A MAZE. / Berlin 2022: Full Schedule

Welcome to the program of A MAZE. / Berlin 2022 - 11th International Games and Playful Media Festival. This festival edition is online from May 13-16 and on May 17 onsite at Silent Green and Panke. 4.5 days of hand selected sessions for everyone who loves an inclusive, respectful and meaningful future for games, playful media and their creators. You can follow our festival program live in the A MAZE. / SPACE and on our Festival Discord. Get your tickets here.

All links will get communicated here and on our festival website. #AMaze2022

19:00 CEST

Opening Speech

Our founder and artistic director of A MAZE. welcomes you to A MAZE. / Berlin 2022.

Artists

Thorsten S. Wiedemann

Artistic Director, A MAZE.

Thorsten S. Wiedemann is founder and artistic director of A MAZE.. He produces and curates under this international label festivals, exhibitions and workshops on the intersection of games, games culture, digital arts and playful media. With "A MAZE. / Berlin" he created one international... Read More →

Friday May 13, 2022 19:00 - 20:00 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Special

19:00 CEST

A MAZE. / SPACE

Explore our digital festival venue: A MAZE. / SPACE!
It's bigger, better and there this year! Get it here.

Experience this year's nominated games in a beautiful digital exhibition, dance like flamingos, play games, chat with other flamingos, watch the livestream and more!

See our 2022 nominees and honourable mentions for the exhibition line-up.
See our program schedule for livestream and other events line-up.

Get the A MAZE. / SPACE (via the website).

You can access the space as a premium or free user:

Premium participant:
Get your A MAZE. / Berlin Online Ticket Premium. This gives you special access and abilities for the A MAZE. / SPACE including a premium role, premium avatar, more fun abilities, access to all the games and the voting system for the audience award. Ability to speak with other flamingos in the NEW speakbubbles.

Free participant:
Get your free ticket. Download the A MAZE. / SPACE. Be part of all the online streams and actions. If you want to become more interactive and enjoy our full designed festival experience get your premium access via Eventbrite for this event.

Minimum system requirements: CPU: i5-5300 Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5500 RAM: 4GB

We’re a safe virtual space. Read our Code of Conduct.

Space team credits:
Thorsten S. Wiedemann - Creative director
Moshe Linke - Level architecture and enviromental art
Gianluca Pandolfo - Designer, Generalist
Nomi - Avatar/ Other art
alpha_rats - Exhibition Developer
Dylan Holshausen - Development Support
Shaun Lottering - Front End Developer
Damon Blom - Lead Developer
Andre Hamman - Project Manager/ Backend Developer

Friday May 13, 2022 19:00 - Tuesday May 17, 2022 23:00 CEST
A MAZE. / SPACE digital only

Interactive

10:00 CEST

Coffee and Croissants - opening

Kicking off the festival weekend program, Zuraida (program curator) & Thorsten (founder) will have a short chat about the festival and introducing the program.

Artists

Thorsten S. Wiedemann

Artistic Director, A MAZE.

Zuraida Buter

zo-ii / A MAZE.

Saturday May 14, 2022 10:00 - 10:15 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Conversation

10:15 CEST

Not Quite Games - A Journey of Making

Making games has no one clear method or pathway, and for those who dare, games can be a fertile space to forge new ways of making, collaborating, and exhibiting. Join Melbourne-based artist duo Helen Kwok & Chad Toprak as they reflect on the last two years of their artistic practice working in and around the pandemic, and at the intersections of games, play, art, and technology. In this talk, Helen & Chad will talk about their creations while highlighting their highs and lows, sharing their challenges, successes, and lessons learnt, and unravelling their unique Australian journey.

Artists

Chad Toprak

Director, Freeplay

Chad Toprak (he/him) is an experimental game designer and independent curator. He is 1⁄2 of Melbourne’s videogame curator duo Hovergarden and Artistic Director of Freeplay. He encourages the making, gathering and playing of experimental and physical games in public space, and... Read More →

Helen Kwok

Helen Kwok (she/her) is a multimedia artist and designer who creates playful installations, experimental games, and public activations. Her practice often blends the physical and digital, crafting experiences that encourage play in public space, and making unconventional games that... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2022 10:15 - 11:15 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Talk

11:15 CEST

Explore Boundaries: Approaching games as art

The talk will share how media artist approach games as a medium for creation.
From a simulation game to a board game, retro-styled game, the speaker introduces her practice of exploring the boundaries of art games and how to send messages in a playful way to players and society.

Artists

Jooyoung Oh

Jooyoung Oh (she/her) has developed her work under interdisciplinary backgrounds. Since 2017, her work has been selected for ART+SCIENCE COLLIDE Grand Prize(2017), ISEA (2019) juried exhibition, SIGGRAPH ASIA Art Gallery (2020). Received first place as IEEE BRAIN WINNER at Ars Electronica... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2022 11:15 - 11:45 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Talk

11:45 CEST

Yamcha with Persona Theory Games featuring Michelle Lee, Art Director of Kabaret

Experience a mythical world, and have a seat with our tea master, Michelle Lee. Journey through the steps to preparing and serving guests from a far.

