text:
15:00 CEST
A Dozen Dozen
A Dozen Dozen is a game created to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in the United States of America. The gameplay is intended to give the player a sense of the expanse of time (144 years) between the founding of the U.S.A. and the passage of the 19th Amendment. The player controls whether gravity pulls the avatar up, down, left, or right. The goal is to manipulate gravity so that the avatar (a suffragette) lands on a box. Each time she does, the game advances one year. Advancing the heroine all the way from 1776 to 1920 wins the game.
In case the live-stream has a problem please follow this link: https://www.twitch.tv/scottcavanah
Wednesday July 22, 2020 15:00 - 16:00 CEST
A MAZE. Bazaar
The A MAZE. Bazaar in cooperation with gamesweekberlin is the first market for only arthouse content in games and playful media productions which gives authors and digital artists the opportunity to meet with publishers, funding institutions, art institutions and collaborators.
We are looking mainly for artistic and political games, immersive installations and playful media works. We want to become the annual marketplace where digital artists, game creators, virtual worldbuilders can either connect to publishers and labels or funding institutions, festivals and curators. Our major goal is to create a sustainable environment for playful creators, digital artists and studios to get their works properly produced, released and exhibited.
Selected creators and studios will be be visible here. We use the Meet 2 Match as platform. The A MAZE. Bazaar is funded by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and executed by our cooperation partner gamesweekberlin.
[Closed session]
Opening Speech by Festival Director
Thorsten S. Wiedemann (DE)
A MAZE.
Teenage Blob Live!
Philadelphia music band The Superweaks and Cape Town game band Team Lazerbeam join forces to celebrate the upcoming release of their game/ album Teenage Blob! A live performance of the Teen Blob soundtrack, accompanied by synchronised gameplay, this A MAZE exclusive imagines a future where punk games and indie rock collide in an explosion of guitar feedback and hand-drawn fireworks.
Teenage Blob
Team Lazerbeam
The Superweaks
Mary Ocher
Born in the capital of the biggest country in the world, just two years after 1984. Mary's work deals heavily with displacement, migration, authority, critique of nationalism and militarism. Having toured 30 countries with recent album "The West Against The People" (released alongside... Read More →
The Fermi Paradox
In the Fermi Paradox you take care over all civilisations in our galaxy. Like a galactic gardener, the player has to balance technological progress, military aggression and resource waste so the alien species survive long enough to make contact with each other.
In case the live-stream has a problem please follow this link: https://www.twitch.tv/the_fermi_paradox/
Jemek Jemowit
Jemek has worked with Spanish glam rocker Luis Miguélez, Electro-pop duo Jeans Team, techno-pioneer Marc Acardipane and others. The debut "Zemsta" (Polish for "revenge") was released on Fabrika Records in 2011. Follow-up "Tekkno Polo" combined Berlin underground with the polish controversial... Read More →
We will broadcast the event on our Steam page front. Visit our Discord server to chat with us or ask any questions!
About the game: Between reality and a nightmare. Sanity and madness. In Dark Fracture the player explores a world that's ever-changing. Face your character's inner turmoil and chaos. Walk the edge of madness in their shoes in this thrilling first-person psychological horror experience.
In case the live-stream has a problem please follow this link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1268790/Dark_Fracture/
Thursday July 23, 2020 00:00 - 01:00 CEST
Blockchain Battle
Join our livestream on YouTube to see indie developer Barbara Sedderz playing Blockchain Battle and interviewing the team who made it. We'll be happy to answer your questions during the steam!
About the game: Take a deep dive into cybersecurity through the role of a hacker, discovering how blockchain and cryptocurrencies work under the hood. Use real concepts such as hash functions and digital signatures to detect fraudulent activity and even hack the system for your own ends.
In case the live-stream has a problem please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx4sbqGStTY
Coffee and Croissants with... you
A daily breakfast session with Zuraida Buter, program curator and Thorsten S. Wiedemann, festival director. They open the day with a cup of coffee/tea and talk about the previous A MAZE. day and what's still to come.
*Bring your own coffee and croissants!
Zuraida Buter (NL)
Program Curator A MAZE. / BerlinCo-founder Playful Arts Festival (NL)
Conversation, Croissants
30 Black Characters: Reflections on Representation and Bias in Games and other Media
Stuck on a small island in Sweden, during the global Covid19 pandemic, watching the world protest the mistreatment of black lives, K was feeling helpless but inspired.
Unable to attend any protests, K decided to create images of fictional black / black coded characters for each day of June to reflect on the black representation in the media he had grown up with.
Some positive examples of black representation, some questionable.
In this talk K will share his reflections on the characters, his own ingrained biases and some ways shared biases show up in games.
Kayode "K" Shonibare-Lewis
The art of making better games: diversity and ethics in games studios
This talk will give tips to the audience for running an ethical and diverse games studio as well
as unveiled the wonders of having diversity in the team for making awesome, astonishing videogames.
Marina Díez (ES/UK)
Marina Diez is a Spanish game designer and game developer, creative director and CEO at Three of Cups Games, an ethical and diverse games studio based in London, UK. She is also the founder of the diverse magazine Terebi Magazine and a BAFTA Crew member.
How to feel slightly less awkward in virtual and non-virtual spaces
I feel awkward in many situations. Talking in front of people, wearing VR glasses, breakups... But most of the time I can overcome this feeling, either with practice, or with making a huge shiny bubble VR headset or building an installation with a hundred balloons and one cactus. The workshop will be a guided brainstorming session about alternative ways to resolve our awkwardness. If the ideas become stable concepts for art/game/million-dollar-business at the end, that's good. If they don't, that's also good.
- Participants will need to have their own laptop with a stable internet connection,
- paper
- pen
- and insecurities.
