Spilbar 9000 – a talk in Aalborg – and AAAARGH!

While everybody was at the Game Developers Conference in SF, having fun and receiving awards, we were also having fun with a talk about prototypes and experimental games. We were invited by Shareplay to give a talk about our work. The talk was titled “from protoype to production”. Shareplay is a transmedia venture interested in the development of the future media sector. That means they have some capital for thing like this. Which is pretty good for Northern Jutland and the gaming scene there.

The actual location for the talk was in a bar called Viva La Revolution. It was kind of a small and cozy setting, which led the mind towards a small smoke filled underground NYC comedy club. Perfect setting for showing experimental and ridiculous games. And of course, there was beer, which also helps to set the mood. In that sense, it really differentiates itself from the Copenhagen version of the Spilbar, which is more geared toward formal talks and professional networking. The Spillbar 9000 takes another approach and creates a more casual environment that should help the networking. It was even more evident, since, as mentioned, it was during GDC. So they audience was mostly students and less people in the game industry.

So it was a really great opportunity to showcase a lot of our prototypes and to get feedback on them. Furthermore, it wasn’t just about showing things that people in the collective had released or are currently working on, as a self-promotion; it was more a way to create some buzz around the concept of indie games and the indie scene. We would want nothing more than to inspire people to create their own experimental, off-beat prototypes. And by showing a lot of crazy things (successful or not) that we have been working on, I hope that we are inspiring these people to pick up the keyboard and get to it. Among the games/prototypes we showed, was our new installment: AAAARGH. Which by the way, is a great warm up game for the crowd. Nothing sets the mood as a big crowd yelling frantically (and controlled) to some characters on screen. It was quite a ridiculous scene. See the movie and judge for yourself. We also tested a new “version” of the game. A version where we got the group of players to yell different phonetics (aah, uuh, ooh and iii) . So we didn’t just showcase the game, but actually playtested a completely new version also. Not surprisingly, it supplemented the game quite well.

If there should be another game that rivals AAARGH! in crowd pleasing (pun intended), it is Dark Room Sex Game. Of course we needed to showcase this one too, despite it being a bit old. But by playing the game – and having technical difficulties – I realized how cool it would be to release a version that doesn’t have the technical difficulties as this one, and which supports the PS Move controllers. When we have more time, this will probably happen (so many other projects in the pipeline). All I want is for people around the world to play this game and have awkward but hilarious gaming moments with their closest (or strangers!).

Besides those games, we got to play or showcase: