PLAY19

Hamburg, November 6th, 2019. When it gets dark early, the monsters step out of the shadows. But, why be afraid when we can play with them? Exactly that is what is on offer at PLAY19 – Creative Gaming Festival, from November 14th through the 17th, 2019 in Hamburg. The motto of the 12th annual Festival is: “Of Monsters and Games”.

“Monsters lie in wait under our beds, they can exist inside us, sometimes they only want cookies, other times they reflect our deepest fears. Why do monsters exist and why must we face them so often in games? That is what PLAY takes a critical look at this year” explains Vera Marie Rodewald, a member of the PLAY19 leadership team. “We cordially invite games enthusiasts, artists, students, teachers and developers to play with us, to create monsters, develop games, to celebrate, to participate in our award ceremony and even to attend a monstrous Wrestling Show.

The Festival venues are: Festival Headquarters in the Markthalle directly across from Hamburg Central Station as well as other venues in the immediate vicinity in the Central Library, the “Freie Akademie der Künste” and in Barlach Halle K..

In addition to the games exhibition, panel discussions, advanced education, conversations directly with developers and artists as well as numerous workshops in which individuals will be able to develop their own game ideas await the attendees. Prof. Dr. Linda Breitlauch from Trier University explains why monsters and games go together so well. The FUNDUS Theater takes the visitors together on a monster hunt – or they will themselves be transformed into zombies during a performance by the dramaturge Charlotte Pfeifer. In a workshop Prof. Dr. Jörg Müller-Lietzkow, Professor for Economics and Digitalization at the HafenCity University Hamburg works out how Artificial Intelligence can be employed in games to create monsters. Guests can discover why, of all things, a goose is perhaps the most adorable monster of the 2019 Game Year in the interactive exhibition of 20 games in the presence of artists/developers from 14 countries.

Precise information and the content of the festival program are found on the official website under http://www.playfestival.de, where also the exact timetable of all events is available.

Further Information
For questions and photo requests please contact Tina Ziegler
Tel.: 0174-4440454 or 04523 – 984-1233
tina.ziegler@creative-gaming.eu / www.PLAY19.de

Background
Since 2007 the PLAY Festival has united the areas of media art, discourse and education with the digital game culture. Its primary focus is the creative application of digital games – inventing, building, tinkering, modifying, programming, dancing, discussing – everything is allowed! PLAY19 is the Festival for games lovers, gamers, Indie game developers media artists school children and students, teachers and educators, researchers and people from the Games sector as well as all who want to learn and play digital games.