Eight games in a clash, but only one can be left standing! Playing Narratives Finals
Playing Narratives holds a special place among SGA’s activities, and this year it was even more special, having in mind that it is the first big international project of the Association. On Friday, November 25, exactly one year after the first, the second candle was blown and we celebrated the closing of a new circle via the final presentation of this year’s participants’ games at Grafički kolektiv gallery in Belgrade. This was also the last day of A MAZE. & Playing Narratives pop-up exhibition of arthouse video games.
Playing Narratives holds a special place in my resume, too, as I believe is the case for all of us who were a part of it because it truly is a unique experience in our region, if not elsewhere. For all of those who are interested in gaming but have no idea how to crawl their way into the industry, this is an opportunity they cannot miss! The participants get familiar with the initial pipeline of making a game, accompanied by useful lectures of experts from the industry who get to walk in the shoes of mentors and, most importantly, the teams try to realize their ideas, creating acquaintanceships that may well grow into new indie studios!
CHECK OUT THE GALLERY FROM THE EVENT HERE:
Therefore, it was wonderful that after a year I got to see some familiar faces, and so many new ones (31 from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Romania, to be precise) that have become a part of this great experience. To link the two, I approached a group of the “new kids on the block”, and after my first sentence, heard: “You’re Africaaaaa!” It sounds random, but it really isn’t. Exactly a year ago, I was representing certain crêpes at the finals of Playing Narratives’ first cycle, and the game we made was inspired by Africa. How great everything went back then can be deduced from Relja Bobić’s, SGA’s program director’s, words who, shortly before the declaration of the winners of the new cycle, praised my PN crew how we pitched equally well, if not better than some more serious players after us at this year’s Reboot conference in Dubrovnik. The eight teams that presented their games this time maintained the same standard or even leveled up!
The participants were allowed to gather a few more atoms of courage to present the games they’d been working on for eight months to the public. An exemplary model was shown before the first among them took the stage. Baptiste Portefaix presented his game, How to Say Goodbye, and the road the duo took to make it. It was possible to try the game out as a part of the exhibition, and the presentation situated it in the context of picture books that inspired it. I would single out one phrase from the presentation to describe the game in short, as it seems to depict its most original aspect: death positivity.
Baptiste’s game announced an important thing that it and this year’s practical PN pipe dreams have in common: social engagement. This time the program was devised in a way that influences potential future developers to create critical and activist games which could have a purpose outside of bare fun. To achieve this, the participants were given a topic, Tainted Nowness, unlike last year, when we had no topic. So, this was very game-jam-like! As is declaring the winner!
Eight teams, eight games, eight pitches, but there can be only one! It’s not that cruel, of course, because the competitive aspect was merely symbolic, even though the best teams could face a very unsymbolic possibility of further work on their games under the mentorship of 3Lateral / Epic Games at the Science and Technology Park Novi Sad. The jitters were palpable, but the applause helped overcome them.
The only ones who had it worse were the jury. The jury consisted of Baptiste Portefaix, Adam Kovač (Solutions Specialist, 3Lateral), Nikola Stojanović (Associate UI Art Director, Ubisoft Belgrade) and Svetlana Spasić (Art Director, Webelinx Games). Questions were raining like cats and dogs, and they weren’t any less serious than the ones industry veterans would be asked.
Here’s an overview of the teams and their games:
- Team Helios devised Eternal Legacy, to whose world the player must return the missing water.
- Prison No. 353 of team Ratlook (<3) is an unusual hybrid that connects combat and puzzles.
- Koledo Interactive is behind Sunland, in which the player saves the once peaceful Kukuruzevo (<3 <3).
- Brzaći portrayed A Few Seconds till we Fall Apart, a very artsy game presented through watercolors.
- Credence is team Chuka’s game with a branching narrative and characters brought to life by the MetaHuman Creator.
- Rag&Bone created a cyberpunk world of humane robots in Bodysnatcher.
- The seventh team’s game is Rest for the Wicked, and in it, psychotherapy becomes a playspace.
- The last team leaves Trash behind them, a game that gamifies everyday life.
I hearted the moments which brought a smile to my face because our languages and cultures are rarely seen on the gaming scene, which is by no means justified. As for the jury, they hearted the following: team Chuka won third place, the second was Rest for the Wicked, and the winner of the second cycle of Playing Narratives iiiiiiis… *drum roll* RAG&BOOONE! Exactly like the PN alumni expected!
If you’ve missed the finale, soon you’ll be able to watch the pitches on SGA’s blog and see for yourself where the charm of the winning games lies because a playable picture is worth a 1000 words! And if this encourages you to become a part of it yourself, follow our posts for the new Playing Narratives which is just around the corner!
As in the previous year, the program is supported by the Franco-German Cultural Fund, which was established in 2003 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Elysee Agreement. The general sponsor is Unreal Engine (i.e. companies Epic Games & 3Lateral), while the distinguished sponsor is the French company Ubisoft Belgrade. This year, the Niš-based Webelinx Games also joined the program as a sponsor, while additional support in the realization will be provided by French and Goethe institutes from the entire region, as well as SGA colleagues from Slovenia Games, MAGDA and RGDA.
Well, till the next cycle!