The Experimental Gameplay Workshop showcases a selection of surprising and intriguing experiments with gameplay made by innovation-minded game developers from all over the world.
By defying conventions and traditions in search for of new genres and ideas, experimental games aim to inspire and ignite the imagination of all game makers. Our annual session at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco is highly attended, and many games debuted there have enjoyed both critical and commercial success - including Katamari Damacy, flOw, Braid, Portal, World of Goo and Today I Die.
However, not all the experiments we show at EGW are about "success" - or even about creating full game experiences. Many push the unknown borders of our medium, to see what lies beyond it. As such, submissions do not need to be fun, commercial, or even complete... so long as they are interesting, directed experiments. You can read about our history here!
This is because our goal is to showcase and encourage the process of gameplay experimentation: helping developers find new audiences without competing with conventional games, and exposing the industry to new ideas that it can nurture to fulfillment.
What can we expect in 2016?
As always, we hope to bring you 2 solid hours of amazing and thought-provoking experiments - hopefully submitted by you! There will likely be a "showcase" portion after the main presentation where you can hang out and play games as well. Remember - if you are attending, get in line early. It's a big room.. but it fills up every year.
Important info:
- We'll open the EGW 2016 call for experimental prototypes on November 2nd, 2015.
- This year's submission deadline is January 10, 2016.
- The GDC session will be held on the afternoon of Friday, March 14th.
Hope to see you there!