not fixed, but can instead be modified by the game's players. Since its initial publication Nomic has been so influential that it has given birth to a genre: Nomic games.

This is a talk about Nomic games and what happens when players are empowered to change the rules of the game. It is also about Bernie De Koven's concept of the Well-Played Game, why we play games together, and what we want to get out of them. These two topics heavily inform my game making it up as we go along, submitted to the Makers' Corner.

Nomic games and playing well

Niall Moody

|

STAGE

(he/him)

Niall Moody is an artist and game developer who has been making games for over 15 years. He also teaches game audio at Abertay University in Scotland.

Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@NiallM

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NiallEM

Website: https://www.niallmoody.com/

EN

Speakers’ Corner

What makes some video games Gothic and what does Gothic mean? We look at different games and see what they offer us, beyond scary ghosts and haunted castles.

Christina Kutscher

Beyond the scary: Gothic games

(she/her)

 

@chrissikills

|

STAGE

EN

Speakers’ Corner

Shifting the focus of education from knowledge transfer to creative exploration: this talk invites the audience to imagine a new educational praxis of creativity, where students and professors share common endeavors into unknown territories, where everybody learns what they need, al their own pace.

Playful didactics

Diego Alatorre

(he/him)

 

Diego plays, studies and designs video games.

 

 

@didi3gogo

|

STAGE

DE

Speakers’ Corner

Conceptual derivation of visual storytelling and environmental storytelling from a game art perspective. An insight into how scene composition can contribute to the overall story of an environment and the approach game artists use to tell micro-stories within textures.

The audience will get an insight into the design decisions regarding visual storytelling and scene composition in computer and video game development.

Visual Storytelling und Scene Composition (DE!)

Neele Luckmann

|

STAGE

4 - 4:30pm

(she/her)

 

Freelancer in 2D and 3D. Since 2018 Head of Department for Game Art & 3D Animation at SAE Institute Campus Hamburg.

EN

Speakers’ Corner

Various artists from this year's exhibition will be giving mini-talks about their ideas, inspirations, and experiences with their work.

ARTISTS OF THE PLAY EXHIBITION: MINI TALKS

Mit dabei:

|

STAGE

tba

EN

Speakers’ Corner

Prowestling as WWE, AEW or many national wrestling organizations all around the world are showing is no mere sport. Most prowrestling has all a good soap opera has: longrunning storylines, passionate relationships, teamups and betrayals, villains and heroes. Wrestling itself is often only the vehicle to deliver a storybeat, a vehicle that is achieved by cooperation between the wrestlers, not by actual competitive fighting.

Even so, WWEs video games, the most successful games from the most successful wrestling federation, are fighting games with no feeling for the drama it's realworld source relies on. There's no soap opera in WWE 2K23 or any of its predecessors. And it's time to look at the reasons why, and how implementing soap drama would make those games better experiences.

(Explicit content: wrestling footage (fake violence) and wrestling game footage (WWE 2K23, USK16))

Why Prowestling is a Soap – and how WWE's own games fail to celebrate that (USK16)

Pascal Wagner

|

STAGE

DE

Speakers’ Corner

In addition to playing games themselves, many people enjoy watching others play. Just as influencers now face competition from artificially intelligent virtual influencers, we may soon have AI agents playing games - even avatars that are aware of themselves and the situation of being in a game (or creating the illusion of being in a game)?

From Let's Play to Let's PlAI?

Stefan Köhler

(he/him)

Talks and writes about (WASD, entry on "modding" in the Gameskultur handbook, etc.) and for games (currently story and texts for the fantasy turn-based strategy game "Shields of Loyalty" (Steam Early Access))

|

STAGE

DE / EN

|

Heiko Wolf & Vera Marie Rodewald

Creative Gaming Team

(he/him)

(she/her)

The Creative Gaming Studio showcases a variety of media educational methods and approaches around the digital gaming culture. Here you can code your own games, build creative controllers and iron your own pixel art. Our lab for creating, sharing and experimenting together.