Recommended for humans who are happy to brainstorm about random and weird ideas.
This workshop will be given via Zoom & Miro board. This last one requires registration.
Get your tickets here!
Fanni Szilvás
Fanni graduated as a psychologist and as an animation filmmaker. Half the time she is working in an innovation lab as a facilitator, encouraging multidisciplinary teams to venture into other disciplines' territories, and in the other half, she delves into user needs in a digital... Read More →
Rita Eperjesi
She graduated as an architect, won several competitions in the creativity industry, and participated in various exhibitions as an artist with her VR installations. Currently she is working as an art director in advertising and studying Creative Technologies in Potsdam Filmuniversity... Read More →
Art + Games World Tour: Asia
Art + Games World Tour is a project by Isabelle Arvers. The aim of this world tour is to promote diversity in terms of content and also in terms of who is producing content and from where… in order to be able to tell an other story of video games, outside the main territories of the global market.
During A MAZE. / Berlin - Total Digital Isabelle will take us to 3 different continents and speak with various creators.
SOMI (KR)
redMins (KR)
Hyun Cho (KR)
Gayatri Kodikal (IN)
Toge Production (Dio) (IND)
Humble Grove Hana
Humble Grove Cel
The Wake: Mourning Father, Mourning Mother
The Wake: Mourning Father, Mourning Mother is the last of game developer Somi's "Guilt Trilogy," consisting of Replica and Legal Dungeon.
[Perhaps it means my life simply boils down to this: "Everything I say is a lie."]
The Wake is a record of past wounds opened at a three-day funeral — a record of the roots of guilt, and the memories and emotions that chain together three generations of a family. The journal is encoded with a simple substitution cipher that the player must break in order to reveal the writer's psyche and discover the contradictions that define him.
Explore a generational curse that has swallowed a man and his life.
'The Planet of Survived X'.
This game is an adventure set in a world where the patriarchal system disappeared.
The Travelling Hand
Presenting working on The Travelling Hand as immersive ludic installation at TENT Rotterdam October 2020.
Wallflower is a third person perspective, 3D VR game. Wallflower is a term used to describe a person who is without a partner at a party and is hence unable to dance.
The players can maintain their lives only through making contact with others.Through this, players continue to demonstrate their own presence, and the relationship with others constitutes the essence of each being.
The aim of the game is to avoid getting a game-over for the main character at a party in the given time. The player has two properties – the energy scale and presence scale.
If the player keeps still, the presence decreases but the energy level increases. If interactions and conversations are made with others, the character's presence scale will increase but decrease in energy.
As such, the two scales are inversely proportional. It becomes critical to spend time wisely, keeping the two scales in balance away from dropping to zero.
Toge Production (IND)
Humble Grove (Cel & Hana - UK & JP)
No Longer Home
Bo and Ao: two recent university graduates prepare to move out of the flat they lived in together, over the past year. Both struggle to find work and meaning in post-education life. Disillusioned with their time in the UK and forced out of the country by a government who doesn't want them there, Ao prepares to move back to Japan, leaving their friends and Bo behind. Home seems like a difficult place to hold on to, and deep under their South London flat, something grows..
Isabelle Arvers (FR)
Isabelle Arvers is a French media art curator, critic and author, specializing in video and computer games, web animation, digital cinema, retrogaming, chip tunes and machinima.
Dio Mahesa
Dio is the lead artist of Coffee Talk. He designed the characters and also the key visual for the game. Dio has been working as a game artist at Toge Productions for years. Despite the fact that he's working as a pixel artist, Dio is actually a Dungeons & Dragons art enthusiast.
Gayatri Kodikal
Humble Grove (Hana & Cel)
Videogame and illustration studio consisting of Cel Davison (West Yorkshire, UK) and Hana Lee (Tokyo, Japan)
Hyun Cho
Hyun Cho does not view the relationship between technology and humans oppositional, but as closely related entities which continuously in play a role in one another's change.Since technology was created by humans, Hyun Cho views technology not solely technological, and seeks to reveal... Read More →
redMinS
I am an indie game developer in Korea.I made two games. '2048 Muug' is a game to talk about everyday misogyny, and 'Tap Tap Cacti' is a game to manage emotions.I'm a woman and as an emotionally vulnerable minority, I make games that people like me can relate to.
Somi
Somi is a leading indie game developer in South Korea. He aspires to develop games that are unique, artistic and channels the vision of the developer. He has made RETSNOM, Replica, Legal Dungeon since 2014. Replica has received many awards including Impact Award from IndieCade 20... Read More →
Talk, AGWT
A MAZE. Live Cooking Show: Vangi Bhaath (eggplant rice) with Shailesh Prabhu
The first ever A MAZE. Live Cooking Show!
For the A MAZE. / Berlin 2020 - Total Digital Festival we invited the community to share their favorite local dishes with us and the worldwide community. What connects more than gaming and cooking? Cooking is so far the best practice to know different cultures, tastes, traditions and the people.
At the moment it isn't the right time to travel and experience different cultures in person so we are hosting our first ever A MAZE. Live Cooking Shows to bring the world to your homes with delicious recipes and wonderful chefs! We are sharing the ingredients and recipe so you can cook along!
Share your cookalong thoughts & media via twitter & IG (#AMaze2020, #AMAZELiveCooking) or on our discord channel.
Vangi Bhaath with Shailesh Prabhu
Vangi Bhaath (eggplant rice)
Kali Mirch (Black pepper whole) 1 tablespoon
Byadgi Lal Mirchi (Dry Red Chillies but can be substituted for other) 2
Saunf (Fennel seeds) 1/2 teaspoon
KhusKhus (White Poppy seeds) 1 tablespoon
Cloves 2
Green cardamoms peeled 2
Dry roast all the above on medium heat. Let it cool off and grind to a fine powder.
