We are back with a new edition of the conference on "Gamez & ruleZ" and are able to present some exciting international speakers to you. This year, the conference on "Gamez & ruleZ" sets the focus on Digital Biedermeier. It will take place on October 19./20, 2023, ToniAreal, 5th Floor, Room 5.K12 (Kunstraum).  

 

The "Toni Areal" in real or if you want to virtually walk through the toni-areal as a game: you can do this on toniz.ch  a subversive version of the ToniAreal. Meet godzilla, a lot of pixel art and how students imagine the university should look like.

This years topic: Digital Biedermeier in Arts and Culture

In recent years, especially during and after the Covid pandemic, images, film, design and, above all, game worlds have emerged that promise an ideal world. As once in the Biedermeier era, people seem to retreat into beautiful little lovely worlds with actions free of any politics. In the game sector, this has led to the genres like Cozy Games or Wholesome Games. These games have been doing the rounds for a few years. They celebrate relaxation, seclusion and nostalgia.

Is this an apolitical and non-reflective, even reactionary, view of the world in current game design? Is it rather used as a clever or cynical meta-perspective, as a mirror reflection of the (post?)-pandemic world? 

What is at the core of this fascinating phenomenon and what are the implications for our society, that obviously needs this kind of digital seclusion? And how do we understand these phenomena in design, culture and politics?

These and other questions will be addressed in the two-day conference "gameZ & ruleZ - Mechanics of Digital Biedermeier in Games and Culture" on October 19 and 20, 2023. Our conference connects this recent phenomenon (and genre) with cultural, political, and community-building research questions and builds a bridge between game design and academic approaches for a fruitful analysis of a surprisingly modern complex of topics.

 

Program: Thursday, 19. October, Room 5.K12

13.00 Arrival and Warming Up
13.10 Opening
13.15 Dr. Beat Suter & René Bauer, GameLab ZHdKDigitaler Biedermeier – an Introduction
14.00 Marina Diez [3ofcups], Dordogne (ESP, 2023) – Emotional Game Design & Things I would have liked to know when I started working
[via Zoom]
14:45 Break & Coffee
15:15 Prof. Dr. Margarete Jahrmann, Head of Experimental Game Cultures, Universität für angewandte Kunst Wien – Experimental Game Cultures beyond Ludic Biedermeier!
16.00 Lorenz Kleiser, Luca Imesch, Dana Senn [Flawberry Studio], Projected Dreams (CH, 2025) – Projected Dreams: Experiencing Nostalgia Through Game Mechanics
16.45 Mini Break
17.00 Prof. Dr. Mary Flanagan (USA), Fairchild Distinguished Professor of Digital Humanities at Dartmouth College – Mechanics of Comfort in Recent Indie Games
18.00 Conference Dinner

And then visit and experiment with the DIGITAL ART ZURICH 19-29 OCTOBER​

Program: Friday, 20. October, Room 5.K12

13.00 Warming Up
13.15 Dr. Martin Roth, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto – Reclaiming Everydayness and Japanese Cultural Routines in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
[via Zoom]
14.00 Kathleen Bohren, Master Student Game Design, ZHdK  – Girl-oriented Games Are 'Cozy Games'. Exploring the Influence of Girl-oriented Games on the Rise of 'Cozy Games'
14.45 Break & Coffee
15.15 Tabea Iseli  [Stardust], Grimoire Groves (CH) – Agency, Gaming Literacy and a Genre Looking for a Future – Behind the Scenes of a Cozy Game
16:00 Claudius Clüver & Max Kanderske, Universität Wuppertal / Universität Siegen – Politics and Ethics of Digital Care
16:45 Mini Break
17.00 Sandro Heuberger [Toukana Interactive], DorfromantikDorfromantik (DE 2021) – From Idea to Success: Lessons Learned from Dorfromantik
18.15 Farewell 

​And then visit, and experiment with the DIGITAL ART ZURICH 20-30 OCTOBER​

Pictures from 2022

 

 

 

Pictures from 2021

Pictures from 2019

Fee

Free talks. Feel free to come and discuss.

Contact

Twitter: @gamelabch
Twitter Hash: #gamezandrulez
Phone: +41 79 364 33 72
Email: info@gamezandrulez.ch

Organisation

International Conference "Gamez & ruleZ" Nr. 6 at Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK, Switzerland, organized by Mela Kocher from the master's program Game Design and the management of the GameLab, Beat Suter and René Bauer. 

