Playing Narratives x Shift2Games: Gamedev on Waves!

Playing Narratives 13.08.2024.
Time 7 PM
Language Serbian / English
Location Monastery of St. Anton, Perast
Price Free
FREE ENTRY!

Playing Narratives x Shift2Games: Gamedev on Waves!

After inspiring gatherings in Sarajevo and Tirana, SGA continues its regional tour! In August, we connect with the game dev community in Montenegro, through the presentation of our two programs that we realize this year in cooperation with the RECONOMY program - Playing Narratives and Shift2Games - and all this within the most famous summer cultural festival KOTOR ART!

This special event, and our first official guest appearance in Montenegro, we have been cooperating with the gaming community gathered around the MonteGames initiative for a long time. All of this would not be possible without the international Kotor Art Festival, within whose program this meetup is being realized.

Welcome to GAMEDEV ON WAVES!

We will use this special event, and our first guest appearance in Albania, with whose gaming community we have been cooperating for a long time, to share information about the Playing Narratives project*** through which young creatives get to know the process of developing narrative games with a socially engaged dimension. On the other hand, the  Shift2Games platform is being localized for the entire region of the Western Balkans this year, in cooperation with the RECONOMY program. 

When it comes to lectures, we will be accompanied by representatives of Euclidean Studios, as well as members of the Montenegrian gaming community and the founder of MonteGames, Miloš Šćepanović, who will talk about various aspects of independent video game production. The theme of climate challenges, which is also the umbrella theme of the Playing Narratives program this year, will be presented by Vladimir Đurđević in front of the Faculty of Physics of the University of Belgrade, so that Playing Narratives continues its mission of affirming games from the domain of serious games, or socially engaged games.

Entrance to the meetup is free for everyone, and we invite you to definitely stay with us after the lecture to get to know each other over a drink and continue the conversation about our favorite topic, which is video games. We will enjoy the unique ambience of the Monastery of St. Antun and the view of Boka bay, courtesy of our hosts – Kotor Art Festival and SHARE Foundation.

We’ll be joined by our colleagues from across the region, and in the days leading up to the event, we’ll be discussing future game creator collaborations across our region, as well as expanding the SGA’s Playing Narratives and Shift2Games programs.

This year, Playing Narratives is realized in partnership with, among others, the Center for the Promotion of Science from Belgrade, which, in addition to the lectures within the meetup, will also present its Climate Capsule, a traveling exhibition within the Climate Europe 2 project, which will also be presented within this year’s Kotor Art festival, with accompanying programs.

Lots of interesting insights into climate challenges and video game development, and together we will look for the common points of these two fields!

For all details about Kotor Art programs, have a look at the official festival site.

The KotorArt International Festival, a manifestation of national importance for the culture of Montenegro, is one of the largest and most important art festivals in the country and region. Every summer, KotorArt gathers an impressive number of international artists, and with over 200 programs at numerous ambient locations in Kotor and throughout Boka, it attracts tens of thousands of visitors, making it one of the most visited festivals of this type in the region. Since its foundation in 2002, focused on art music, and since 2009 on numerous other artistic disciplines, KotorArt has been developing the brand of the city of Kotor for seventeen years, making it recognized in the country and region for the exclusivity and top artistic level of its programs.

***

*** This year, the program would not have been possible without the support of the RECONOMY* program, as well as dedicated industry partners – the company 3Lateral as part of Epic Games and the program partner Center for the Promotion of Science (CPN). In addition to them, the Goethe-Institut and the French Institute in Serbia, as well as the EU Infocenter, are participating in the project.

*RECONOMY is a regional inclusive and green economic development program of the Swedish Development Agency Sida, which is implemented by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation, in cooperation with the organization Help – Hilfe zir Selbsthilfe e.V. and other partners in the countries of the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership.

Miloš Šćepanović,
Founder, MonteGames
About the lecturer

Miloš is a leading talent attraction strategy for one of world’s top remote game-dev companies. He also founded MonteGames – a non-profit game-dev community bringing together relocated devs with local devs in Montenegro. His interest extend to the future of work, particularly artificial intelligence and automation in remote operations. He excels in scaling dynamic teams, fostering diversity and establishing sustainable, data-driven recruitment processes enhanced by intelligent automation. 

Vanja Knežević,
Game developer, Euclidean Studios and International Committee of the Red Cross
About the lecturer

Vanja is a VR and game developer – by day he works at the International Committee of the Red Cross and develops VR simulations for training purposes, By night he makes Nazralath with Euclidean Studios. Learning about technology, society and art in order to become equipped to handle complex civilization-scale tasks. Long-term goal is to be capable to make the right decisions when they matter most. Strong background in working with data, extracting insights from it and telling stories. He is also a member of Board of Directors of the Serbian Games Association.

Vladimir Đurđević,
Full professor, Faculty of Physics, University of Belgrade
About the lecturer

Vladimir Đurđević is a full professor at the Faculty of Physics, University of Belgrade. He has been a visiting researcher at the “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)” in the United States; “Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC)” in Italy; “Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa” in Portugal; and the “Mediterranean Center on Insular Coastal Dynamics (ICOD) of the University of Malta” in Malta. He has actively participated in international and national research projects funded by the EU-H2020, EU-FP, IPA, JRC, Creative Europe, GEF, GCF, WB, WMO, IOC-UNESCO, MSTDI(RS), and SF(RS). Currently, he leads the EXTREMES project funded by the Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia. Vladimir Đurđević also takes part in the international initiative “Mediterranean Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (MedCordex)” and leads the Group on Research, Modelling, and Prediction within the World Meteorological Organization RA-VI Working Group on Research. In addition to his academic career, he has also delivered a series of public lectures on climate change.
He is a co-founder of the Green Art Incubator initiative (greenartincubator.org) and a contributor to the Klima101 portal (klima101.rs). Vladimir Đurđević has been honored with the WMO Borivoje Dobrilovic Trust Found Research Award in meteorology, the Faculty of Physics annual award for scientific achievements, the Konstantin Jireček Medal – Die Südosteuropa-Gesellschaft, the “Zeleni List” award, and the Center for the Promotion of Science annual acknowledgment.

Kristina Janković Obućina,
Executive Manager, SGA
About the lecturer

In charge of member relations, ecosystem building, our programs, as well as events and initiatives, Kris is here to communicate with relevant stakeholders and provide all information about Serbia’s growing gaming ecosystem. With a strong background in journalism, communications, project management and dozens of trophies on her PS4 profile, she is always in the mood to talk about gaming and find a way to support young creatives and new projects. She has been with SGA since the very founding of the association and is dedicated to developing the domestic gaming industry and the visibility of our teams, companies and games locally, but also globally.

Relja Bobić,
Program Director, SGA
About the lecturer

Ever since the early 2000s, Relja Bobić was the author of numerous cultural and artistic projects realized in Serbia, as well as across Europe, in USA and Canada. Active as an independent curator, arts and events manager, music promoter, radio author and translator, he initiated and took part in 100s of events, co-founded four international festivals, curated many exhibitions, conferences, publications and informal education projects.

In 2012, he was one of the co-founders of Nova Iskra creative hub, and later on the European Creative Hubs Network. He enjoys designing physical and cognitive spaces within which young creatives can collaborate and create in new ways. Since 2020, he is the Program Director at SGA (Serbian Games Association).

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