For the Vangi Bhaath
Rice 2 cups
Oil 6-8 tablespoons
Tamarind pulp 2 teaspoons
Onions 2
Baby eggplants (Indian Eggplant) 10-12 (Can be substituted with any kind of eggplant, for example, you could use 1 diced Italian eggplant)
Split Bengal gram (chana dal) 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves 15-20
Asafoetida 1/4 teaspoon
This recipe serves 4
Cook rice till it's 3/4th done add 1-2 tablespoons oil and toss and keep aside.
Peel and slice onions, wash and cut eggplants into 2.5 cm cubes, if using green small eggplants, slit into four but keep the stem intact and attached.
Soak chana dal for about 10 minutes in hot water, drain and keep aside.
Heat the remaining oil and temper the mustard seeds, red chillies, curry leaves and the chana dal till the mustard seeds splutter thoroughly. Fry till the chana dal is well roasted and light brown in colour.
Add the onion and sauté till translucent.
Add the eggplants and stir-fry on high heat till it is half done.
Sprinkle turmeric powder, asafoetida, salt and the tamarind pulp. Add the spice mix and cook till the eggplants are almost done.
Mix the rice into this thoroughly and toss over high heat. Reduce heat, sprinkle little water, cover and cook till the rice is soft and completely cooked!
You could add some chopped coriander or grated coconut on top and serve. Yogurt is a good accompaniment!
Shailesh Prabhu
Special, Cooking Show
Now Play This presents Eco-Chambers by Exit Productions
Welcome to your first day! You are a Demi-God building a new, better, healthier world. Reorder the chaos and create a new Earth alongside your pantheon. Will you succeed or create destruction? Eco-Chambers is a remaking of the world taking place on google docs.
Eco-Chambers is an online game played in two tiers.
Tier 1: Demigod - Places for direct participants are limited so please to register here [https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/now-play-this-presents-eco-chambers-by-exit-productions-tickets-113619647424] Available from Friday 17th 1pm to allow for everyone to have a chance to get one.
Tier 2: Inhabitant/Believer - Watch as the world is formed around you. Send your wishes or prayers to alter the course of evolution. Every viewing participant can affect the course of the game through the chat function during the event.
The game was developed as part of the Cabin Fever online R&D programme, run by Exit Productions. CABIN FEVER looks to find ways to collaborate and connect creatively in isolation.
Eco-Chambers marks the second annual Now Play This and A MAZE collaboration, following last year's co-commission Glyphsprache, shown concurrently at Now Play This and A MAZE 2019.
Exit Productions
Exit Productions make interactive, game based theatre.
Now Play This
Now Play This is a festival of experimental game design
A MAZE. Chain Zine
Remember the days when people sent letters/emails with some kind of instructions to one another
and then send it to the next person? We reintroduced a version of it with the A MAZE. Chain Zine in the weeks before A MAZE. / Berlin - Total Digital.
We invited people to collaboratively create a zine with Nathalie Lawhead's Electric Zine Maker. We've sent out instructions to people on different continents who worked on a page and then send it off to the next person of their choice. We hoped the pages would travel far and wide giving us a glimpse of the world and creators in it
before coming back to A MAZE.
Completed zines have returned! In this session we have invited people from around the world who took part in our A MAZE. Chain Zine experiment and talk a bit more about the zines, the pages and the creators!
Body Echoes
You can do more than watch the stream, you can also join in VR.
The dansers will be experimenting with their snakelike embodiment, and you can join them as well as a snakelike being.
You will need a PC based VR headset with a VR enabled Windows PC to visit the session and participate with the dancers.
We support: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Rift S and Windows Mixed Reality.
Other headsets that are Steam VR compatible should also work, but have not been testen.
You can find the executable and further instruction starting 21 July at this link:
https://www.improvive.com/en/body-echoes-a-maze-download-vr-application/
The play along version allows you to start the application and test your embodiment beforehand.
On the 23rd a room will become visible, so you can join the session with the dancers.
About the game: Body Echoes explores the combination of Dance and Embodiment in Virtual Reality. While wearing a VR headset the dancers explore a non-human body and interact with other embodiments in a Virtual Space. We have created different embodiments: a snakelike being, a humanoid shape with extended arms and bodies that have shared controls. Part of our research is exploring audience perspectives. You can view the embodiment on a 2D screen or they can join in VR where they can observe or participate as a snakelike figure. The audience can also observe how the Virtual World inspires the dancer to move in real life. We are looking for partners that would like to transform these possibilities to a performance and can help with the production. This project is made possible through support by Creative Industry Funds NL.
In case the live-stream is broken please follow this link: https://www.improvive.com/en/body-echoes-a-maze-livestream/
The Last Friend
I'm live on Twitch, come hang out!
About the game: The Last Friend is an action-packed adventure of saving doggos. Beat hordes of relentless enemies using brutal punches, powerful kicks or well-timed grabs; deploy ruthlessly effective defenses and customize your fighting style by teaming-up with your doggo-friends.
In case the live-stream is broken please follow this link: http://www.twitch.tv/ludus_games?sr=a
LAVAMUSEUM - Online VR Art Masterclass
The LAVAMUSEUM is a virtual museum that offers a space for artists to present their work to a wide audience. In this online masterclass we introduce you to VR art and show you live and during the opening of the LAVAMUSEUM how to use VR as a tool. In the lobby we then will give a lecture about virtual painting. Afterwards we guide you through the museum with digital artworks from Studio LAVAMACHINE. Finally the participants will create their first VR painting and can follow the work process of experienced VR Artists.
