course
description

Video games are the medium of the 21st century. While the indie movement enabled a lot of folks to go out and make their own ideas a video game reality, the field is still very limited to a privileged, homogeneous group. The aim of this program is to enable more people to share their points of view and tell their stories through the medium of game making.

In this course, you’ll learn a variety of skills for creating video games: from asset creation, non-linear writing, self-building alternative controllers, to putting it all together inside of a game engine. We’ll approach ideation from a feminist perspective and learn from games of the past, while looking more closely at the systems of power we want to understand and explore, in order to dismantle them.

We are inherently playful creatures; it’s how we (and many other mammals) learn. Games teach us to make decisions within a set of rules, and to optimize for the best possible outcome: we want to win and not lose! Our brains love this kind of learning, yet capitalism has ruined its innocence through gamifying for profit, not fun. But that doesn’t lessen the impact that games have on our lives!

With the advent of video games, we’re witnessing the evolution of a medium from being a niche and nerdy past-time to THE mainstream medium of the 21st century. With audio-visual media support, game play helps us immerse ourselves into worlds like never before. We don’t just follow rules to win, we play to experience things that we would never experience in our day-to-day lives.

This ambitious program will use open tools for narrative game making. Video games are a great medium to tell stories and explore rules and systems, but making games can be quite challenging as it incorporates various types of media. At the same time, this opens doors to the very different kinds of game we can create!

Video games have already made their way into artistic practice, from multiplayer-performances, to in-game photography and filmmaking, to making your own personal art-game. This is what this course will focus on: using newfound skills to create games that tell your stories, to make others understand the set of rules that you want to see exposed. 

In this program, we’ll also broaden the scope of video games through hardware: making controllers that stand out and serve our narrative purposes. We’ll look at alt.ctrl games and how they populate museums and art spaces and offer further immersion through tactile experiences, all while getting to know an international community of humans, sharing and learning together in the heart of Berlin, Mitte.

Following the program, participants with time and interest are invited to stay for a one-month residency in order to continue their work or begin something new.

in this program you’ll be introduced to

• Godot as 2D or 3D game engine

• Krita digital painting program for asset creation

• finding, editing and creating audio assets with Audacity an open source digital audio workstation (DAW)

• non-linear writing tools, such as Dialogic 2

• electronics and simple circuitry for creating interactive artworks

• basic programming using Arduino microcontrollers

• toolkits and platforms for making experimental games

• context and inspiration: what’s happening in experimental play communities today?

• the modern play landscape from a variety of perspectives

• hands-on individual and collaborative group work

• opportunities for introspection and self-reflection with others

• critical and conceptual development of projects for a group exhibition at programs end

• a variety of guest speakers with varying perspectives and relevant practices

• knowledge around professional development for artists and creatives

• a local network of thoughtful humans through weekly potlucks and other events

• an amazing network and community of like-minded creative beings and potential future collaborators

course outline

Week 1: Intros, Bonding, and Play :)
In this first week we’ll spend lots of time getting to know each other, sharing past works, discussing and playing games, learning about different types of narrative games, and starting to think about and prototype initial ideas for game play. We’ll also get started playing with simple electronics and see how technology can hinder or enhance how we design games.

Week 2: Tech and tools
In our second week, we’ll begin working with Godot as game engine and it’s plugins, while also getting started with 2D and 3D asset creation. Additionally, we’ll get a bit more into advanced electronics and prototyping.

Week 3: Story, Sound, and Materials
In this third week, we focus on non-linear writing and audio assets, plus materials and advanced prototyping and begin to bring all the elements we’ve learned thus far together to conceive of our final games.

Week 4: Exhibition preparations
The final week is dedicated to synthesis and presentation. With mentorship and technical support, participants finalize their projects, translating their experiments and ideas into cohesive pieces. The course culminates in the documentation and public presentation of works created during the program, showcasing the unique games developed with a public audience including discussions about our time together, and why diversity in games matters.

who is this program for?

This program is for digital artists, creative coders, game-modders, art-games communities, experience designers, immersive theatre writers, personal-games advocates, story-tellers, performance artists, street game enthusiasts, and champions of the playful as we spend a month this summer combining technology, storytelling, and experimental games through a feminist lens. It’s geared toward anyone involved in creative projects that wish to begin incorporating interactivity, electronics, sound, and experimental games and experiences into their work or practice.

The course approaches game-making from an introductory level. No prior experience is required.

about the after-program residency

After completion of the four-week full-time program, students are welcome to stay as resident artists at Make-Believe Studio, located on the 5th floor of ACUD, for one month. The idea of this residency is to encourage students to put newfound skills into practice or take time to learn something new independently. While there is no specific learning support during this residency period, you will have access to tools. Additionally, there is always a possibility to connect and continue learning with the members and other residents of the studio.

about the scholarship

For each of our summer programs we are offering two artist-residency spots for local Berlin artists with a relevant art practice along the lines of course topics. This residency offers a free spot in this summer program, plus a one-month membership to Make-Believe Studio and the opportunity to present your work to the public at the end of the residency. In exchange, residents agree to offer a skill-sharing workshop for program participants during the initial four-week program.

Apply below by selecting ‘Artist-in-Residence Scholarship’ under pricing category. Deadline to apply is EXTENDED UNTIL Thursday, 30. April.

Women, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and others from under-represented communities in the art and tech fields encouraged to apply!

instructors

Rachel Uwa
Artist, Educator

Rachel Uwa is an artist and educator with a background in audio engineering and visual effects. She founded the School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe in Berlin, Germany in 2014, an independent school hovering at the intersection of art, technology, design, and human connection. Rachel specializes in working with communities and through her work aims to make the technical sector more diverse and inclusive. She uses technology as a catalyst to encourage others to become more critically-minded, and more deeply engaged with their surroundings and with themselves.