DE / EN

Together we will explore how creative, interactive installations can be built using simple tools. Create your own work of art that encourages others to participate and learn the basics of interactive art in the process!

|

DE / EN

In this course, we will experiment with loopers, effects units and various instruments and learn to use them in the context of music and improvisation. In 1920, the instrument called Theremin was developed by the Russian Lew Termen. Using effects and loopers, we will turn the theremin into a synthesizer without a keyboard. We will also experiment with pitch, delay, and distortion devices to elicit new and unusual timbres from the theremin, our own voices, and other instruments.

|

DE / EN

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Manu has been working with and reporting on video games for years. Time to put that knowledge to the test ... and the audience's. In mini-contests, the audience can try to guess popular games faster than Manu, using only chat and screenshots.

Manuel Fritsch aka Manu (he/him) is a freelance games journalist and podcaster and has been running the Insert Moin format for over 10 years. With a total of over 3000 episodes, it is one of the most enduring podcast projects in Germany. There he passionately deals with all games from indie to AAA, debates with guests about gaming culture and reports on current events from the industry.

DE

In this talk about games journalism, Johannes Hedrich from the Young PLAY team talks with Manuel Fritsch (Insert Moin) and Tim Heinke (Rocket Beans) about the question of whether games journalism is still needed at all.

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Manuel Fritsch aka Manu (he/him) is a freelance games journalist and podcaster and has been running the Insert Moin format for over 10 years. With a total of over 3000 episodes, it is one of the most enduring podcast projects in Germany. There he passionately deals with all games from indie to AAA, debates with guests about gaming culture and reports on current events from the industry.

Tim Heinke is editor-in-chief at the Hamburg-based production company "Rocket Beans Entertainment". He is primarily responsible for the "Game Two" format, which is broadcast weekly on linear TV on ZDFneo, in the ZDF Mediathek, and on YouTube. Video game journalism on TV has always been his goal. After his studies and a short stopover in online journalism, he found his way to Hamburg and started as an intern at the predecessor format "Game One" back then. Over 10 years later, he now holds the reins himself and can already look back on over 300 episodes of "Game Two.

DE / EN

During the PLAY Festival, visitors had the chance to try their hand at Minecraft and build buildings for the youth project "Zukunftsstadt" (City of the Future). In this show, the team takes us into their city and, together with the audience, chooses the best building created at PLAY.

YOUNG PLAY

Organized by the junior team of the PLAY

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DE / EN

Based on the idea of the "Night of the Retold Game" by Gamestorm Berlin, the goal of this competition is to retell a story from a game within 10 minutes. It doesn't matter which one: The summary of an epic 50-hour campaign, Tetris, or just a single incident - it's your story!

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Creative Gaming Team

(she/her)

(he/him)

(he/him)

DE / EN

Coop soap opera Games

We play soap opera games live on stage one more time. The audience gets to make all the decisions - sometimes together, sometimes all for themselves. Cooperative multiplayer often unfolds a drama of its own ...

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Rahel & Mat

Creative Gaming Team

(she/her)

(he/him)

DE / EN

CREATIVE GAMING TEAM

Das ganze Festivalteam ist dabei!

Finissage

As a final event, we will look back on the festival week together: We'll take a look at the workshop results, share anecdotes from everyday festival life and our personal highlights from PLAY23.

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DE / EN

This year our exhibition is divided into four areas.

 

Core Exhibition „Soap Opera“

Curated special exhibition about this years main topic.

 

Hamburg Exhibition

Games by Artists from Hamburg.

 

Young PLAY Exhibition

Selected games by our Young PLAY curators.

 

Creative Gaming Award Exhibition

Play games and playful media works, which allow players to be creative.

EXHIBITION

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Ausstellungen / Exhibitions

DE / EN

Watch movies created inside of videogames.

MACHINIMA-CINEMA

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Machinima-CInema

DE / EN

Our browser-based festival location for up to 1000 visitors. Meet up with friends all over the world to play games, watch the streams, peek to Hamburg and meet the artists.

 

Click here to go directly to

ONLINE

Playvalley

PLAY23 - Creative Gaming Festival EN

By Matthias Löwe

PLAY23 - Creative Gaming Festival EN

Program of PLAY23 Festival

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