- Knowledge of how to use a VR Headset & an internet browser
- Internet browser (firefox recommended)
- VR headset or cardboard, or mixed reality headset
Eric Giessmann
Piers Goffart
Freelance illustrator and animator with a passion for storytelling, comedy and character acting. In 2015 he won the POS Award for best Artwork. Since 2017 he shifted his craft more and more into VR painting and animation.
Subject Virtual Reality
[Mature Content] Nightmare Temptation Academy: BEHIND THE MUSIC
Content warning: graphic cartoon depictions of violence, sex, sexual violence, self harm, mental illness, drug abuse
A screening of music videos from the game + album Nightmare Temptation Academy, with commentary from the game developer + rapper Lena NW aka Fellatia G.
Lena NW
Lena NW is a multidisciplinary media artist whose work reflects the millennial dilemma of being deranged and jaded from internet induced media oversaturation. Her work explores internet culture's intersection of identity, sexuality, ethics, language, and mental health. Her practice... Read More →
A Game Without Borders
Let's build games with infinite possibilities. A post-colonial approach to worldbuilding.
Sisi Jiang
Sisi Jiang is a game writer and a narrative designer who mostly works on the indie side of games. In 2020, their solo game LIONKILLER was nominated for the Excellence in Narrative award at the Independent Games Festival. They also wrote some words for the critically-acclaimed Signs... Read More →
The Final Flash Game
Flash games were the original indie scene. Flash is going away at the end of this year. Let's give it a good send off! Join me as we make the final Flash game. The last Flash game to ever be made...
The resulting game will be posted online and playable in browsers (while Flash lasts).
Nathalie Lawhead (US)
Nathalie Lawhead is a net-artist and award winning game designer that has been creating experimental digital art since the late 90's. Past works include titles such as the IGF winning Tetrageddon Games, "Everything is going to be OK", and the Electric Zine Maker.
Off-Score: Copy Machine
Tune in for a live presentation and discussion with the Off-Score Project team. We'll be sharing our process and learned lessons of combining music, lyrics and game design.
Questions are more than welcome during the stream!
About the game: Copy Machine is the first track of the Off-Score Project, an interactive music album. As you play through the game, the music and lyrics will guide you through the world of a copy machine and help you unveil the story behind the song.
In case the live-stream is broken please follow this link: https://www.twitch.tv/yentinglo
Ephemera Storytelling: Designing the Feeling of Reading Other Peoples' Letters
Together we'll talk about principles of storytelling using physical objects; discuss character creation, world-building, and narrative design; explore designing real-world spaces to evoke a specific feeling; and step through creating a rough design (moodboard and prototype) for an individual ephemera object with a narrative.
Examples of fully-developed works with multiple pieces, for context:
https://www.timberviewproductions.com/the-silence-in-room-1258
http://www.lauraehall.com/my-projects/ephemera-art-boxes/
Participants can create a rough draft in whatever method they like: sketching objects in a notebook, prototyping with paper (if so, include scissors, glue/tape, pencils/pens/etc), using a photo editing program to make a mockup, or using a moodboard website to collect images.
Participants are welcome to bring in paper ephemera or an intriguing found object (blank birthday card, photograph of a stranger, a weathered envelope, a cool box, etc) to work from or be inspired by.
Open to everyone with a curious heart. Would you be excited to find a mysterious diary in a resale shop? Would it make your day to discover a box of photographs hidden in an attic?
- stabled internet
- camera/microphone if desired
Laura E. Hall
Laura E. Hall is an artist, writer, puzzle-maker, immersive environment and narrative designer living in Portland, Oregon. Her work focuses on the intersections between arts, culture, and technology, especially in gaming.
Decolonial Practices in Playful Media
The panel "Decolonial Practices in Playful Media" discusses strategies and maneuvers in game development as they relate to resistance to and repair of colonial structures and ideas. Karina Griffith is in conversation with Allan Cudicio, Hexe Fey and Dhruv Jani about Black speculative techniques, Indigeneity and opacity, and multi-translation in the Indian context as tactics for telling new stories.
Karina Griffith
Karina Griffith's curatorial and moving image works explore the themes of fear and fantasy, often focusing on how they relate to belonging. Her interests include exploring the intricacies of identity and the immigrant perspective while acting as a record of her family's unique... Read More →
Allan Cudicio
Berlin-based Game Designer Allan Cudicio is currently working on "The Wagadu Chronicles", an Afrofantasy indie MMO.Allan's career spans a decade in marketing, writing, team management, consulting and game design. His big passions are Dungeons & Dragons, dogs, cycling and glitter... Read More →
Dhruv Jani (Studio Oleomingus - IN)
I am the founder of a small arts-practice studio called : Studio Oleomingus. Where we work at the intersection of postcolonial writing and interactive fiction. We try to study colonial power structures and the histories that they occlude and we attempt to use videogame spaces as sites... Read More →
Hexe Fey
Hexe Fey is an Oglala Lakota movement and dance student, harm reductionist, experimental digital artist, and friend of plants. Creator of the interactive fiction adventure "Cursed Task", about the eternal struggle of writing a bio.
Floppy Knights
This is a pre-recorded presentation with a Q&A segment, along with a timelapse of some in-game art creation
About the game: What do you get when you bring a microprocessor to a knight-fight? A deck-building, sword-swinging, tactical adventure! Meet the Floppy Knights: tangible projections summoned from floppy disks. They'll help Phoebe and Carlton earn cash and perhaps even save the world in the process.
In case the live-stream is broken please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K60Fm-QXCP8
Hidden Conflicts
HIDDEN CONFLICTS (2019)
A Cameraman strays on battle- grounds trying to capture
what he sees to make visible textures and moral compasses.
What awaits the gaze?
