In the run-up to the conference the Young Academics Workshop will take place again. This year the workshop is dedicated to the topic “Atmospheric Propositions: Creating And Thinking the Aesthetics of Playable Atmospheres”.
We are very pleased to announce that we will welcome Dan Pinchbeck, video game developer and Creative Director at The Chinese Room, as a keynote speaker!
The workshop will explore the uncharted lands of atmosphere in digital games. Atmosphere, as a term, is ever-present in non-academic discussions about digital games. It is commonly used in game marketing as a marker of excellency of a given game regarding its world-building or its immersive qualities. Moreover, classic games journalism refers to atmosphere as a feature of reviewed games and usually rewards games it deems especially atmospheric with higher scores than their less atmospheric competitors. Finally, players refer to atmosphere as a major influential factor of their experience, and treasure games that have the ability of evoking a specific, desired atmosphere.
The workshop’s aim is to translate the study of atmospheres for game studies, game design and interactive media design (VR, AR etc.). The workshop is open to researchers working on defining the term in the context of games and new media as well as designers, who have developed specific techniques to produce atmospheres in games and other formats. We would like to encourage practitioners from game design but also from other fields to share their insight on how they engage in the production of atmospheres.