Wordplay
A free one-day festival celebrating the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games.
Saturday, Nov. 16th from 12-5pm
Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St. at Bloor
Presented by The Toronto Hand-Eye Society
and Toronto Public Library
What do writerly videogames look like? Come check out our showcase and play 20+ examples. Sometimes they’re mostly text on a screen, like Anna Anthropy’s twisted And the Robot Horse You Rode in On. Sometimes they’re gorgeously illustrated with prose inspired by magical realism and Flannery O’Connor, like Kentucky Route Zero. In Actual Sunlight, you battle depression as an RPG character. In Forumwarz, you can get into a war of words with virtual trolls on the web. In The Yawhg you decide what to do in the brief time before your town meets its doom. In Cart Life you have to remember when to pick up your kid from school after slinging coffee all day.
- Explore the intersection between books and games at a panel featuring webcomic creator Ryan North (To Be or Not to Be), Hugo-award winner Peter Watts (Crysis 2 novel), and By Crom! creator Rachel Kahn, and Sir Reginald’s Logbook author/illustrator and Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime co-creator Matt Hammill.
- Engage in a bookclub-style in-person discussion with the Chicago-based creators of Independent Games Festival winner Kentucky Route Zero.
- Learn how to make interactive fiction in a workshop for beginners led by game creator Christine Love.
For full details, visit http://handeyesociety.com/wordplay/.
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– Chris @ The Beguiling