Yamcha is what us Malaysians call tea time - in Cantonese, it literally means 'drink tea'.

Want to try it out yourself? Find Kabaret on Steam and in the Epic Stores.

Artists

Michelle Lee

Art Director, Persona Theory Games

Michelle Lee is 1 of the women leading Persona Theory Games. Michelle is the art director, setting the visual of all of the studio's games, working closely with the studio's game director, Buddy Anwardi. Together with the rest of the team, the studio is releasing Kabaret this year... Read More →

Saqina Latif

Founding and Managing Director, Persona Theory Games

Saqina Latif is 1 of the women leading Persona Theory Games. Saqina is the founder and managing director of the company, Together with the rest of the team, the studio is releasing Kabaret this year on multiple platforms, a game that is inspired by Southeast Asian myths and folkl... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2022 11:45 - 12:00 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Special

16:00 CEST

The Vibe Pass

Get a look into how I give my games a certain vibe that has carried across all my titles. This talk will offer a live demonstration of how I make my creative choices and generally what informs my approach.

Artists

Cosmo D

I’m Cosmo D and I am a game developer based in Brooklyn, NY. I’ve released three games: Off-Peak, The Norwood Suite (A.MAZE winner '18) and Tales From Off-Peak City (A.MAZE nominee '20). My fourth game, Betrayal At Club Low is coming in the Summer of 2022. My games are... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2022 16:00 - 16:30 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Talk

16:30 CEST

Healing Journeys + The Environment in UnearthU

This talk will detail the videogame UnearthU and how its durational narrative is used to create a space for self-reflection, care, and healing for the player, while taking on different approaches to environmentalism. UnearthU mimics hypercapitalist Silicon Valley-esque apps that promise big personal transformation with super-efficiency. It follows an A.I. named KARE designed by a fictional start-up called FRTHR which has created her to guide the user through a seven-day wellness bootcamp of sorts. This piece is about the intersections of capitalism and psychosocial disability, the role of technology in the destruction of the environment, and how videogames may be used to orient players towards reflection, care, and healing. The game’s design is intended to unravel the predatory and harmful techniques of neoliberal wellness while speculating on the possibility of a healing-oriented creative technology.

Artists

Kara Stone

Kara Stone (she/her) is a Canadian game designer interested in the experiences of psychosocial disability and the effect of the ongoing climate crisis. Her artwork has been featured in The Atlantic, Wired, and Vice, and shown in galleries and festivals in North America, Asia, and... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2022 16:30 - 17:00 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Talk

17:00 CEST

Ambient Play Systems (In and Outside of Games)

We often talk about games as systems that respond to our choices and decision-making. But what happens when we roll the dice, watch two AIs fight, or pray adamantly that the DVD logo will hit the corner of the screen? Aren't we playing? Aren't there rules involved even when we have no control over our outcomes?

In this talk Flan highlights many types of "ambient" play as they appear in the world and in video games, offer some lenses for understanding, question why we don't often talk about this type of engagement on its own terms, and dig into the deeper meaning of luck and skill.

Artists

Flan Falacci

Flan Fallaci (they/them) is an experimental game designer in NYC. They make games independently and professionally, work with their collective Big Bag, and teach Unity at Parsons/The New School. Flan has also been a community organizer for games events in NYC through Babycastles and... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2022 17:00 - 17:30 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Talk

17:30 CEST

Multi-Sensory Interactive Digital Theatre

How do we make online digital theatre interactive? How do we make it multi-sensory? We introduce several ideas and exercises to generate a discussion. Please bring a piece of chocolate, a bowl of water, and some food coloring to the meeting.

This session is partly interactive. You can sign up here to be part of the meeting on zoom, you will be send a zoom link ahead of the session. Be aware that you might appear on the livestream.
You can also watch the livestream without signing up for the zoom session.

Zoom link

Artists

Erin Mee

ThisIsNotATheatreCompany

Director, Assistant Arts Professor Tisch NYU, Co-Artistic Director of This Is Not A Theatre Company.Erin B. Mee, she/her/hersAssistant Arts Professor, Undergraduate DramaTisch School of The Arts, NYUwww.erinbmee.comArtistic DirectorThis Is Not A Theatre Companywww.thisisnotathea... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2022 17:30 - 18:00 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Interactive

18:00 CEST

Drone Games!

Come explore playful experiments, strange games, toys, and other explorations of dr(((((((o))))))))ne make in the drone jam (https://itch.io/jam/drone). Drones are sustaiiiiiiined sounds or looooong tones. Drones are the vibrations that underpin all things, that occupy the spaces between us, that hold us together.

We will meet on the A MAZE discord with a short introduction by Marie. You will then be able to have a play with the jam results followed by chatting/discussion back on discord.