Duration // 23:37min
Jona Kleinlein
Jona Kleinlein is a multi-media artist working with techniques of film, video and installation. His works are summoning different reality layers in video images. Unknown yet familiar views of our planet and beyond are created. Sometimes our world is left and another one is f... Read More →
Jukio Kallio - JAPON - Noita: From Grotto & Niilo Takalainen - Chipzel
Time table:
21:00 Jukio Kallio
22:00 JAPON
23:00 Noita: From Grotto & Niilo Takalainen
00:00 Chipzel
Chipzel
Niamh Houston, also known by her stage name Chipzel, is a BAFTA-nominated and award-winning independent composer, producer and performer from Northern Ireland. Chipzel is a one of a kind electronic music enthusiast with an uncanny knack for analog gear. A virtuosic tinkerer of all... Read More →
JAPON is a musical improvisation band. HARMONY/CACOPHONY/HYPNOTIC/ENERGETIC. ELECTRONIC/AMPLIFIED/ACOUSTIC. This also the release show of JAPON's second release " Suuren Lännen Matkaaja"!
Jukio Kallio
Japan-born Finnish composer and singer-songwriter Jukio Kallio's music leaps between intimate minimal pop, to life affirming piano compositions, and diverse world-building soundtracks.
Noita: From Grotto & Niilo Takalainen
Live Noita Ritual: From Grotto & Niilo Takalainen invites you for a musical journey in the world of Noita soundtrack. Ready your magic wands and hold on to your potions, it is time to dive into improvised psychedelia!
Thursday July 23, 2020 21:00 - Friday July 24, 2020 00:45 CEST
Friday July 24, 2020 11:00 - 11:30 CEST
Alt CTRL
Enric Granzotto Llagostera (BR)
Enric Granzotto Llagostera is a game maker and researcher from Brazil, doing his PhD at Concordia University. Working on alternative controllers, subversive play, and game design as a critical practice.
Helen Kwok (AU)
Helen Kwok is a multimedia artist and designer with an interest in creating playful installations, experimental games and activations that extend beyond the screen. She considers herself a bit of a creative chameleon, and is currently studying a Master of Animation, Games and Interactivity... Read More →
Jess Rowan Marcotte (CA)
Jess Rowan Marcotte is an award-winning queer game designer, writer, maker, teacher, and PhD candidate from Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Their research focuses on physical-digital hybrid games. They are a member of the Soft Chaos art collective and co-organize QGCon. They've been making... Read More →
Mónica Rikić (ES)
New media artist and creative coder. She uses code, electronics and analog objects to create interactive works framed as experimental games. She has participated in Ars Electronica, Japan Media Arts Festival, FILE and Sónar, among others.
Squinky (CA)
Dietrich Squinkifer, aka Squinky, is a new media artist who makes weird videogames about feelings. They are in the process of discovering what it means to be a teenager and a thirtysomething-year-old at the same time, while continuing to survive in a cyberpunk dystopia.
Devolution of Baba Is You
Devolution of Baba Is You - Exhibition Tour with Arvi Teikari
For the ultimate insight into the development of Baba Is You and its design decisions. Guided tour through the exhibited versions of the game (http://6.devolution.online) by the developer Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari, supported by the co-curator of Devolution Mascha Camino. Complementing the Devolution exhibition with background information, secrets and anecdotes.
Baba Is You is a puzzle game where you can change the rules by which you play. In every level, the rules themselves are present as blocks you can interact with; by manipulating them, you can change how the level works and cause surprising, unexpected interactions. With some simple block-pushing you can turn yourself into a rock, turn patches of grass into dangerously hot obstacles, and even change the goal.
The exhibition tours are part of Devolution #6 (http://6.devolution.online), a cooperation between Arvi Teikari, Devolution, A. MAZE. / Berlin 2020 and Game Design // UE.
Mascha Camino
Mascha is a Game Designer at the Berlin-based Indie Game studio Maschinen-Mensch, currently developing Curious Expedition 2. During her time in Berlin, she grew to love the games community and was able to build up a few projects herself. She is now co-organizing Femisphere, Indie... Read More →
Arvi Teikari
Arvi is a Finnish game developer. One of his greatest interests as a game developer is to create experiences that surprise/ amuse the audience. Game jams have become a very important part of his identity as a game developer.
AI and Deep Learning for Music and Sound creation for Video games
Machine Learning is a branch of Artificial Intelligence that allows humans to teach computers to classify
specific sets of patterns within a large amount of data, as well as to generate novel outputs based on what an AI has "learned" from a corpus of data. Everyday examples of AI include computers being able to perform object detection in pictures, speech and facial recognition as well as generate new music in the style of a particular artist, to name a few.
In this introductory hands-on workshop we will learn about general concepts of AI, ML and Deep Learning and
work with two generative AI models for sound: SampleRNN and WaveGAN.
We will use them to create our own AI synthesized soundtracks and sound effects to be used as assets in a
video game.
Artists, Video Game developers and general interested audience in computer creativity.
People from underrepresented backgrounds and communities in art+tech and video
games are highly encouraged to apply.
Recommended for beginner to professional artists and musicians working with game-engines
and creative coding. No coding experience is necessary but is highly encouraged
- Laptop
- Stable internet connection
- Unity 3D installed
- Google Mail & Drive account
Moisés Horta Valenzuela AKA 𝔥𝔢𝔵𝔬𝔯𝔠𝔦𝔰𝔪𝔬𝔰
Moisés Horta Valenzuela is a musician, composer and sound artist. Taking inspiration from the sociocultural border context of Tijuana and being part of a generation exposed to the consumption of information via the Internet, the objective of his work is to express the ways in which... Read More →
Subject AI, Machine Learning, Music Creation, Sound Creation
Art + Games World Tour: Africa
AGWT Africa:
Hugo Obi (NG)
Afrane Akwasi Bediako (GH)
Setriakor Nyomi (GH)
Eyram Tawia (GH)
Julien Herbin (SN)
Limpho Dee Moeti (ZA)
TRONS Factory, 2020, Experimental Windows PC game.
