The 12th annual games for change festival (local game Dev enttries)

JustPlainInsane

http://www.gamesforchange.org/festival/

Not sure if this should be posted here in events or the general discussion based on the nature of my question surrounding the event; but here it goes:

Is anyone submitting entries for the event? This is for social impact games; I am thinking of games like Xoi San. Was wondering, if we have any local games entries that I can vote for online, when the time comes. Will be course cheering you on, to get it in before the December due date as things progress. :)

Bensonance

Well last year (GFC 2013) we had our Global Game Jam game, Giving, Giving, Gone, curated for part of the exhibit, which was cool. Also, @MNRosa and his company Formula D Interactive had their game, Eskom Energy Planner, nominated for an award.

I spearheaded getting all local Serious Games that I knew of to submit to the festival this year (2014), but none made it through, even though at least some of them would have done well there.

Games For Change is having a little bit of an identity crisis, I think. Last year Gone Home and Papers Please were nominated for awards, despite most definitely being games that were made for entertainment purposes first. I feel GFC should restrict its festivals to games consciously made for social impact, rather than art/entertainment games that incidentally have similar impacts - because the latter category doesn't really need that much support (both Gone Home and Papers Please were pretty decent financial successes, I believe).

They also still don't accept analogue submissions, which is downright bizarre.

Make Games will of course be encouraging its members to enter, but personally, I'm a bit disaffected with GFC's strategy and process.

dislekcia

@Bensonance: Be careful you're not conflating recognising a game's desire to have an impact on culture or to promote change with promoting games that aren't visible in the press. I don't think that Gone Home or Papers Please should have their concrete decisions to impact players in specific ways ignored just because they also seemed to do well financially.

MNRosa

I agree with a lot of what @Bensonance is saying and intend on submitting a talk that I will deliver when I'm there if I can arrange the finances to do so.

JustPlainInsane

@Bensonance I played a bit of Giving, Giving, Gone, and was an interesting concept, just a shame there is only so much to give and the game ends quickly :) Thank you for the information surrounding games for change festival. I did not know none of our submissions made it through... that is sad to note, as I really made a commitment to start leaning game development due to these types of games. More so seeing some of the local development teams making these games, gave me hope and inspiration. Still its good to note these points, when wanting to do a submission. looking forward then 2015/2016 submissions, and maybe my own.

@MNRosa Sounds like an interesting talk; if you happen to go, post a link, if you can please... heck if you don't go, maybe arrange a talk locally?

@dislekcia It'also a good point you make: that even if a game has the greatest potential for social change, if it's lacks the media exposure/cover, that can be driven as well with financial support, can it make a social impact at all? If no one knows about and hence plays the game, the impact is lost... At this point, all I want to do is learn and make really really bad games...then some good ones after a couple of years. So I will for now be doing this for free, and will hopefully be making a social impact. I guess I am lucky I can work, and still find time at night to code some games. Ultimately I will need to decide much later, to make money as well. If I want to do game development full time, and not just for the social impact. (Makes me of Indie game funding, and doing to for the love of the game).