Jim Munroe

January 10, 2024January 15, 2024

Videogame Arts Around the World in 2023

From special guest editor, María Luján Oulton… We are bringing back to life GAIN’s annual roundup newsletter, an inspirational collection of game arts related photos from events around the globe.

For the first time since 2019 we reached out to friends, colleagues and like-minded groups asking to share their favorite pictures from the videogame arts event or project they worked on in 2023. The result is events from 23 cities covering five continents. The game arts community is coming back in a big way!

If you like it, please spread the link (or retweet) and let us know about any events or people that have not been named here so we can include them in future roundups.

December 6, 2023December 11, 2023

Union Myths vs Realities & Japan Visit

Unionisation efforts have made big headlines in the news lately, but how much do game developers really know about unions? This is one of many questions we asked for If You Don’t Like the Game, Change the Rules, a comic and white paper that discuss unions, worker co-ops, and labour issues in the Canadian game industry. Over the next few months we’ll be posting little excerpts while we’re touring the project.

Marie LeBlanc Flanagan will be in Japan with free copies of the comic in the coming weeks. Mon. Dec. 11 she’ll be in Tokyo (details here, including livestreaming info) launching the comic as part of Gæmz and Sat. Dec. 16 she’ll be in Kyoto (details here) doing a comic launch and zine workshop. (For further tour stops and to invite us to your community, see the bottom of the post!)

November 15, 2023November 15, 2023

Co-op Myths vs Realities & Vancouver Visit

What do game developers know about worker co-operatives and their possibility to reimagine how labour is structured? This is one of many questions we asked for If You Don’t Like the Game, Change the Rules, a comic and white paper that discuss unions, worker co-ops, and labour issues in the Canadian game industry. Over the next few months we’ll be posting little excerpts while we’re touring the project.

Join Marie LeBlanc Flanagan in Vancouver on Saturday, November 18 to pick up your free copy of the comic! Marie is speaking as a keynote speaker for Creative Campfire and will be hosting a conversation about exploring alternative labour structures like co-ops and unions to encourage radical change in the industry! Register for Creative Campfire tickets here. (For further tour stops and to invite us to your community, see the bottom of the post!)

September 28, 2023December 6, 2023

A Look Back at GAIA 2023

Last June, we hosted the Game Arts International Assembly, a professional development symposium for 22 game curators and community organizers hailing from 10 different countries. We were so excited to meet in person again!

GAIAIndoorGroupshot3 SaganYee — ^{photo by Sagan Yee}

September 22, 2023April 30, 2024

If You Don’t Like the Game, Change the Rules

July 25, 2023September 25, 2023

Toronto Games Week

The first ever Toronto Games Week had an incredible response, with over a thousand attendees over the 15 events! It kicked off with a Dirty Rectangles social in the sci-fi punk rock bar, See-scape.

Most of the events were free to the public and three were outdoors, like this pop-up arcade in Trinity Bellwoods Park after dark.

January 11, 2023September 25, 2023

Applications Open for GAIA 2023

The third Game Arts International Assembly will be happening June 5-7th, 2023 in Toronto, Canada. With a participant cap of 20, GAIA is an intimate symposium for game art curators and game community organizers to level up their professional development and connect with their international peers. In addition to on site talks sharing personal experiences, playful workshops, and practical sessions, GAIA will include field trips to different locations in the city.

October 3, 2022September 25, 2023

If You Don’t Like the Game, Change the Rules

We’re starting a new project and we want to hear from you!

If You Don’t Like the Game, Change the Rules: Alternative Modes of Videogame Production will be a print comic and white paper about work and games available at events like Game Developers Conference, A MAZE. Berlin, and more.

January 24, 2022January 25, 2022

Playful Questions: An Open Discussion Series

In GAIA’s fallow year we want to plant some seeds for our 2023 (hopefully in-person) symposium with a casual open discussion series. We asked some folks in the game arts community what questions they’re wrestling with these days…

Shalev wondered How do you find your people once you immigrate to a new place?
Louie inquired How do you create a sustainable workshop or communal space?
Gwen mulled over How do you get other cultural workers into games?
Jim struggled with How do you work collaboratively in a fractured community?

Come and chime in! These are not GAIA sessions — they will be very informal 1 hour online hangs where our hosts will be asking a question they don’t know the answer to. We’ll do them every last Saturday of the month for as long as people have questions to play with. (You can suggest one here for later in the year!)

The first one will be Saturday Jan 29th at 11AM EST. (Subscribe to the gcal here for this and future months as the exact time will change to accommodate different time zones).

Google Meet Link

This series is a project of the Game Arts International Assembly, organized by Luján Oulton (Game on! El arte en juego), Jim Munroe and Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan (Game Arts International Network). Illustration: Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan.

September 12, 2021September 16, 2021

Game Arts Curators Kit & Community Calls

Game Arts Curators Kit is a new seventy page handbook for anyone interested in bringing a curatorial eye to the presentation of videogames. Over 25 writers and editors have generously shared their field-tested experiences of exhibiting games, spanning the practical to the political, the ethical to the esthetic.

Beginning as an idea in a session led by María Luján Oulton and Chad Toprak at GAIA 2019, Chaz Evans and Rene G. Cepeda took up the massive task of coordinating the writing of over 25,000 words on our nascent art practice during GAIA 2021.

It’s currently available in wiki form and invites input from the community, with plans in progress to have it published physically by VGA Gallery. There will be a roundtable on its creation as a part of Society of Literature, Science and Arts 2021 on Oct. 1st.