One Mancala - Bringing ancient board games to one platform Six years ago I published Oware 3D to the Playstore, It featured a variant of the Mancala family of games. One Mancala is the spiritual successor to Oware 3D is an attempt to bring together the most popular variants of the Mancala games into a single mobile, social experience.
Eyram Tawia
AL Reawakening.
we will talk about our working process with creating the AL Reawakening game. We will take you through how we transform the stories into real products with a focus on story writing, character development and the actual game dev process..
Afrane Akwasi Bediako
Akwasi Bediako Afrane (b. 1990) is a Ghanaian artist living and working in Kumasi, Ghana.His works explore the idea of augmentation and extensions between technological gadgetsand humans. He works with discarded electronic gadgets which he refers to as "amputees".He refashions... Read More →
Eyram Tawia is CEO and Cofounder of Leti Arts, an interactive digital studio that creates Afrocentric mobile games and comics. He believes preserving cultural diversity through gaming and entertainment is important and aims to prove this by creating world-class games and comics using... Read More →
Hugo Obi
Hugo Obi is the founder of Maliyo Games – the first indigenous gaming company in Nigeria and one of the early pioneers of mobile gaming in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hugo is a visionary entrepreneur with interests in the development of mobile content for Africa's growing mobile consumers... Read More →
Julien Herbin
Julien is the CEO of a video game studio based in Dakar (Senegal), and founded in 2019. His studio focuses on creating games presenting African cultures from a new angle.Prior to that, he was a programmer at Ubisoft since 2007 and has contributed about 10 shipped titles along his... Read More →
Limpho Moeti
Limpho Moeti previously worked at Free Lives (Broforce, Gorn) and was deputy festival director of South Africa's playful media festival, Playtopia. Currently she works as a producer/biz dev at Nyamakop developing on African-inspired video games. She is one half of the Bad Form Podcast... Read More →
Setriakor Nyomi
Setriakor Nyomi is the founder and lead designer of GreyParrot Interactive Ltd.. He founded GreyParrot with the mission of telling African stories using gaming as a medium. Prior to founding GreyParrot, he held the role of Director of Sustained Engineering at the African Leadership... Read More →
Output:TargetDisplay: Display01
Output:TargetDisplay: Display01, is a storytelling VR experience, a part of my ongoing self-portrait project: Tey Al Tool, and describing 4 months of my life during my stay in Barcelona. The project supported and produced during my residency in ESPRONCEDA- Institute of Art & Culture and had a live streaming walkthrough on 29 May.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN0DCorTVbo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mohsenzzzt/
In case the live-stream is broken please follow this link: https://www.twitch.tv/esproncedabcn
Game on! El arte en juego. An experimental touring session from Argentina.
Game on! El arte en juego, the only artgames exhibition in Argentina, South America, presents a virtual touring session specially designed for this digital edition of AMAZE Festival.
Join or Watch
The session can be joined for up to 30 direct participants. It can also be watched on the livestream and participate via chat.
Those interested in taking part with their own avatar have to pre-register to receive the link a couple of hours before the event: https://bit.ly/GOAMAZE
A virtual gallery suspended somewhere in between the physical and the digital. Six rooms awaiting to be explored. A group of artists and indie game developers working together to create a series of performances that can only be lived in virtuality. An attempt to recreate the feeling of being together in the same room, trying to get the best spot, having fun, being amazed, playing together.
Game on! El arte en juego is the only artgames exhibition in Argentina. It has been running since 2009 exploring the ways in which games, technology and art intertwine.
This experimental touring session has gathered talented and innovative artists and developers to fussion the spirit of Game on! with the energy of AMAZE.
We hope you will enjoy it!
Director, Game on! El arte en juego
Luján is a cultural producer and curator specialized in experimental art videogames. She is the director of the artgames exhibition Game on! El arte en juego that has been running since 2009 in Buenos Aires. She is also the co-founder alongside Jim Munroe of GAIA (Game Arts International... Read More →
Julieta Lombardelli (AR)
Julieta has a PhD in Arts at the UNLP Faculty of Arts. Her research focuses in the behavior of collaborative environments, she studies the relationship between artistic practices, digital environments and ludification. She is now working on her doctoral thesis.
Laura Palavecino (AR)
Laura Palavecino is a video game designer, visual artist and researcher interested in experimental games and electronics from Argentina. She is currently finishing her thesis for a Master in Electronic Arts. She strongly believes that both traditional and digital arts can converge... Read More →
Sebastián Blanco
Sebastián Blanco (Papa) is the creative director of PapaCorps and is working on his next game: AWAKENING. He directs an Experimental Game Lab and is an associate professor at Universidad Abierta Interamericana. He has also worked as a Robotics Researcher for a decade. Papa is passionate... Read More →
Tembac (AR)
Tembac is a video game developer and experimental multimedia artist from Argentina. He studied cinematography, acting and self-educated on how to make games. He is a founding member of the Argentine Video Game Foundation (Fundav). Currently, he is making games for VR arcades.
Videogamo (Hernán and Maxi) (AR)
Hernan and Maxi are the cofounders of Videogamo Studio. They are the creators of NAVE Arcade, a survival space-shooter, a "resistance" game that has been touring around Argentina since 2012. They are also the creators of DOBOTONE a 5-player party video game console that has been... Read More →
Let's jam in Dreams
Dreams is a hub to play and share music, art and all kinds of games... but I also see it as a school that teaches games as a broad term, not attached to any genre or market. It's pure, playful and empowers anyone to discover their creativity through play.
