Gamma
Experimental game submissions invited for showcase to be held at GDC 2010.
Montreal experimental game collective Kokoromi announced that it is partnering with Think Services' Game Developers Conference to bring the fourth edition of their renowned Gamma game showcase to GDC 2010 next March.
The Gamma showcases, which are free for anyone to enter, present independent designers with constraint-based challenges and a public play environment that push the boundaries of game-making.
Comparable to a longer-form, targeted version of the 'indie game jam' concept, previous years’ themes have included Gamma 01: Audio Feed (games driven by live audio), gamma 256 (games with extremely small pixel dimensions), and GAMMA 3D (games using red-blue stereoscopic 3D).
From these unique events, ground-breaking experimental video games have emerged such as Passage, Paper Moon and Super HYPERCUBE (pictured). In past years, Gamma has played host to some of game making’s most talented individual creators, including Jason Rohrer, Petri Purho, Adam Saltsman, Shawn McGrath and Alec Holowka.
Kokoromi will open this year’s Gamma submissions -– and reveal its latest theme -- in November 2009, allowing game makers 6-8 weeks to build their games.
Chosen games will be showcased at a public party following the Independent Games Summit at the 2010 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. In keeping with Gamma’s distinctive “new arcade” format, these games will be featured on large screen projections, and accompanied by the music of local and international DJs.
Following the debut event, the selected games will be playable in a special GDC-donated booth on the Game Developers Conference Expo floor from March 11th to 13th, 2010. Game developers, media, and industry luminaries from around the world will be able view and play the games and speak with their creators.
Gamma 4 offers unprecedented exposure for the selected game makers, who will be given two GDC 2010 All-Access passes for their outstanding creative effort. It also adds a notable new attraction to the GDC Expo, which also hosts the renowned Independent Games Festival Pavilion and a variety of exhibits from the game industry's leading companies.
Gamma is part of Kokoromi’s mandate to inspire and present diverse, experimental game content to a wide public audience. In doing so, they are part of a larger international movement that recognizes games as a unique artistic form.
More information on Gamma 4 theme and submission dates will be available in November 2009 at the official Kokoromi website.