Playing Narratives: Ideas to Games
Who is this program for?
Interested creative writers, artists, animators, 3D modelers and sound designers from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia can apply to participate in the eight-month mentoring program, during which the team will work on video game concepts, and collaborate with experts from the local and European gaming industry!
This year, Playing Narratives especially invites young female creatives to apply, because our goal is for more than half of the 30 participants to be girls.
Take a look at the aftermovie of the previous cycle and see how we teamed up, socialized and created amazing game concepts. This year it could be you! You can expect socializing at multi-day boot camps in Serbia and the countries of the region, a lot of workshops and new acquaintances with peers from Europe.
Playing Narratives: Ideas to Games participants have the opportunity to:
- develop professionally and personally, collaborate with other young artists and work in a team
- develop their first collaborative gaming projects or concepts
- work all year round in an inspiring and transdisciplinary environment
- look at the complete gaming ecosystem and explore the process of developing a game from the inside, through lectures, workshops, special events, study visits and practical work
- directly meet some of the leading French, German, Serbian and other experts in the field of gaming and related disciplines
- have provided space for joint work, necessary equipment and materials
- have free access to all SGA programs that will be implemented by the end of the year
- have the opportunity to win an award together with their team and go through the process of producing a trailer for the winning concept
- receive support for further development of their projects, upon completion of the program itself
- prepare for possible professional engagements in the gaming industry
- establish new acquaintances, friendships and collaborations
What will you learn?
Within the program, you go through lectures and workshops on carefully curated topics, such as gaming history, narrative design, visual storytelling, character development, game and level design, game art and business aspects of gaming. In addition to all that, work will be done on the development of “soft” skills such as team culture or presentation skills.
The general sponsor of this year’s program is Unreal Engine, ie Epic Games, so you will have the opportunity to get acquainted with numerous possibilities of this versatile technology platform, as well as to receive support for possible development of prototypes of your games after the program.
Theme of this cycle
Program starts mid-April and it will be a mix of online and live workshops. Some of the lectures will be open to the wider community and realized as hybrid or online events, and a large multi-day “bootcamp” is planned for the beginning of May in Novi Sad, when participants from all countries will meet, follow valuable workshops and form their teams.
While last year the theme of the program was dedicated to the intersection of comic and gaming domains, this time the participants will develop game concepts that will offer creative answers to some of the burning social phenomena, through the interpretation of the umbrella theme – Tainted Nowness.