Go to the #drone-jam chat and voice channel on the A MAZE discord to join this session.

Artists

Marie LeBlanc Flanagan

A MAZE., A MAZE.

Marie LeBlanc Flanagan is an artist working in the playful spaces between people, especially related to connection and community. Marie builds experimental installations, art games, and web creations. Marie made Weird Canada, Drone Day, A Kind of Play, and co-created the Imaginary... Read More →

Saturday May 14, 2022 18:00 - 18:30 CEST
Discord

Explore

15:00 CEST

Rosemary Chocolate Chip Cookies (vegan) with Gabby DaRienzo | A MAZE. Live Cooking Show

The A MAZE. Live Cooking Show returns!

Ready to bake?
Each year we ask people from the community to share their favourite (vegan) dish or dessert, which they then cook or bake on our livestream, while being interviewed about their practice.

This year we found Gabby DaRienzo ready to make delicious Rosemary Chocolate Chip Cookies, vegan to boot!
The best part? We are sharing the ingredients and recipe below so you can bake along!
Share your cookalong thoughts & media via social media (#AMaze2022, #AMAZELiveCooking) or on our discord channel.

Rosemary Chocolate Chip Cookies (vegan) with Gabby DaRienzo

Ingredients
* 1/2 cup coconut oil, softened
* 2 tablespoons lightly packed, chopped fresh rosemary
* 1/4 cup granulated sugar
* 1/3 cup light brown sugar
* 1/4 cup non-dairy milk
* 1 tablespoon ground flax seeds
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (or 1:1 gluten free flour)
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 F / 180 C. Lightly grease two large baking sheets.
2. In a large mixing bowl, use a fork to beat together the coconut oil and rosemary, until relatively smooth. Add the sugar, and beat for about a minute.
3. Add the non-dairy milk and flax seeds, and beat once again, for 30 seconds or so. Mix in the vanilla.
4. Add about half the flour, as well as the salt and baking soda, and mix well. Add the remainder of the flour, along with the chocolate chips, and mix well until it looks like cookie dough.
5. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets in rounded spoonfuls. Flatten gently with your hands. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until bottoms are golden brown.
6. Let cool on sheets for 3 minutes or so, then transfer to cooling racks to cool the rest of the way.

Artists

Gabby DaRienzo

Gabby DaRienzo (she/they) is a Toronto-based game developer and artist, best known for creating A Mortician's Tale and for her artwork on games like Celeste, Parkitect, Super Crush KO, and the recently released Nobody Saves the World. When she isn't making games, Gabby loves baking... Read More →

Zuraida Buter

zo-ii / A MAZE.

Sunday May 15, 2022 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Special

16:05 CEST

Let's SPACE together.

The A MAZE. / SPACE is a home for the community around arthouse games and playful media. Everything we put into one A MAZE. / Berlin festival, we can make accessible for 24/7 .

Artists

Thorsten S. Wiedemann

Artistic Director, A MAZE.

Sunday May 15, 2022 16:05 - 16:25 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Talk

16:35 CEST

Power of the physical space for the virtual space

An exploration of using games within an art gallery and how games can also open up this dialogue about social issues. For this talk we will explore the exhibition POWER OF WHO! which recently opened at MAMA in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The exhibition focuses on the power relations in place, and the balance of this. For this a level was made for the game RIOT: Civil Unrest based upon an actual demonstration that took place last year in Rotterdam. In the session we will talk about the exhibition, and explore it via an interactive livestream.

Artists

Sebastiaan Hoogstraten

MAMA, A MAZE. / Berlin

Sebastiaan (he/his) is a game enthusiast who is fascinated by the presentation of games. A thing he would like to rethink over and over into a complete space that immerses people. And to which end he only recently opened his first exhibition in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Besides this... Read More →

Sunday May 15, 2022 16:35 - 16:55 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Special

17:00 CEST

AR we ready? Museums and Augmented Reality

AR we ready? - Museums & AR
Let’s bring museums to life with Augmented Reality technology!
AR technology has advanced significantly over the past few years, making the jump from the gaming world to attractions and museums across the globe. Fun and engaging AR experiences can present information in a way that connects with visitors. Instead of presenting passive displays, museums would like to use this technology to allow users to participate and to make new connections as scenes come to life.

How can museums harness this technology to create and communicate content? And can this digital content bring more visitors to museums?

We’ll talk about these questions as they relate to our hackathon "AR you ready?", which takes place just before the A MAZE Festival. AR artists from all over the world work with seven Leibniz Research Museums to develop AR-prototypes to bring the museums to life.

