January 25, 2007
SCMRPG, Slamdance, Victory
Slamdance hasn’t yet posted news of who won their games competition, which half of the games competition’s teams, including me, withdrew from. But congratulations go to the overall press winner, Danny Ledonne, whose game has become, by some counts, more popular than the entire Slamdance Film Festival. (This, even though one film there caused a melee in the street outside.) I hope that some of the interest in independent games outlasts this controversy, and that the other finalists – who put in so much work to offer beauty, fun, and various sorts of engagement with our world – will get at least some amount consideration from the public. And thanks to Arthouse Games, which reviewed all the games that were freely available or had downloadable demos.
January 25th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
GoogleFight seems to confirm your verdict: 259K (game) to 99K (festival).
January 26th, 2007 at 12:12 am
Slamdance Game Competition Ends in Dissolution
In the wake of the controversy, many of us have been waiting to learn of the outcome of the Slamdance Guerilla Gamemakers Competition. There are not yet full reports from those in attendance (although Patrick Dugan promises one early next…
January 26th, 2007 at 1:54 am
Nobody won. The finalists decided to be denominated as “Official Jury Selection” since the value of an award was highly dubious. Sam and I counted audience ballots at my behest, and somebody did win, but that too is disingenuous since seminar attendence was so erratic. I can’t tell you who came in first, but I can tell you the number of sharks in game development is disporportionate to those in film, even in the respective indie sectors. Humility and technical skill really to correlate.
January 27th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
The New York Times has an article about the controversy. What I find most interesting in the article are Baxter’s admission that games are potentially a more powerful medium than film. The conclusion he draws from this is that games should be judged by different criteria than film (presumably it’s not ok to say certain things in game form).
To Mr. Baxter, though, it’s not that simple. “Games really are potentially a far more powerful medium that film, aren’t they?” he said while sitting at the Morning Ray Cafe just a few feet from the underpopulated gaming room. “In films you play a more passive role. You’re sitting back looking at something. Because of the role-playing aspect, games literally take the level of our participation to a whole other level. You are actively engaged in the outcome of your actions. Games are going to affect us in different ways, in ways we don’t fully understand yet.”
As he sipped his coffee, Mr. Baxter then said exactly what he had studiously avoided saying for two weeks: “Absolutely, games should be judged by a different criteria than film. I just don’t accept a direct comparison.”