Seine Eindrücke hält er in einer siebenteiligen Reportage fest, die nach und nach bei den Kollegen von Superlevel erscheint. Die Reihe ist schon beim fünften Teil angelangt.

Als Hintergrundinfo erklärt Sebastian den Game Design-Wettbewerb Ludum Dare wie folgt:

»Alle TeilnehmerInnen entwickeln dabei ein Spiel zu einem gemeinsam ausgewählten Thema; dieses Jahr: Tiny World. Dabei stehen die EntwicklerInnen unter Zeitdruck. Im Jam-Modus bekommen Teams 72 Stunden Zeit, im Competition-Modus muss das Spiel von einer Einzelperson in 48 Stunden entwickelt werden. Dieses Jahr sind insgesamt 1.402 Spiele entstanden.«

Ludum Dare #23 – Reportage von Sebastian Standke: Teil 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7

Einen Eindruck von Ludum Dare#22 hibt es hier.

Stephan Schwingeler

Hier ein kleiner Pressespiegel, der immer mal wieder aktualisiert wird:

De:Bug Games – A MAZE. Indie Games Award auf den Deutschen Games Tagen in Berlin

ZDF Hyperland – Indie-Games: Das Spiel mit der Kunst

Golem – Indie Connect 2012: Unfertiges Spiel gewinnt Most Amazing Game Award

The Indie Game Magazine – Indie Game – ‘Proteus’ Wins The Most Amazing Game Award At Indie Connect

fm4.ORF.at – A MAZE. Indie Connect 2012

Superlevel –  A MAZE.: Cactus Keynote

Superlevel – Re: A MAZE. Indie Connect

»Wir gruseln uns gern. Während uns frühere Spiele mit kleinen Räumen und starren Kameras nahegingen, fällt ihnen das heute allerdings nicht mehr so leicht. Schön, wie die Klischees in Film und Spiel pointiert werden und uns aufklärerisch ermuntern, …aber auch nur solange der Regisseur nicht doch noch einen gemeinen Twist hervorzaubert! Was war das da hinter der Hecke? Ein Grafikfehler? Glitchhorror!«

Sa. 28.April 2012
Einlass: 20.30
Start: 21:00 (Geschlossen ab 21:30)
Kreutziger Str.18
Berlin – Friedrichshain

Partner:
Filmclub K18

Als Bonus gibt es noch einen kleinen Hintergrundartikel zu Invaders 1000. Mosaik in Paris.

Stephan Schwingeler

Für die Next Level Conference 2012 suchen wir Kulturschaffende, Künstler, Game Designer, Macher, kreative Köpfe, Wissenschaftler, Journalisten und Teilnehmer, die das Festival und die Konferenz aktiv mitgestalten möchten.

Wir suchen Vorschläge für Vorträge, Workshops, Seminarangebote und Projekte, mit denen die Next Level Conference 2012 bereichert werden soll.

/ Uns interessiert die Ästhetik der Games in Bild und Ton. Was ist das Besondere daran, wie die Spiele aussehen, klingen und sich bewegen? Was für Möglichkeiten des kreativen und künstlerischen Ausdrucks eröffnen die Spielwelten – von Machinima über Game Art und Game Musik bis zur Demo?

/ Was kann man von Games lernen und was sollte man über sie wissen? Wie kann man Games als Instrumente einsetzen, um Lernen zu beflügeln? Wie können unterschiedliche Bildungsangebote für Kinder, Jugendliche und Erwachsene aussehen?

/ Wir wollen zeigen, welche Ausbildungsmöglichkeiten die Gamesindustrie anbietet. Wie kommt man da rein und was sollte man mitbringen?

/ Wir möchten vermitteln, wie die Games entstehen. Welche einzelnen Schritte und kreativen Prozesse sind wichtig, damit aus der Idee eine Spielwelt wird?

///

Interesse, Lust, Zeit? Wer sich aktiv an der nächsten Next Level Conference beteiligen möchte, sendet bitte schnell eine E-Mail an info@nrw-kultur.de

Ein Interview mit dem Kopf des Studios Amanita Design – Jakub Dvorsky – gibt es hier.

