PLAY17 - Creative Gaming Festival 2017

The Nominees for the 2017 Creative Gaming Award have been selected

Hamburg, October 9th, 2017: The 10th edition of the PLAY – Creative Gaming Festival is rapidly approaching. PLAY17 will be held in one month, from November 1st to 5th. Those who can hardly wait may obtain a ticket now. Effective immediately tickets can be purchased at the official ticket shop: http://shop.playfestival.de. There is a reduced price for school children and students; entrance is free for those under age 14.

There are many reasons to visit the Creative Gaming Festival. From Wednesday to Saturday, over 120 program events await attendees. In addition, the Games Exhibition in the Barlach Halle K is open through to Festival-Sunday.

Visitors can create their own individually tailored Festival plans by selecting from a broad, diverse variety of events: exhibitions, workshops, presentations, and staged evening events. Numerous discussion groups made up of games designers, innovators and cultural experts focus on the various aspects of this year’s theme “The Time is Now!”.

Thus in the context of its 10th anniversary celebration, the Festival features a broad cultural program during afternoon and evening sessions. Among many other events the legendary “PLAY Poetry Slam” will be held. On Friday evening enthusiastic Slammers from all over Germany will recite, philosophize, bluster and – when nothing else works – shout, rant and rave. By contrast, in the “Escape the Room” participants themselves are characters in an Adventure Game become reality where the players must cooperate in a team in order to solve tricky and in part ethical riddles. Again, this year the gaming milieu is excitedly anticipating the conferring of the Creative Gaming Award. Six nominees have been selected from over 150 submissions (See attachment.). “The nominated games clearly illustrate in many different ways and on several levels the creative and artistic potential of computer games.” So Valentina Birke, Director of the Awards and the PLAY-Exhibitions. The Creative Gaming Award will be conferred for the third successive year. All of the nominated games will be on display both for examination and for playing at PLAY17.

The presentation by the feminist, media critic and video blogger, Anita Sarkeesian is among this year’s program highlights. Some of the other stars of the Festival are: Sofia Kats and Gunnar Krupp of Rocket Beans TV, the “Games-Maker” Matthias Kempke from the development studio Daedalic Entertainment, and Linda Kruse from the Good Evil. In addition, performance artists Yves Regenass and Robin Hädike from machina eX will be on hand. The entire program of events can now be found at: http://programm.playfestival.de.

Matthias Kempke, game designer at Daedalic Entertainment is really looking forward to PLAY17: “I find it unbelievably exciting that the entire city is involved in PLAY and that artists, pedagogues, games creators, critics, theorists, teachers, students, and above all young people together can simply transform the city into a playable site.”

Ticket Overview
Day Ticket: 10,00 Euro (reduced: 6,00 Euro)
Festival Pass: 25,00 Euro (reduced: 15,00 Euro)
Supporter-Ticket: 40,00 Euro

Festival Venues (http://www.playfestival.de/de/category/venues/)
Markthalle Hamburg (Festival Headquarters, Workshops, Exhibitions, Opening Festivities, PLAY Birthday Celebration, Award Show, Evening Events)
Klosterwall 11, 20095 Hamburg

Barlach Halle K (Exhibitions)
Klosterwall 12, 20095 Hamburg

Bücherhalle Hamburg / Hoeb4U (School Workshops, Open Workshops, Escape the Room)
Hühnerposten 1, 20097 Hamburg

Download Press Information 2 (PDF)