I'll introduce Dreams to you and then we'll make something together. You can even create something during the workshop and I'll include it! I'll also show you the visual stuff that Bogdan will use later in his Dreams Algorave. So, let's jam!
I'd like to reach players who never have or may be considering making games as well as game makers, musicians and artists.
Attendees can take part via the streaming chat on YouTube. But if anyone has Dreams, they're welcome to jam along.
Pablo López Soriano
Pablo López Soriano is Principal Animator at Media Molecule. His background in audiovisual studies feeds into a creative, multidisciplinary approach when working in games. He is passionate about nature and astronomy. Find him in Dreams as kednar.
Tour de A MAZE. Space
Have you checked out our beautiful A MAZE Space already?
A MAZE. Director Thorsten will give a tour through the space. You could join, be in the background or sit back and relax watching the livestream while Thorsten explores the space!
Special thanks to all involved in the creation of our total digital space.
@the_nomi
@giucapan
@moshelinke
@ramsesoriginal
@dotkokott
Magic Twins
Community Discord Event.
About the game: Magic Twins is a 1-2 co-operative arcade puzzle game in which Abra and Cadabra (the titular Magic Twins), must constantly swap their chromagic powers to defeat hordes of color elementals and stop the Colormageddon (which they unintentionally unleashed). Red beats red, blue beats blue.. you get the drill. Magic doesn't need to be complicated!
In case the live-stream is broken please follow this link: https://discord.gg/pU3mwey
A MAZE. Live Cooking Show: Butternut Blue Cheese Brown Rice Bowl with Riker
Butternut Blue Cheese Brown Rice Bowl by Henrike Lode
(South African fusion dish)
Serves: ca. 6 portions
Cooking time: 30 - 45 minutes
500g cubed butternut
50-100g blue cheese (leave out to make vegan)
200g veggie mince
1 onion (I like red, but white works too)
1-3 garlic cloves
chili powder / sriracha
optional: some chopped Peppadew, 1 cubed yellow bell pepper, 1 cubed carrot. 1 cubed potato
optional: sauce thickener (corn flour)
Defrost your veggie mince. Follow the rice cooking instructions. Mine says 1 cup of brown rice with 3 cups of water and half or one tablespoon of salt. Cover with lid. When it starts boiling, reduce heat to simmer, and set a timer (mine wants 35 minutes).
Dice onion and garlic and saute gently in olive oil in a big pan or no-stick pot until soft. Once the onion is getting a little brown and crispy, add the veggie mince and fry at medium heat for maybe 10 minutes. I use Bouillon cubes for the broth, so I throw one into a cup and fill it with boiling water, and give it some time to dissolve, stirring with a fork and smashing it.
I have never used a regular butternut before, if you do: good luck. They're a little difficult to peel, and you have to scrape out the seeds like you do with a honey melon. I use pre-chopped butternut and cut it into even smaller chunks. I like my butternut in cubes about 2cm. If you like yours bigger, they will take a little longer until it is soft. If you want to add some variety to the dish, you can also add optional veggies now. Try to have all the cubes roughly the same size.
Add veggie cubes to the pot together with the broth and mix well. Add enough broth/boiling water to just cover the veggies, and have a light hearty/salty flavour. Don't worry if it's a little salty, the coconut milk later will remove some of that flavour, and when you mix it with the rice it should work itself out. Put on the lid and set a second timer for 15 about minutes, or 20 if your chunks were bigger. Boil at medium/high heat (4/5 out of 6).
Now you have time to clean up the kitchen, have a glass of wine, chat a little with your friends, whatever you're into. Now is also a great time to chop some parsley and peppadew if you want to add that. Stir the pot a little every now and then, and watch that the butternut doesn't start dissolving, because that would be overdoing it.
When the second timer is up, check the consistency of the butternut by poking it with a fork. When it feels nice and soft (and carrots and potatoes as well), add coconut milk and reduce heat to low heat. Break blue cheese into smaller chunks and add to the pot, letting them dissolve. Add chopped parsley and season with chilli powder or sriracha. You can make it as spicy as you like. I also add some dried "mixed herbs".
(Optional) Finally, if the sauce is not thick enough for your liking, you can add some sauce thickener. For the one I use, Maizena cornflour, you pour some cold liquid in a cup, water or milk or cream or coconut milk or whatever you like. Then add 1-2 fork spoons of sauce thickener, stir until all the lumps are dissolved and then pour into the pot, and mix well. It needs heat to thicken, but thickens very quickly, so watch it and keep stirring.
Somewhere in the process the rice timer was probably finished. If there is still liquid in the pot, turn off the heat and leave the rice on the hot plate without lid on, the remaining liquid should evaporate without the rice burning. I don't know your stove though, so keep an eye on it, stir every now and then. If the liquid doesn't disappear by itself, pour it out.
Final step: Mix the rice into the pot (hopefully there is enough space, otherwise pour both into a bigger container).
I put parmesan on top of my bowl, because there is never a good reason to not add more cheese to food, but that is between you and your cheese addiction.
I double the ingredients when I make this for meal prep, and if you keep it in the fridge, it'll last the whole week.
Riker (SA / DE)
Riker teaches Game Design at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She loves making games about serious stuff like coding or chill stuff like slow farming simulations in Twine. In her free time she enjoys romantic walks on the balcony and cooking up delicacies... Read More →
Protection Song – A Ritual of Connection
Freeze. Run. Fight. Play! Humans, like all mammals, rely on our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems to respond to danger and safety in the world. But in a time when the world feels incessantly dangerous, our body has a hard time keeping up. In this participatory online playful ritual, we'll explore how we respond to threat, and how we create safety. Audio narration, sound, and on-screen text will guide participants through simple story-based moments to experience from home. Together we'll consider how our mammalian nervous systems adapted to keep us alive, and what we can learn by listening to them.
