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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“WickedWhims: A Conversation about Adult Content Creation and Responsible Adult Mods Design in The Sims Franchise” By Aurélie Petit

This interview between TURBODRIVER, the creator of the popular mod’s WickedWhims, and Aurélie Petit, a PhD candidate at Concordia University specialized in animation and technology, explores what is at stake behind adult mods’ responsible design.
While the Sims franchise has always portrayed adult intimate relationships (early on referred to as ‘woohoo’ actions), the game’s PEGI rating of 12 limits what is shown beyond sexual innuendo. As a result, players have taken to modding to add more explicit sexual …


October 23rd – 11-12:30 – ADE Speaker Series Panel: Building Equitable and Sustainable Game Development Education

Join us at TAG for a remote watch party for this ADE Speaker Series Panel on Building Equitable and Sustainable Game Development Education.
With recent waves of layoffs, high-profile workplace harassment cases, and a notoriously short career length for gender minorities and people of colour, the transition of new workers into the game industry involves navigating a spate of barriers to equity and success that have been understudied in academic research. This panel talks about “The …


A Conversation with Game Designer Jordan Magnuson

Join us next Tuesday, October 10 at 6 PM EST in-person at TAG or online (Zoom link to be shared closer to the date of the event).
We will be hearing from independent game designer and new media scholar Jordan Magnuson about his book “Game Poems: Videogame Design as Lyric Practice” which is available in open-access in so many formats.
From the publisher: Scholars, critics, and creators describe certain videogames as being “poetic,” yet what that means or …


October 31st – 3-4pm – The Games Institute ADE Speaker Series Talk: The Case for Paratopian Design with Rilla Khaled Watch Party

The Games Institute ADE Speaker Series Talk: The Case for Paratopian Design with Rilla Khaled Watch Party
Event Description:
What if we could make complex social and cultural questions playable? And what if we could do so through interactions with familiar digital interfaces set in alternative presents and near futures? The work I will discuss sits at the intersection between the design traditions of speculative and critical design on the one hand, and the philosophies and best …


September 25th, 2023 – The Games Institute ADE Speaker Series Talk: Black Virtuality with A.M. Darke Watch Party

The Games Institute ADE Speaker Series Talk: Black Virtuality with A.M. Darke Watch Party
Event Description:
Across digital media, Black people are portrayed in ways that are derogatory and harmful – if we are depicted at all. The representation of afro-textured hair is noticeably limited, with options ranging from comically large afros, unstyled ‘dread’ locs, and misshapen cornrows. Through projects like ‘Ye or Nay?’ and the Open Source Afro Hair Library, artist A.M. Darke explores the consumption …


September 20th, 2023 – The Games Institute ADE Speaker Series Panel: Emerging Voices in Black Game Studies With Dr. Akil Fletcher, Cyan DeVeaux, and Dr. Steven Dashiell Watch Party

The Games Institute ADE Speaker Series Panel: Emerging Voices in Black Game Studies Watch Party
Event Description:
Join Dr. Akil Fletcher, Cyan DeVeaux and Dr. Steven Dashiell in a panel that highlights emerging scholars in Black game studies. Panelists will present recent and/or ongoing work, sharing a glimpse of the emerging research questions animating the field. Topics include Black worldbuilding in and across games (Fletcher), perceptions of Black male exceptionalism in gaming cultures (Dashiell), and the relationship …


Solar Game Jam 2023

https://itch.io/jam/solar-game-jam
What is a solar game?
Is it a story? A mechanic? A hardware object? Take the prompt as broadly as you’d like! Approach the question thematically through your game’s narrative or design around speculative hardware affordances.
The goal of this experimental game jam is not to develop a polished game but rather to design small game prototypes with GB Studio and to explore speculative solar inputs.
We invite you to think outside the box—to imagine handhelds differently. How …


DisinfoGames: An Analog Game Jam about Online Disinformation

You’re invited to DisinfoGames, an analog game jam hosted by Concordia University’s Disinformation and Games Research Project in partnership with ACT (Ageing + Communication + Technologies). This is a 2-day event taking place Friday May 19th and 26th from 9-4pm on the 6th floor of Concordia’s ER building (2155 Guy).
Participants will work in teams to create analog games around the theme of media disinformation. Through this mentored creation process, we will identify current issues around …


The OTHER Market game and The Loot Garden art market

Check out The OTHER Market this Saturday April 22nd. The OTHER Market is a mini-larp locative media treasure hunt exquisite corpse gamey experience –  designed over many months by the Liveness Research group at TAG. 
The OTHER Market is part of a SSHRC project looking at ways to design what are now often called immersive experiences, so that they are truly participatory. This results in a structure which does not rely on a lot of …


TALK: Daniel Vella – The Promise of Being Otherwise: ‘Being Someone Else’ in Games

Popular discourses around digital games have long made the claim that games can grant the experience of ‘being someone else,’ letting us step into the shoes of heroes, adventurers, rogues and champions. This presentation shall take this apparent promise as its starting point: what does it mean for a game to grant us the possibility of being someone else? How can a game construct us as a different subject? To address this question, this presentation …