Moderators

Geraldine de Bastion

CEO, Global Innovation Gathering / Konnektiv

Geraldine co-founded Konnektiv in 2013 with René Schodder and Melanie Stilz and together with René Schodder leads the company as CEO. Geraldine is head of the consultancy department which offers different knowledge services such as expert research and analyses, project design and... Read More →

Artists

Antje Kluge-Pinsker

Johannes Sauter

Research associate, Deutsches Museum

Johannes Sauter M.A. is a research associate at the Deutsches Museum, where he is responsible for setting up digital research infrastructures such as KultSam and NFDI4Memory. During and after his studies of art history and German studies, he was involved in art inventory and database... Read More →

Nadine Kolodziey

Nadine Kolodziey is a visual artist based in FFM / Berlin. She works at the intersection of digital and analog with the goal to create experiences. Materials such as plastic and pixels are combined, her work is handcut, melted or transformed into AR environments. She worked for Apple... Read More →

Vladimir Storm

Creative director and visual artist focused on games and interactive media, NFTs and digital fashion, AR/VR storytelling. previously worked on various tech/art projects in 20+ countries worldwide with clients like Microsoft, Netflix, Nike, Valve, Snapchat, etc

Sunday May 15, 2022 17:00 - 17:45 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Conversation

18:00 CEST

All friends, no bosses!

Why can't *you* make a game coop with your friends? Marie LeBlanc Flanagan is working on a comic about coops. Join Marie for a series of calls to people who are coop-curious, building coops, and finding ways to work with their friends.

Artists

Marie LeBlanc Flanagan

A MAZE., A MAZE.

Sunday May 15, 2022 18:00 - 18:30 CEST
Livestream A MAZE. / SPACE

Conversation

20:00 CEST

Sickhouse EuroGaming Vision

Sickhouse EuroGaming Vision is back for its second edition. Inspired by the Eurovision festival, game makers from all over Europe are coming together to pitch their last creations to you! They have 3 minutes to convince you their games are the best and the most fun! Sickhouse Eurogaming Vision is celebrating indiegaming, experimental pitching and play!
When all the participants are ready, it will be time for the public to vote and choose their favourite creators. The winner(s) will be invited to exhibit at the next edition of The Overkill festival (28 Oct to 4 Nov 2022).

Sickhouse Eurogaming Vision will stream on their youtube channel as well as in the A MAZE. / SPACE.
A MAZE. Festival Director Thorsten S. Wiedemann will also pop-up on stream around 20:40, live from the A MAZE / SPACE to chat about A MAZE.

Artists

Sickhouse

Sickhouse is a playful art space, in Enschede, The Netherlands, exploring the transformations of our society through digital culture. Interactive art, films, games and music are presented in our physical and online spaces, through extraordinary events, exhibitions, screenings, festivals... Read More →

Sunday May 15, 2022 20:00 - 22:00 CEST
A MAZE. / SPACE digital only

Partner

00:00 CEST

Open Streams

The Open Screens are back this year as Open Streams!
16 May: Go to the A MAZE discord, #open-streams
See the schedule below for timeslots and the creators.

CEST
12 AM
01 AM flan - Titanic II: Orchestra for Dying at Sea
02 AM This Is Not A Theatre Company
03 AM
04 AM
05 AM
06 AM
07 AM
08 AM
09 AM JMAA GAMES - Sass VS Fash: Girlballs of Steel
10 AM Playdew - Lost Twins 2
11 AM James Poole and Laura Ryder - Give Me Strength (cancelled).
12 PM Mörwel Ualchen - maskirovka
01 PM midnight munchies - One Btn Bosses
02 PM Goblin Rage - BORE DOME
03 PM Jaroslav Meloun - Rendlike - FixFox
04 PM Andrew - Indiepocalypse
05 PM PolyPirates SnackHunter
06 PM Luis Olivan - Fictiorama Studios The Fabulous Fear Machine
07 PM Anna KAPIA
08 PM Alistair Aitcheson Artholomew Video's Stream Challenge
09 PM Gabriel and Albert Tux and Fanny
10 PM Cindy and Max As the End Drew Near
11 PM the parks staff dumpling.love
12 AM Common Opera A Tragic Accidental Still Life

Monday May 16, 2022 00:00 - Tuesday May 17, 2022 01:00 CEST
Discord

Open Stream

12:00 CEST

A MAZE. Bazaar - 3rd International Arthouse Games Market

The A MAZE. Bazaar - 3. International Arthouse Games Market in cooperation with gamesweekberlin is the only and first market for arthouse games, independent games and playful media productions which gives authors and digital artists the opportunity to meet with publishers, funding institutions, art institutions and collaborators. In 2021 we had a 124 participants and 39 confirmed meetings.

Get your ticket here (35€)

We are the annual marketplace where game creators, digital artists, virtual worldbuilders can either connect to publishers and labels or funding institutions, festivals and curators, but also find new opportunities in working on theater- or museums projects. Our major goal is to create a sustainable environment for playful media creators, and game studios to get their works properly produced, released and exhibited.

Besides networking and pitching your works you can also join some curated 30 mins sessions.

We are using the Meet2Match as platform. The A MAZE. Bazaar is funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, executed by our cooperation partner gamesweekberlin.

