This month, an exciting 8-month journey through the world of video game development is coming to an end for 23 young creatives from all over Serbia, who were selected from among 200 registered candidates and led by the Institut Francais and the Goethe-Institut in Serbia together with the SGA, with the support of numerous other partners. The first international program in which the SGA participates, which is dedicated to the meeting of comics and gaming, will be rounded off on November 26 with a pitching event at the French Institute, as part of the November Numerique event, which presents several gaming and interactive technologies.
The finale of the program also has a competitive character, as the jury will select one project that will receive a prize fund that will be used to produce a cinematic trailer for their game concept, in collaboration with BunkerVFX studio, and which will be presented early next year.
The Playing Narratives: Le Grand Final event will be held at the French Institute on Friday, November 26, but due to limited capacity, please register to follow the special guest lecture via a live stream on the Zoom platform at 7.30 PM.
In addition to having the opportunity to get acquainted for the first time with 5 game concepts created during the program – which their creators will pitch in front of an international jury – a special guest will be Pierre Lungheretti, one of the greatest French comics experts. His lecture entitled Comics – the new crossroads of creative industries will perfectly round off the entire program, which was dedicated to the intersection of key French and German achievements of contemporary culture and creative industries: comics and gaming. Pierre Lungheretti led a number of important French cultural institutions and held important positions at the French Ministry of Culture, and today he heads the most important European institution dedicated to comics in the city of Angouleme. It is a great honor for an expert of this reputation to be a guest at the final event of the Playing Narratives program!
The eight-month program is an initiative of the French and Goethe Institutes in Serbia and SGA, with the support of the French-German Cultural Fund.The general sponsor of the project is DigitalArrow from Novi Sad, and in addition to the main partners in the realization, local companies Two Desperados and 3lateral (Part of Epic Games) are also participating as prominent sponsors. UbisoftBelgrade is also a sponsor of the project. Renowned organizations from Germany (accelerator Spielfabrique) and France (Higher education institution for Video Games and Interactive Digital Media Cnam-ENJMIN) and their lecturers are also involved in the implementation of the project. Our work-space partner is ImpactHUB.
However, this event does not end until the end of this year’s Playing Narratives journey. In December, the audience can expect a short documentary about the entire process that lasted throughout the year, as well as from a special interviews with all five teams, who will present their game concepts, the way they came up with them, and their experiences of participating in such project.