Invitation: SpilBar 8.0: It’s Real

Where: Nikolaj Kunsthal, Nikolaj Plads 10, 1067 København K
When: Thursday, January 26th, 17-19
Why: Because games are for real

Everybody plays games – from physical games like Solitaire, Bridge and Chess to digital ones like Wordfeud, Angry Birds, Skyrim and Farmville.

When playing the experience and emotions are real – even if the game is not. And now game designers and artists all over the world are challenging the space around the game with physical games like Johan Sebastian Joust, B.U.T.T.O.N., Fingle and the game experiences at the Space Invaders exhibition at Nikolaj Kunsthal in Copenhagen.

But what happens in the meeting between game and life? Why does the game feel real and how?

We have asked a bunch of artists and game developers from The Netherlands and Denmark to share their perfect gaming moment – either one they have already experienced or one they imagine to experience in the future.
The style is ‘Pecha Kucha’ or microtalk where each speaker gets 20 x 20 seconds (and 20 slides) to present.

Join us for Spilbar 8.0 hosted at Nikolaj Kunsthal in the middle of the interactive exhibition Space Invaders.

Program:
17: Welcome
17.05: My favorite gaming moment. Talks by Bojan Endrovski (Game Oven Studios, Fingle), Søren Lundgaard (DADIU), Christian Fonnesbech (Transmedia expert), and Rami Ismail and Jan Willen Nijman (Vlambeer).
18.00: Break
18.30: Debate – chaired by Thomas Vigild, Games editor at Politiken
19.00 Mingling with beer – sponsored by the Dutch Embassy

About Bojan Endrovski
Bojan Endrovski is a game developer with an expertise in low-level engineering, rendering, physics and other math-heavy stuff. He has worked on military and training simulators and has helped ship multiplatform games. Keen on diversifying, he shifted focus towards indie games and made few of those.
Not long ago Bojan co-founded Game Oven Studios. The studio will release its first title, Fingle, in January 2012. Fingle has just been nominated to the Nuovo Award at Independent Games Festival.

About Marieke Verbiesen
Marieke Verbiesen (MFA, Interactive Media, Netherlands) has worked with different projects in electronic arts and interactive design since 2003. Her most recent installation is “Pole Position” based on the iconic vintage racegame that meet the physical, tactile world. “PoLe Position” is part of the exhibition “Space Invaders” currently exhibited at the Nikolaj Kunsthal in Copenhagen.

About Nils Deneken
Nils is the CEO of Die Gute Fabrik, a Copenhagen-based game developer, who take classic play forms from the past and breathe new life into them with 21st century technology and their own sense of style and storytelling. Behind award-winning games such as ‘B.U.T.T.O.N.’ and ‘Johann Sebastian Joust’, and recently released the original puzzle-adventure ‘Where is my Heart’ for PlayStation Network.

About Søren Lundgaard
Søren Lundgaard joined Deadline Games in May 2000 as a Programmer and later Lead Programmer on Globetrotter 2 and Total Overdose. He advanced to Game Director in 2006 spearheading the Faith and a .45 concept. In 2008 Søren joined Deadline Games’ internal pitch team to create pitches and pitch them to publishers and Hollywood producers. In January 2009 Søren became part of the DADIU organization as a game consultant and caretaker of the content of the DADIU education.

About Christian Fonnesbech
Christian is Creative Director at Windelov Lassen Interactive and one of Europe’s leading Trans Media directors and producers. Through more than 30 professional online projects, he has explored engagement on the Internet and across media. He is currently directing Cloud Chamber – an online mystery about youth, electronic music and space.

About Rami Ismail and Jan Willen Nijman, Vlambeer
Vlambeer is an Utrecht based game-design studio founded in September 2010. With games like the award-winning Super Crate Box, Radical Fishing and Serious Sam: the Random Encounter, Rami and Jan Willem strive to bring back the old school arcade feeling to various platforms.

About Walter Langelaar
Walter Langelaar is a dutch artist based in Rotterdam, where he also works as programme director for the media studio of WORM, Institute for Avantgardistic Recreation. The projects from this studio (a.k.a. moddr_) aim to critically reflect upon our contemporary medialandscapes via artistic production and theoretical discourse. For a good decade Langelaar has been active in the so called game-art scene, and one of his personal works – ‘nOtbOt’ – can also be seen in the exhibition ‘Space Invaders’, currently exhibited at the Nikolaj Kunsthal in Copenhagen. http://moddr.net http://lowstandart.net

About SpilBar:
SpilBar is a bimonthly event, where everyone in or close to the computer games industry can meet and mingle. The meetings always start with a talk and end with a drink.
SpilBar is initiated by Kristine Ploug from DADIU and Thomas Vigild from The Danish Game Council (Dansk Spilråd). SpilBar is organized in collaboration with IGDA, Unge Spiludviklere, Spilordningen, and Computerspilzonen.
SpilBar 8 is organized in collaboration with Nikolaj Kunsthal and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.