A few weeks back I asked the assembled rabble whether anyone here had heard of an unconference for games. Unconference, you say? Whatever is she on about? Well, something like a BarCamp, where the attendees make up the event as they go along, building robots, drinking beer and generally being creative and clever.
And you know what, the overwhelming and resouding response was.... silence. No one had ever heard of a BarCamp for games. And so we at The Guardian have decided to sort that out, with the assistance of Adrian and Dan Hon at Six to Start, Rachel Clarke at Bibrik and TheDaveGreen from GameCity (and NTK) - plus kind support from Sony (who're hosting the event) and Nintendo.
Welcome to GameCamp - a free event, open to all, on Saturday 3 May in trendy East London. Keep reading for more information. And for goodness sake, record your interest at Upcoming!
GameCamp is a free, public one-day event for people interested in gaming and play. The objective is simple: to talk informally with like-minded people and get excited about stuff involving games of all kinds.
We've already confirmed some stellar attendees from across the games biz - from founding fathers to revolutionaries to cogs in the machine. Expect a whole spectrum of games-related people to be there! Plus, Harmonix's Rock Band. Yes, Rock Band.
GameCamp is a communal "unconference" run along the principles of BarCamp.
That means EVERYBODY is encouraged to join in and be ready to give a talk, take part in a discussion or run a session.
We let you decide what the order of the day is: in the morning, once everyone has registered, you'll get a chance to add your session to The Grid - the editable conference schedule that's posted on a wall at the venue. This cacophony of blu-tac and sheets of A4 paper will list all the rooms and times that are available for the day, letting everyone see at a glance which sessions are coming up, and decide on the ones they're most interested in attending.
The sessions are arranged as half-hour blocks split across several rooms, with 15 minute breaks between each period. We'll take a 45 minute break for lunch at about 1.30pm and will convene at the end of the day to wrap things up.
Running a session doesn't mean you need to prepare a speech - remember, the day is meant to be informal and fun - but you should have a good idea of the subjects you are interested in. This is a chance to try things out, to try new ideas, NOT just to run through the same presentation you've used before.
You might want to talk about something you've been working on, but we don't necessarily need to know how great your latest game is. In fact, some of the best presentations at BarCamps have avoided pitches altogether. Like 'How To Make A World-Class Martini (with tasting session)'. You might want to organise your session around the best Guitar Hero techniques, your top Open Source Game picks, or your latest theory on game design. We like people who are prepared to get stuck in, try new things and bring some fun to proceedings.
THE BASICS
What: One-day event about games and play When: Saturday May 3, 11am - 5.30pm Where: 15 Hanbury Street, London, E1 6QR How: Bring your imagination and something you'd like to talk about Why: Why not? How many: There is room for 120 - but there are limited places available. We're opening up the public registration on Monday 21st April, so add an alarm to your calendar; we're allocating tickets on a first-come-first-served basis!
Props to Chris Mac Morrison who designed the GameCamp 2008 logo.
