The migration crisis in the Mediterranean Sea is not getting any better. People are facing difficulties and death every single day. However, these individuals are rather seen as numbers with the consequence that, with some peace of mind, Westerners can discuss about them with some detachment. But we are talking about humans! For this reason, we wanted to […]
We have applied to the last Games for Change Challenge. The aim of this year’s competition was ‘to inspire the creation of a game that connects existing and migrant communities and emphasizes cultural integration’. We have not been selected but it was definitely a good exercise. We would like to share our submission here. A two-sentence description of the concept “Our […]
We have decided to join #ResistJam, an online game jam hosted by itch.io and sponsored, among the others, by IndieCade and IGDA. The aim of the jam is “creating games that resist oppressive authoritarianism in all its forms”. INDEX: RESEARCH | OUR MESSAGE | BRAINSTORMING | INSPIRATION 🐔 Research We started our research around […]
In 2007, Ian Bogost published a book called Persuasive Games. He argues that videogames, thanks to their basic representational mode of procedurality (rule-based representations and interactions), open a new domain for persuasion; they realize a new form of rhetoric. Bogost calls this new form “procedural rhetoric”: a medium taking the form of playable systems rather […]
Nicky Case summarised on this excelent article a screenwriting book. He thinks it may be applied to games because they are not different to other media. Let me highlight the sentences I liked more: “Is your work enriching, or escapist? We need less art indulging us with what we want, and art that gives us what we need.“ […]
Last weekend, The Guardian published an article about the interesting changes Madrid is living at the moment. Manuela Carmena, the next mayor of the city where I was born, is an ex-communist retired judge who has been working in many different projects for the last few years. One of them was designing a board game about judicial […]
In 2015, two of the recurring discussions about the games industry are why we have not been able to attract more women to work in our projects and why we don’t use games to investigate a wider range of topics. The former problem is probably related to the latter and, while people try to propose new solutions, I found out […]
Last week I had the pleasure to attend an excellent exhibition at the Victoria&Albert museum: Disobedient Objects, examining the powerful role of objects in movements for social change. Political activism drives a wealth of design ingenuity and collective creativity that defy standard definitions of art and design. It was in this exhibition where I found the Cheap Art […]
Gamergate was the controversy of the year, showing the worst face of game fans when, claiming to protect the “gamer identity”, they decided to start threatening women involved in our industry. However, I believe the result of the controversy has been positive for games because it was the start for a wider debate, including the recognition of this media as an art […]
Apologies for posting in Spanish language but I have recently had a discussion about videogames and ethics with a friend of my grandfather, 70 years old, and I thought it could be an interesting read for some people. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to translate it to English. El mes pasado estuve charlando por e-mail […]