Sessions:

12:30 - 13:00 Kickstarter, funding and community - a love story
by Michael Liebe
13:30 - 14:00 Break down boundaries of video games dev: join a Europe Africa video games co-production
by Odile Limpach & Nicolas Etienne
14:30 - 15:00 Inclusive Game Development & Digital journey creation with Tales of Us
by Eva Vonk & Rico Norwood
16:00 - 16:30 MyClimateFuture – Time Travel Into Your Climate Future
by Daniel Tamberg

Monday May 16, 2022 12:00 - 21:00 CEST
MeetToMatch Online

Market, Business

15:00 CEST

Funding Workshop by game

Ina Göring, Director of Membership and Funding at game, the German Games Industry Association, will give an introduction to the federal funding programme for video games in Germany (Computerspieleförderung des Bundes) as well as an overview of the different regional funding programmes and initiatives in Germany, provide you with insights into the application processes and answer your questions regarding this topic.

This workshop is recommended for people from the games sector, who are interested in/have a need for (additional) funding; start-ups or people looking to set up their company/a subsidiary in Germany and need funding to facilitate this; (indie) game developers with an exciting project they need some more money to realize.

The workshop can be joined via this Zoom link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86360355166?pwd=U2x0TmhQdGdISjFWU1A0MEZ6ODZIQT09

Meeting ID: 863 6035 5166
Passcode: 686737

Artists

Ina Göring

Director of Membership and Funding, game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche e.V.

Ina (she/her) is Director of Membership and Funding at game and the association’s contact for all questions regarding membership- and funding-related topics and supports the regional agencies in their work. Having graduated as a film and television producer at Film University Babelsberg... Read More →

Monday May 16, 2022 15:00 - 17:00 CEST
ZOOM

Workshop, Funding

Subject Funding

09:00 CEST

Breakfast session

We're in a new venue with A MAZE! We're so happy to see some of you in person again!
Thorsten (A MAZE. Founder & Artistic Director) and Zuraida (A MAZE, Program Curator) are welcoming you in the new venue while they're chatting away on stage about nothing and everything.
The actual program will start at 10:00 but we love to see you drop by, say hi, get acclimated to people, events, new surroundings.

Artists

Thorsten S. Wiedemann

Artistic Director, A MAZE.

Zuraida Buter

zo-ii / A MAZE.

Tuesday May 17, 2022 09:00 - 10:00 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Conversation

09:00 CEST

Exhibition

Access to festival ticket holders from 9:00 - 23:00.

Artistic and experimental games are often off the mainstream and allow for different experiences with forward-thinking and playful views, often not for entertainment only. Technology is used as playground for artistic expression and innovative interaction with audiences interested in critical reflection and meaningful interaction. Discover different experiences, local multiplayer games, interactive installations and many more of this versatile art-form.

SILENT GREEN
Abgott - Stefan Kraft (CH)
Adventures of Harriharri (film)- Harold Hejazi (CA/FN)
Blind Drive - Lo-Fi People (IS)
brave mouse cartographer i - common opera (US)
CRWD. - CRWD. team (FR)
Davigo - Davigo Studio (CA)
Kristallijn - Gaël Bourhis (FR)
Marble Run - No Time (DE)
Output (film) - Miguel Alvarez (ES)
Swatted (film) - Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis (FR)
The Game of Me - Aleyeldin Baracat (EG)
U N C U R T A I N T Y - Léa & Manu (CH)
We Are One - Flat Head Studio (AT)
Wobble Sphere - Robin Baumgarten (DE)

Also featuring:
- A MAZE./ SPACE (play all nominated games)
- A MAZE./ SPACE Mirrors (talk to the virtual guests)
- The Brain 7 - Playful Media Residency results
- "AR you ready?" Hackathon results
- Open Screen for free usage

PANKE
Realistic Kissing Simulator -by Jimmy Andrews + Loren Schmidt (US)
Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime -by Astroid Base (CA)
Slam City Oracle -by Jane Friedhoff, Jenny Jiao Hsia, Skully (US)
Sticky Cats -by Bone Brothers (SA)
Tencular VR -by Firepunchd (DE)

Tuesday May 17, 2022 09:00 - 23:00 CEST
SG. Betonhalle silent green Kulturquartier, Gerichtstraße 35

Interactive

10:00 CEST

Welcome & Opening

Let's kick off the day program! We will have conversations, talks and interactive sessions. Looking forward to seeing everyone online and in-person!

Tuesday May 17, 2022 10:00 - 10:05 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Special

10:05 CEST

Crowd-Controlled Creativity with Artholomew Video

A MAZE Nominee Artholomew Video brings his crowd-controlled creativity tools to the live stage! He will dance, he will draw, and he will recite beautiful literature, all powered by commands you give him from your phones.

Direct this human art-puppet however you see fit, as the entire audience collaborates in some beautiful and chaotic performance art!