Stephan Schwingeler

»Vor mittlerweile sieben Jahren hat das Retro-Computerspiel-Geschäft Subotron im Museumsquartier seine Pforten eröffnet. Aus dem winzigen Shop soll nun ein großes Museum werden. ‘Es gibt bereits konkrete Pläne‘, verrät Subotron-Organisator Jogi Neufeld im Gespräch mit DiePresse.com. Schon von Beginn an war Subotron mehr als nur ein Shop. Entstanden ist das ungewöhnliche Lokal aus Neufelds Privatsammlung, einem bunten Arsenal aus seltenen Exponaten der Konsolengeschichte, Tricotronic-Geräten und alten Spielen.«

Einen Eindruck von Jogi und Subotron gibt der erste Teil der eingebetteten Doku.

Stephan Schwingeler

Neben dem Preisgeld wartet eine Trophäe, eine Einladung nach Marseille zu den EIGD – European Indie Game Days und die Möglichkeit, das Spiel auf Little Indie zu distribuieren.

76 Spiele aus 22 Ländern wurden eingereicht, 21 Spiele kamen aus Deutschland.
Die folgenden zehn Games sind in der Endauswahl:

ASDFPLANE
Arcade

Each player has a keyboard, and the keyboard is mapped to the screen. To fly, hit letters that point towards your intended direction. If you get shot you have a chance to survive by typing REPAIR. To get a highscore you have to keep your plane on screen while shooting down other players.
http://messhof.com

BEATBUDDY
Music Action-Adventure

Beatbuddy is the first music action-adventure. Being in control of the music creature Beatbuddy you work your way through a song and bring back the music. Since all the multi tracks of each song are translated in interactive game mechanics you’re able to experience music in
a different way.
http://www.threaks.com/?page_id=30

BOTANICULA
Adventure

Botanicula is point’n'click exploration game created by Amanita Design and Czech band DVA. It’s about a bunch of five friends – little tree creatures who set out for a journey to save the last seed from their home tree which is infested by evil parasites.
http://botanicula.net

CHASING AURORA
Aerial action game

Chasing Aurora is an explorative 2D aerial action game about the dream of flight. Drop from the cliff and ride the wind from peak to peak. Fight for the beacon of light with up to three friends in the hostile environment of the Alps.

http://www.chasing-aurora.com/

FLIGHT OF THE FIREFLIES
Atmospheric / experimental

Flight of the Fireflies is an experimental video game where you guide a swarm of musical fireflies on an atmospheric journey through places and emotions. Unlike most video games, the focus is not on the challenge – but on the experience.
http://www.flightofthefireflies.com

IBB & OBB
Cooperative Puzzle Platformer

ibb and obb is a cooperative game for two. Work together in this non-newtonian world. In the bottom half of the world gravity is reversed, enabling ibb and obb to walk on both sides of the horizon. Find your way surfing on gravity, soulhopping enemies and collecting diamonds.
http://www.ibbandobb.com

LOOP RACCORD
Puzzle / Experimental

Loop Raccord is a video editing game about synchronizing a chain of video clips in order to create an illusion of continuous movement between them.
http://www.troshinsky.com/loopraccordeng.html

PROTEUS
Exploration/Music

Proteus is a game about the joy of immersion and self-directed exploration, set on a surreal procedurally-generated island. Ruins and strange creatures draw the player into the four seasons of the world and everything around you adds a voice to the dynamically-mixed soundtrack to your wanderings.
http://www.visitproteus.com

TINY & BIG: UP THAT MOUNTAIN
Jump and slice

You are Tiny, a technophile guy with a ray cutter, a gripping device and a fine attitude towards the world. But now your nemesis Big stole the only heritage your grandpa left you: A nice pair of fine rib underpants! And he‘s surely up to no good, why else would he take them up that haunted mountain…
http://www.tinyandbig.com

WHERE IS MY HEART?
Puzzle/platform

Where is my Heart? is loosely based on Bernhard Schulenburg’s experience of a sunday hike, which he went on with his mom and his dad. They got lost in a forest and confronted with this problem they came to face each other’s negative personality traits.
http://gutefabrik.com/wimh.html

Weitere Informationen zu den Spielen gibt es hier: amaze-festival.de/indie-connect-2012/nominees

Die internationale Jury wird sich nun intensiv beraten, um nach den Kriterien »best in innovation«, »best in subversion«, »best in progression« und »best in culture impact« auszuwählen.

