Technoculture, Art and Games (TAG) is an interdisciplinary centre for research/ creation in game studies and design, digital culture and interactive art

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5a7 – Let’s Play Folk Games

Jul 19, 2018

Posted by Gina

From the time we are children we have a predisposition for playing. Playing with anything, or even nothing. We are drawn to play in many different environments such as the school yard, home, or in the streets with our friends.
During this 5a7 we will explore how games enable connections between people, the environments they inhabit and, if any, the technology they use. We will be playing classic western folk/schoolyard games. We are also excited to …

Critical Hit Returns

Posted by Gina

Critical Hit Parallax 2018
From July 30 to August 12, TAG will be hosting a summer school, Critical Hit Parallax, in collaboration with Indienova – China’s largest indie game portal. In previous years, TAG’s 10-week summer game incubator program, Critical Hit, attracted international attention with its focus on producing innovative experimental games through fast-paced iterative prototyping approaches. Many games from Critical Hit and Critical Hit alumni have gone on to do very well in international festivals such as Indiecade, the …

Claim-Staking in Minecraft

Posted by michaeliantorno

Thursday June 14th marked the launch of TAG’s second Minecraft server, the Ludodrome! Following in the footsteps of the 2013-2016 iteration – which featured a custom modpack created and maintained by Joachim Despland – this version of the The Ludodrome utilizes the publically available FTB Revelation mod pack to provide an absolute deluge of building options for its players.
But before our crafty TAGsters strap on their jetpacks or attempt to discover the art of metallurgy …

Pleasure Consuming Games Pop-Up Event

Posted by Andrei Zanescu

Please join us for the second event in the Pleasure Consuming Games series, a pop-up event at North Star Pinball Bar on July 9, 2018. Continuing our exploration of the “gamblification” of games and the “gamification” of gambling, we have assembled an exciting panel of speakers to discuss the changing dynamics of contemporary video games and online gambling. Speakers will discuss the intersections between gaming and gambling in the context of mobile social games (e.g. …

Making Vignette Games

Posted by simonalbert

This winter, I attended the Indie Gaming Assemble in Valenciennes, France, to talk about vignette games. The vignette format is a powerful narrative tool that I used to create the experimental game Fleeing Forward. This post is about giving you a clearer idea of what the format is, and how it differs from more traditional ones.

I started making vignette games after a few emotionally exhausting months. During harsh times, in order to process intense feelings, I …

LEGO Batman and the Licensing Network

Posted by kalervo

Hi everyone! As I’m neck-deep in dissertation writing right now, I thought I’d work through some of the ideas from a chapter in a blog post. If you have any feedback, I’d love to hear it!
As the 20th Century drew to a close, storm clouds gathered on the horizon for the Lego Group: not only was digital culture threating to shift the focus of toy buyers and shrink Lego’s market, but the company also had …