Artists

Alistair Aitcheson

Alistair Aitcheson (he/him) is an indie developer making alternative controllers and interactive performances. He loves to encourage players to express themselves, make friends, bend rules and make a mess. Alistair is the creator and host of the award-winning stage show The Incredible... Read More →

Tuesday May 17, 2022 10:05 - 10:50 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Interactive

11:00 CEST

Devolution

Devolution is a game design focused project exploring the creative process and challenges of game development, consisting of exhibitions, interviews, lectures, an archive and so on.

Each Devolution event / exhibition focalises on the evolution of a game through the exhibition of prototypes and interim versions and an in-depth conversation with the developers. During the last years Devolution dismantled the games and worked with the developers of The Curious Expedition, Shift Happens and Thumper.

How did the game change during its development? Why? Which features were added? Which were taken away? When? What were the interesting design challenges? What was the original vision of the game? How did the idea emerge? How did certain features evolved into their final version? How did testing and feedback affect the game? What the hell is creativity? What is the connection of all this to business and technology? What might the future hold?

Moderators

Martina Marchio

Martina Marchio (she/her) is an Italian game developer based in Berlin. She is graduating in Game Design at the University Of Applied Sciences of Berlin. In 2019 she published Pity Party, a point and click game that received great feedback from the itch.io community.On this year's... Read More →

Artists

Daniel Helbig

Daniel Helbig (he/him) is Co-CEO and Creative Director of Megagon Industries.

Jan Bubenik

Jan Bubenik (he/him) is Co-CEO and Technical Director of Megagon Industries.

Tuesday May 17, 2022 11:00 - 11:45 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Conversation

11:00 CEST

Give movement to your models with Blender

We will look into the different tools and techniques we can use in Blender to animate. We will create a small scene and try out ways of moving the models depending on what we want to achieve. We will use a simple character with an armature. We’ll see the difference between NLA editor and action editor, take a look at the graph editor, blendshapes and a bit of drivers and constraints.

In order to follow the workshop you need to bring a laptop with Blender installed. It is strongly recommended to bring a mouse and if possible (but you can do it without it) a numpad (if your laptop doesn’t have one already).

Recommended for people with a basic knowledge of blender already.

Online registration is *not* required to attend this workshop. Spots will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis, so make sure to be at the workshop location at least 15 minutes before the starting time.

The workshop room is accessible via stairs and a stairs elevator. If you need any assistance write to us at contact@a-maze.net

Artists

Carolina Romano

Carolina Romano (she/her) is a 3D artist based in Berlin, currently working at Maschinen-Mensch. She had worked as a facial animator for the award winning game: Batman: Arkham Knight and as a 3D generalist for different projects, mostly focusing on video game assets and character... Read More →

Tuesday May 17, 2022 11:00 - 12:30 CEST
SG. Atelier silent green Kulturquartier, Gerichtstraße 35

Workshop

Subject 3D Animation

11:45 CEST

SUPER IS HOT – Designing Games By Breaking and Combining Others

In this talk, Younès walks you through the design of SUPER IS HOT, a mashup game of SUPER HOT and Baba is You. They'll present you the unique challenges of designing at the border between two genres, but also everything it can bring you as a game developer.

Artists

Younès Rabii aka Pyrofoux

Younès (they/them) is a researcher studying the relationship between a game's rules and its narrative, and how to build AI systems that can manipulate it. They also are an awarded game developer, making strange ludic experiments to create new game genres. Their work has been exhibited... Read More →

Tuesday May 17, 2022 11:45 - 12:10 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Interactive

12:10 CEST

Break

Break time!

Tuesday May 17, 2022 12:10 - 12:30 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

12:30 CEST

12 in 12

In 2021 Henrike set out with a group of friends to create 12 games in 12 months (each). iTheir goal was to deliberately practice their craft, to become more intentional about the development process, and to improve their skills massively and rapidly. Join this talk to hear about her journey and the lessons she learned along the way.

Artists

Henrike Lode

Game Designer, Lohika

Henrike / Riker (she/her) is the Lead Game Designer at Joburg-based game studio Nyamakop. She has previously been a Lecturer for Game Design at Wits University in South Africa, the IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.

Tuesday May 17, 2022 12:30 - 12:55 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Talk

12:45 CEST

Brainwash Gang's Cookbook: How to overcome a toxic company

Shattering the toxic company where you work may seem like a tragedy. Nonetheless, for our team it has paved the way to building an horizontal studio far away from it. In this workshop we will try to identify toxic spaces and how we dealt with them, and if there is no diplomatic way to do so, how to finally make them disappear (literally).

After this, we will go over how the former employees teamed up to build an horizontal studio, the major challenges we had to face, and where we are today after three years.

This workshop is recommended for everyone working in toxic spaces and/or interested in building a company.

Online registration is *not* required to attend this workshop. Spots will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis, so make sure to be at the workshop location at least 15 minutes before the starting time.

