Each game development community is unique. With the barrier to entry so low now, you can make games by yourself or in a number of interesting collaborative environments dispersed around the world. Each ecosystem of development has it’s own way of engaging the community and overcoming the challenges of getting your audience to play.
This talk is about my 4 year exploration of the Korean game scene. Traditionally, games made in Korea have only found success in Korea. I will delve into the challenges in the east and why Korean indies are rapidly becoming more relevant. The Korean game scene is in desperate need to develop a much stronger global perspective. Raising awareness of the way others make games requires the west to join in on the conversation. Fostering other environments is what creates a healthy ecosystem of games. Together we can come up with universal solutions through teamwork, collaboration, and the construction of a strong community of developers that spans throughout the globe.
Since founding Hide&Seek in 2006, I’ve been thinking about the value of independent public spaces for play. After creating festivals, playtesting events, installations and apps, I’m now thinking about new models for permanent social spaces that act as hubs for play communities, support independent creators, and enable a form of public engagement with contemporary game aesthetics. They’re arcades, kind of - but imagined from the perspective of contemporary technology, culture and business models. In this talk I plan to sketch out what the modern arcade might look like, what it might contain, and what people might do there, and speculate with wild optimism on a future network of arcades that helps address the challenges we face as makers, bridging the gap between our work and a wider community.
I think it’s incredibly important to have spaces were people can turn up and co-exist in the same room and play together, regardless of their background or preferences. I’ve spent my life making work in cultural spaces like arts centres and galleries and I’ve always been frustrated that game culture was essentially excluded from those spaces. I’m inspired by the example of spaces like Indiecade, Wild Rumpus, Babycastles and the Espace Jeux Videos at Gâité Lyrique, and want to add something - an idea that the technological opportunity created by the Internet of Things enables us to create a new infrastructure for game culture that goes right down through the stack of software, platform, hardware, people and public space.