People at gameZAndRulez or/and gameZFestival in the past

M. Heubi (CH), Dario Hardmeier (CH) & Sam Jordan (CH/NL), Reece Millidge - Damp Gnat (UK), Stephan Schwingeler (D), Margarete Jahrmann (AT/CH), Mobiles Kino (CH), Jeremy Spillmann - Feinheit (CH), Tobias Bilgeri - Black Pants (D), Jogi Neufeld - Subotron (AT), AND-OR (CH), Mario von Rickenbach (CH), Filip Kostovic (CH), Tom Felber (Zürich), Ulrich Blum (Köln), Gebrüder Frei (Bern), Ivo Vasella - Outlane (CH), Christer Karlsson - Stockholm (SWE), Mark Butler - Berlin (DE), Livio Lunin (CH), Reto Senn (CH), Dragica Kahlina (CH), Daniel Sciboz (CH), Daniel Lutz - Montreal (CAN), Joost van Dongen - Utrecht (NL), Philomena Schwab (CH), Beat Suter (CH), René Bauer (CH), Max Moswitzer (CH), Reiner Knizia - London (UK), Urs Hostettler (CH), Don Schmocker (CH), Carlo Fabricatore (UK),  Staffan Björk (SE), Wolfgang Walk (DE), Renzo Thönen (CH), Mischa Geiser (CH), Don Schmocker (CH), Florian Faller (CH), Adrian Stutz (CH), Annika Waern (SE), Jesper Juul (DK), Flurin Jenal (CH), Philipp Stern (CH), René Krebs (CH), Nicolas Matter (CH), Andreas Halter (CH), Isabel Schacher (CH), Stefan Schmidlin (CH), Michael Müller (CH), David Krummenacher (CH), Patrick Selbert (CH), Filipe Simonette (CH), Julie Bächtold (CH), Anja Fritsch (CH), Tabea Iseli (CH), Luke Whittaker (UK), Katherine Bidwell (UK), Phillip Weber (PL), Dragica Kahlina (CH), Caecilia Charbonnier (CH), Sylvain Chagué (CH), Tobias Baumann (CN), Max Striebel (CH), Martina Hugentobler (CH), Melanie Vetterli (CH), Florian Müller (AUS), Mela Kocher(CH), Anna Martin-Niedecken (CH), Petr Pouchly (CZ), Sarah Celebioglu (D), Pas Schmid (CH), Philomena Schwab (CH), Aleksander Kauch (PL), Robin Baumgarten (UK/ A), Imre Hofmann (CH), Hiloko Kato (D/ CH), Miguel Sicar (DK), Patrick Winkler (DE), Max Rheiner (CH), Rebecca Goodine (CA), David Javet (CH), Sina Els (DE), René Bauer (CH), Andres Bucher (CH), Julia Bohren (CH), Simon Broggi (CH), Annika Rüeggsegger (CH), Yannic Hungerbühler (CH), Sascha Scherrer (CH), Luca Rossetto (CH), Ayane Stämpfli (CH),  Patrick Frass (CH), Thorsten Michael Rehbogen (CH), Dennis Reimer (CH), Dennis Bodenmann (CH), Eric Schärrer (CH), Micha Stettler (CH), Luca Cannellotto (CH),  Michelle Westerlaken (SWE), Gordan Savicic (AT/CH), Sonja Böckler (CH), Yanick Lukic (CH), Benjamin Andermatt (CH), Max Moswitzer  (AT/CH), David Stark (CH), Basil Weber (CH), Ryan Green (USA), Günther Hack (A), Michael Cook (UK), Daniel Bisig (CH), Roman Werner (CH), Guido Berger  (CH), Renzo Thönen (CH),  Silvan Bauser (CH), Jakub Dvorsky (CZ), Konglomerat M.I.D.I. (CH), Beat Kunz (CH), Arno Justus (CH), Selina Capol (CH), Andres Bucher (CH), Julia Bohren (CH), Marcel Arioli (CH), Sebastiaan Cator (CH), Jeremias Baur (CH), Severin Walker (CH), Teodora Dimova (CH), Michel Ziegler (CH), Anja Fritsch (CH), Mary Flanagan (USA), Michela Rimensberger (CH), Adam Mayes and Ulf Benjaminsson (FN), Stefan Schmidlin (CH), Robert Glashüttner (AT), Goran Saric (CH), Adam Moravanszky (CH), Alice Ruppert (CH), Jana Sloan van Geest (DE), Tarn Adams (US)