The workshop room is accessible via stairs and a stairs elevator. If you need any assistance write to us at contact@a-maze.net

Artists

Brainwash Gang

A group of misfits who have formed a horizontal company. We make video games that are not bad, some better than others, but with all of them we try to transmit complex sensations, it doesn't always work.

Tuesday May 17, 2022 12:45 - 13:45 CEST
SG. Atelier silent green Kulturquartier, Gerichtstraße 35

Workshop

12:55 CEST

Personal Narratives, Intersectionality and Playable Experiences

A talk about the importance of personal narratives in the games industry, the power of storytelling in relation to intersectionality. How the medium of games could contribute to giving voices to marginalized groups? I will be talking about my process in developing personal experiences taking "The Game of Me" as a main case example.

Artists

Aley Baracat

I am an Interactive Playable Experience Designer focused on creating immersive AR/VR experiences.I believe in the power of harnessing skills and knowledge from various fields. In my opinion, all knowledge is interconnected and a multidisciplinary education can give access to different... Read More →

Tuesday May 17, 2022 12:55 - 13:20 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Talk

13:20 CEST

Wherever You Go, There You Are

Real-time audience participation game involving directing Rilla around a neighbourhood in Montreal in order to collect up a set of selfies within a time limit. The catch? Rilla has no idea where she is. You will need to use her descriptions, your wits, and Google to get her where she needs to be.

Artists

Rilla Khaled

Tuesday May 17, 2022 13:20 - 13:45 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Interactive

13:50 CEST

Digital Brutalism

TBA
A conversation between computer game designer Moshe Linke and digital designer Gili Ron about digital environments, Utopias and Dystopias.

Artists

Gili Ron

Gili Ron is a digital designer and design researcher. She is a researcher in robotic fabrication at the MPI/University of Stuttgart; co-founder at ProjectGalath3a, Berlin; editor and contributor for UTOPIA digital magazine.Her work explores robotic fabrication, human-robot-interaction... Read More →

Moshe Linke

Moshe Linke (he/him) is an indie game developer creating short, experimental experiences with a focus on virtual, brutalist architecture and the concept of what it takes to create atmospheric, immersive environments.

Tuesday May 17, 2022 13:50 - 14:35 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Conversation

14:00 CEST

Prototyping emotional game design with Bitsy: creative process & practice

Wonder how to tell better stories through your games that also evoke some sort of emotion in the players?

Through this workshop we are going to make an emotional experience on Bitsy. We will start knowing about how the process could work (everyone has their own), followed by ideation time and the making of our experience using the engine Bitsy. By the end of the workshop, we will put together our ideas and show the things we've been able to make.

Goal: to start knowing the tools for making emotional experiences. If participants can't finish their game during the workshop, that's completely fine. They can do so at home later on!

This workshop is recommended for anybody, even people that have never made a game before.

Be sure to bring your own laptop to follow this workshop. But you are also very welcome without your laptop. This was you can explore the possibility of doing game design with paper or through storyboarding.

Online registration is *not* required to attend this workshop. Spots will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis, so make sure to be at the workshop location at least 15 minutes before the starting time.

The workshop room is accessible via stairs and a stairs elevator. If you need any assistance write to us at contact@a-maze.net

Artists

Marina Díez

Three of Cups Games

Marina Díez (she/they) is a Spanish award-winning game designer and filmmaker based in Berlin and London, UK. She's the CEO at Three of Cups Games, an ethical and diverse games studio based in London. Besides, she is a Lead Game Designer at Un Je Ne Sais Quoi Studios, currently working... Read More →

Tuesday May 17, 2022 14:00 - 16:00 CEST
SG. Atelier silent green Kulturquartier, Gerichtstraße 35

Workshop

Subject Game Design

14:35 CEST

Break

Break time!

Tuesday May 17, 2022 14:35 - 15:00 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

15:00 CEST

Hyper Talks

Hyper Talks are short and fun 5 minute knowledge-injections. Ten speakers will talk about projects, experiences, failures and sources of inspiration in their work. The Hyper Talks are a platform for both established artists as well as upcoming talents: some of the past hyper speakers ended up being winners of the A MAZE. Awards. The session is hosted by Mascha Camino.

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Annika Maar & Irene Preuss: The Mepsi Conspiracy: ARG, community, broccoli
Is any of this real? Come to this talk to find out. Sponsored by Mepsi (It's a drink!).

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Talita Rhein: "How to approach people that don't know you"
A short guide on internet etiquette and how to contact people without being creepy. Useful for shy/ introverted people.

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Ali Reder: The implicit canon of video games
A look at the unspoken list of video games every game designer “must” have played and why you shouldn’t feel inferior if you didn’t.

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Inna Hannsen: Color Things
A tiny splash into the broad subject of colors and some reasons why you should think about them more.

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Casilda de Zulueta: 13 Rosas 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹
A first-person horror adventure game for mobile devices / A virtual memorial for the lack of physical ones.

