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

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

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

​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)

Digitaler Biedermeier

Eine Einführung als Vortrag >

Moments of Digital Biedermeier

Narrative Mechanics in Games and RealLife by transcript

Narrative mechanics have "many faces", displays and interfaces. They occur as texts, recipes, stories, dramas in three acts, movies, videos, tweets, journeys of heroes, but also as rewarding stories in games and as narratives in society (such as a career from rags to riches, the concept of modernity or market economy) are increasingly used in politics. Below their surface, however, narrative mechanics are a special kind of motivational design or more precise: a special kind of game mechanics. As with classic game mechanics, they are rules and rule sets for control cycles that contain challenges, provide options, make decisions possible, and then reward or punish, thereby creating a magic circle. As in all game mechanics, everything that is possible in the system may be used. Most narrative mechanics, however, use a narrative structure (ruleset mechanics), narrative rewards and punishments. Often, rules with linear connections are used for this purpose. Narrative mechanics are not limited to language or text, they can also be visually narrative (with developing and recurring forms and patterns) and they can be auditory or tactile ...   

Like games, narrative mechanics can also adapt to their rules, be it the behaviour of the reader or player or the environment of the reader or game. Even in texts adaptive mechanics are possible. A text consists in the first moment of a string of rules respectively sentences for a human interpreter.

The slides from last year (conference):
ixistenz.zhdk.ch/...NarrativeMechanics201810.pdf

Games And Rules (Book)

In 2015 we started a conference on game mechanics that intended to bring game studies experts and game designers together. This worked out very well and as a conclusion of the first three conferences we published the book "Games and Rules" that shows our comprehension of game mechanics. The book comes with 322 pages and features 13 authors. It is certainly an interesting read and an elaborate way of transpiring a theory that started with a game mechanics manifesto in 2013. You find our book on: https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-4304-6/games-and-rules/
or as PDF (openaccess)

Toniz - Play in/with the ToniZ-Areal

Enter now >

Zurich Game Mechanic Manifesto: Game mechanics Manifesto Version 1.o (2013)

Download as PDF

The world has turned into a game and behind its stage the small and large game mechanics rattle. The social world provides opportunities for action that we can use and adapt. For our actions we get this and that or we are punished (Never ask what the mechanics are about). Foucault once called these socially shaped spaces discourses. Discourses as game mechanics draw and steer the rewarding or punishing and are motivating at the same time. We can only act or participate where policy options are allowed. Anything else is cheating in the electronic world and amounts to revolution, crime or even terrorism in our social world.

And last but not least:
A Must for every game designer: Ideas for Games (Game Creation Set) avaible from GameLab ZHdK.

Tweets @gamezfestival #gamezandrulez