You are warmly invited to the 3rd STRATEGIES workshop on games, funding and policy!
The EU Horizon project STRATEGIES focuses on how games (both digital and physical) can contribute to a more sustainable future. As part of its many activities to support this focus, we have organized two international meetings focusing on how funding, policy and other infrastructure can support a thriving European and global game sector when it comes to making games more sustainable and helping games be a cultural force for a more sustainable world. The first meeting focused on the role of policy makers, funders and investors; and the second meeting focused on the perspective of game developers, especially in the independent games context.
Our third and final meeting will bring these groups together to answer the question: how can an infrastructure be built that truly allows game developers interested in making a cultural and material difference with games to succeed in their goals and dreams? We invite you to join us. Attendance at the previous meetings is not a prerequisite - we expect to see many new faces in this workshop.
There is a real crisis in the games industry in terms of employment, funding/publishing, and an incredible struggle for attention. In this very difficult climate it is very hard to make games that hope to have a societal impact. But games are a powerful cultural force, and the medium is urgently needed in the fight for a better future. Many of those interested in democratic and sustainable futures already know this. But there are very few connections between the games industries and investors and policy makers interested in change. Games are often excluded from discussions about the public role of culture.
The presence of meaningful games is growing, out of people’s passion for creating a better world. But while film, literature and music often engage with societal challenges in ways that are understood to be interesting and commercially viable, game developers have to resort to crowdfunding and the support from their own communities in the absence of more structural support for the medium.
The goal of our third and final meeting, which brings together game developers, funders/investors and policy makers, is to come up with concrete steps and actions for the development of real infrastructure for meaningful games, at the level of the EU, global systems, national funding, impact investment, publishers, and among game developers themselves.