A MAZE. / Berlin 2019

Hyper Talks are short and fun 5 minute knowledge-injections. Ten speakers will talk about projects, experiences, failures and sources of inspiration in their work. The Hyper Talks are a platform for both established artists as well as upcoming talents: some of the past hyper speakers ended up being winners of the A MAZE. Awards. The session is hosted by Mascha Camino.

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Delphine Fourneau: Work Art & Hobbies
Welp, my work and hobbies are the same.

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Jessica Palmer: Observing Humanity thru the Lens of The Sims™
Contemplating the game mechanics of the worlds most popular life simulation franchise, The Sims, and thinking about real life for a second.

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[Note: Due to unforeseen circumstances, the talk with lowpolis is cancelled]

lowpolis: Universal Gifts and what we choose to share
Overview of the user-created content from a game about exchanging gifts in the form of postcards.

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Marina Díez: Selfcare in digital environments
It's possible to design digital environments that help to escape from reality in situations of stress and anxiety? In this talk, we'll speak about tiny self-care games and design for helping people in trouble.

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Naddya Adhiambo Oluoch-Olunya: Randa Randa: Nairobi as a Playground
As Nairobians, we feel every day that our city was designed for our labour, not our leisure. ‘Randa Randa’ is an AR game which seeks to harness the power of play as a healing force for it’s inhabitants. The talk will explore the current concept.

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Nomi: Playtest with Dogs (actually, I only know my dog’s case and he’s the only dog I’ve ever lived with)
I’m gonna talk about figuring out whether the games or toys that you or someone else designed to play with man’s best friend is actually playable and enjoyable for both you and your wet-nosed mateys.

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Pietro Righi Riva: The law of the instrument – A need for game creation tools that can tackle the human condition
Lots of accessible, designer-focused game making tools out there. Some are even made for "narrative" games! And yet, not one tool encourages a creative workflow that starts form the dramaturgy of the places and the characters that inhabit them. It's way too hard to prototype anything that is not a jumping cube with a speech bubble attached to it, or anything more complex than a basic branching text adventure. Here are some ideas for a tool to create games about humans doing human things.

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Rohun Ranjith: Producing masters of none
A short rant about the problems of the game education system in a developing country
(It is not all about the problems but some solutions)

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Troy Duguid: Render Dysphoria
???

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Zuz Buchowska: Fuck Fun: how to be sad and feel good about it
In this poetic rant I will (over)share some of my saddest experiences with games that were much more fun than having fun.