Die Jury ist:

Zuraida Buter (NL) – Global Game Jam Co-Director - www.globalgamejam.org

Thierry Platon (FR) – Game Designer - www.bip-media.fr

Marek Plichta (DE) – Game Designer - www.spacesofplay.com

Chris Adkins (USA) – Games Journalist - www.indiegamemag.com

After interviews with Pippin Barr, Jakub Dvorsky, Jonatan Söderström aka Cactus, Nils Deneken (Die Gute Fabrik), Jeroen D. Stout and Erik Svedäng today we present you the seventh interview in a series by art critic Mathias Jansson. Mathias regularly contributes to the blog by interviewing the finest Indie Game developers from all over the world.

Be sure to have a look at Mathias’ past series of interviews he published at gamescenes edited by Matteo Bittanti: »Game Art Worlds: The Early Years« and »Game Art Worlds: Contemporary Practitioners«.

Interview with Martin Pichlmair from Broken Rules

Mathias: You started as a new media artist but then shifted focus from the art- to the videogame scene. Why?

Martin: One of the reasons why I wanted to shift to games is that I realized that those media art pieces I had created, that I was most happy with were games in the first place. So there’s not that much change in terms of content. What I lost is the critical attitude. The biggest difference is the audience. In media art you get 10 to maybe 300 specialists to see your piece. In games you have hundreds of thousands of »normal people«.

Mathias: In your artist’s days you created together with Fares Kayali the Bagatelle Concrete (2006-2007) a pinball machine turned into a musical instrument. What was the concept behind this piece?

Martin: Bagatelle Concrete was a childhood dream come true. I wanted to create a pinball machine since I was maybe 5 or 6 years old. Instead of creating a new machine I bastardized an existing one in the best tradition of appropriation art. The idea was to deconstruct pinball until only the basic interactivity of play remains. That’s why we removed the scoreboard. Adding music was an attempt at intensifying this kernel of play. It worked very well.

In the end, I don’t mind in which medium I work. But while we’ve shown Bagatelle Concrete at a number of exhibitions, each of my released games has had more players than this art piece. It feels more relevant to bring some fresh air to the huge space of games than to cater to the delicate taste of art connoisseurs.

Mathias: So what is your opinion about games as art today?

Martin: Games are notoriously bad as »high art«, just like comics, rap, photography, video art and street art. All these had to fight very hard to establish themselves as forms of art. The same is true for games. I’m not sure if becoming pieces of art is a worthy goal for games in the first place. Most people don’t care about art.

Mathias: You are working for Broken Rules an independent game studio based in Vienna. What is the main concept for games created by Broken Rules?

Martin: Our main strengths as a studio are attention to detail, a very democratic process and a certain disregard for conventions (hence the name). Most art pieces do not break many rules. Most games don’t do so either. Personally I do not think that art is more than a label. It’s an agreement and nothing else. The only thing that matters is if you touch your audience. So our main mission is to make games that offer meaningful interaction.

Mathias: One of Broken Rules recent games is And Yet It Moves. Can you tell me about the concept and what is it that makes it stand out from other games in this genre?

When And Yet It Moves was first shown in public, in 2007, the genre of the puzzle platformer did not exist yet. Today, the game does not stand out as much as it did back then. The main feature of And Yet It Moves is that it breaks – or subverts – one rule of a very classic genre. It’s a platformer where you have control over the direction of gravity. This tiny gameplay change resulted in a new experience of an old genre.

Mathias: Finally can you tell me some about the ongoing game Chasing Aurora. What can the player expect this time from Broken Rules?

Our idea for Chasing Aurora is that we want to allow the player to experience the dream of flight. We’re working hard to structure a game around this core experience. There will be multiplayer and singleplayer game modes and each will offer playful flight in a never experienced scenario. The game plays in the Alps at an unspecified time. We’re aiming at something very magical – in an atavistic sense, not in the sense of colorful particle systems. You can expect a very unique game.

Broken Rules: http://www.brokenrul.es

Chasing Aurora: http://www.chasing-aurora.com/

And Yet It Moves: http://andyetitmoves.net/

Mathias Jansson

Interview series with the finest Indie Game Designers by Mathias Jansson on the Next Level Blog:

Part 1: Interview with Pippin Barr – »The Artist Is Present«

Part 2: Interview with Jakub Dvorsky – Creator of Samorost and Machinarium

Part 3: Interview with Indie Game Designer Cactus

Part 4: Interview with Nils Deneken from Die Gute Fabrik

Part 5: Dinner Date: Interview with Jeroen D. Stout from Stout Games

Part 6: Shot Shot Shoot: Interview with Erik Svedäng

Stephan Schwingeler