Moderators

Mascha Camino

Mascha Camino (she/her) is a working Game Designer at the Berlin-based Indie Game studio Maschinen-Mensch. They developed “Curious Expedition 2” and are now working on an unannounced project. She hosted events like: Femisphere - Highlighting diversity in the games industry, the... Read More →

Artists

Ali Reder

Ali Reder (she/they) is a Berlin-based Game Designer with over 6 years of industry experience and a B.A in Game Design. 2017 Ali founded the event “Femisphere” to highlight and support diversity in the Berlin game developer scene.

Annika Maar

Annika Maar (she/her) is the Studio Director at Happy Broccoli Games, which released their first game Kraken Academy!! last year. Annika is an artist, writer and hollandaise sauce connoisseur.

Casilda de Zulueta

Casilda de Zulueta (she/her) is a technical artist and animator. She makes graphics go brrrrr, manages art teams and creates in-game animations for a bunch of lovely indie studios around Germany. She likes coffee and art museums and teaches animation to game design students at a private... Read More →

Inna Hannsen

Art director and concept artist at Triple Topping, currently based in Oslo. Fleshing out ideas for games for the last 8 years. Some might say she owns too many plants.

Irene Preuss

Irene Preuss (she/they) is the Marketing Manager at Happy Broccoli Games (Kraken Academy!!, 2021). Irene is an aspiring game designer and full-time human being

Talita Rhein

Author of Dogo Dash card game, Brazilian living in Berlin, recently a Producer at Maschinen-Mensh. Many years working with influencer marketing and contacting random people on the internet.

Tuesday May 17, 2022 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Talk

16:15 CEST

Make some visuals with code

This workshop will be about learning the basics behind raymarching algorithms and demoscene livecoding. We will go through glsl code. In order to write shaders (visual programs that works on the graphic card). How to make visuals with this specific render-style and what are the basic techniques to learn.

The end result will be beautiful moving visuals !!

This workshops is recommended for anyone with a basic understanding of coding

A laptop is required for following this workshop.

Online registration is *not* required to attend this workshop. Spots will be assigned on a first-come first-served basis, so make sure to be at the workshop location at least 15 minutes before the starting time.

The workshop room is accessible via stairs and a stairs elevator. If you need any assistance write to us at contact@a-maze.net

Artists

Monsieur Soleil

Monsieur Soleil is a numerical-artist and a programmer. He uses real-time 3D-rendered algorithms in order to make his own visuals, in order to accompany musicians, performers, and create his own style. He is active in the demoscene, as a live-coder. He is part of the Cookies Collective... Read More →

Tuesday May 17, 2022 16:15 - 18:15 CEST
SG. Atelier silent green Kulturquartier, Gerichtstraße 35

Workshop

Subject Coding

20:00 CEST

A MAZE. Award Show

Live at Silent Green and on our livestream.

The award show will also be streamed live from Berlin. The winners are selected by an interdisciplinary, international and 100% independent jury. Always reflecting the current times, A MAZE. / Berlin extended and changed awards which are now: “Most Amazing Award”, “Human Human Machine Award”, “Long Feature Award”, “Digital Moment Award”, “Explorer Award” and “Audience Award”. In the third year of the pandemic, it will be the first time that the “Human Human Machine Award” will be awarded not only to local multiplayer games, but to works connecting people in general.
The award, now in its 11th year, presents a total of 7.000€ in prizes to game developers at the A MAZE. Awards Ceremony, which is one of the highlights of A MAZE./ Berlin.

Jury:
Ash Baccus Clark
Bernadette Binner
David Cribb
Ida Hartmann
Jooyoung Oh

Tuesday May 17, 2022 20:00 - 21:30 CEST
SG. Betonhalle - Stage silent green Kulturquartier

Special

21:00 CEST

A MAZE. Hyper Active Party

The A MAZE. / Berlin 2022 - Hyper Active Party - Only on-site. No streaming so far!

Artists

Debmaster

Julien Deblois may look like a gifted chemist trying to find the answer to the universe origins in his test tubes.Mixing crazy beats from all kinds of music movements, he offers intense dancefloor anthems. Let him alone in a studio for a week and you’ll get a new series of them... Read More →

DJ Storno

Dj Storno aka ? closes the festival - legendary!

Iris Forest

Iris Forest is the stage name of Irene Dmytruk - musician, singer, and live performer from Kharkiv, Ukraine.The first songs were written in 2016, first performances played in 2018, then in the beginning of 2020 the stage name was invented and finally in 2021 the first EP was released.Iris... Read More →

Monsieur Soleil

Salon Bitter

Salon Bitter from Stuttgart, DE, are the reckless sound of the future, seasoned with a genuine blast from the past.Oozing 80s synthpop and shattering Italo Disco bangers come to life all anew from the relentless inconsistency of Salon Bitter’s musical work. An energy-soaked live... Read More →

Tuesday May 17, 2022 21:00 - Wednesday May 18, 2022 02:00 CEST
Panke Culture Hof V, Gerichtstraße 23

Party, Games and Music