Heather Kelley (US)
Heather Kelley is an award-winning game designer, media artist, curator, and professor at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. She is a founding member of the experimental game collective Kokoromi, creators of VR puzzle game SUPERHYPERCUBE, and she co-curated... Read More →
Come to the imaginary bathroom for graffiti, letting go, reaching out, and moving on.
Link TBA
Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan (CA)
Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan is an artist working in the playful spaces between people, especially related to connection, expression and community. Marie builds playful installations, experimental video games, and cooperative experiences. Marie founded droneday.org and wyrdartsi... Read More →
A MAZE. Award Show
25 nominees from 14 countries competing in 5 categories + 5 nominees for the Humble New Talent Award.
The award, now in its 9th year, presents a total of 7.000€ in prizes to game developers at the A MAZE. Awards Ceremony, which is one of the highlights of A MAZE./ Berlin.
25 games are nominated by a selection committee of professionals in games, art and culture. The games are then adjudicated by an international independent jury for a number of 5 award categories.
Moderated by Friedrich Liechtenstein.
Nominees and jury members are going to be present on our stream, including the closing speech by Thorsten S. Wiedemann, founder and artistic director of A MAZE., and the performance by dancer The Darvish live from the A MAZE. Studio.
Friedrich Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein is an actor, musician and entertainer. He grew up in what was then Stalinstadt, Eisenhüttenstadt, in the GDR. Friedrich Liechtenstein now lives in Berlin. With Arnold Kasar and Sebastian Borkowski, he is part of the Friedrich Liechtenstein Trio, whose concerts combine... Read More →
Matthias Löwe
Mathias is an Interaction Designer, specialized in the creative use of playful interactions and interested in transferring interaction in games to artifacts with "real world application". He was building little robots at the Design Research Lab Berlin. He is engaged in worksh... Read More →
Owen Hindley
Part of last years most amazing award winner Huldufugl, Owen is creating immersive theatrical environments and works with software, sound and electronics to make experiences for VR, installations, games, performances, & the web. He is also a co-founder at Horizons Studio making music-centered... Read More →
Rayzones
Rayzones is a Moscow-based artist and game designer. they are a part of Lowpolis, a two-member team that makes things like good morning drifter,a non-racing experience with pears, and gift-exchange-machine — a stork-powered postcard exchange service.
Sarah Rudolph
Sarah Rudolph is a video game and culture journalist from Germany. For the last decade they have been talking, writing and podcasting about games, gender, politics and their cultural implications. In 2018 they co-curated the queer video game history exhibition RAINBOW ARCADE at Schwules... Read More →
Simon Bachelier
Simon works as a freelance producer for video games studios since several years. He is currently working at accidental queens after the release of three narrative games. Besides game development, he organises and produces events dedicated to the independent game developers and alternative... Read More →
The Darvish (SY)
Darvish (IG thedarvishofficial) selftought performance artist from Syria, Cultural events and performance parties organiser, Creative & artistic director, his persona was displayed at local and international magazines and Articles, Co-host & co-organizer of Berlin biggest solidarity... Read More →
Algorithmic music performance using Dreams
This session is an audiovisual performance using Media Molecule's Dreams. Inspired by the live coding approach used in the algorave community, a live view of the tools being used will be broadcast, providing an intricate and partly educational view of performing using these tools.
Bogdan Vera
Bogdan Vera is a multi-disciplinary programmer at Media Molecule, interested in creative coding, music, audio and human-computer interaction. He also performs music in the algorave, IDM, and experimental genres, recently focusing on using Media Molecule's new game Dreams as a tool... Read More →
Das Das
DAS DAS is a minimal garage synth-punk duo from Berlin, they just released their self titled album in May.
IXA
MC/rapper, producer, DJ, and performance artist. From a race of bio-luminescent extra terrestrial creatures with Nubian features booming in speakers. Based in Berlin, formerly Philadelphia.
A daily breakfast session with Zuraida Buter, program curator and Thorsten S. Wiedemann, festival director.
They open the day with a cup of coffee/tea and talk about the previous A MAZE. day and what's still to come.
Saturday July 25, 2020 11:00 - 11:30 CEST
Body Open Source Talk
Jagoda Wójtowicz
Martha Nawrot
Devolution of Dicey Dungeons
Devolution of Dicey Dungeons - Exhibition Tour with Terry Cavanagh
For the ultimate insight into the development of Dicey Dungeons and its design decisions. Guided tour through the exhibited versions of the game (http://6.devolution.online) by the developer Terry Cavanagh, supported by the co-curator of Devolution Mascha Camino. Complementing the Devolution exhibition with background information, secrets and anecdotes.
Dicey Dungeons combines elements of roguelike games with deck-building games. The game takes place on a game show-like backdrop, where Lady Luck challenges adventurers, each having been turned into a dice, to complete a dungeon with a rather unlikely chance of winning their freedom.
The exhibition tours are part of Devolution #6 (http://6.devolution.online), a cooperation between Terry Cavanagh, Devolution, A. MAZE. / Berlin 2020 and Game Design // UE.
Terry Cavanagh
Irish game designer, creator of Super Hexagon, VVVVVV, Dicey Dungeons, and some other small games.
Evolving Communities: From A MAZE Johannesburg to Playtopia.
How A MAZE Johannesburg influenced the growth of alternative games communities in
South Africa, and planted the seeds for Playtopia MGA.
Anja Venter
Dr Anja "Nanna" Venter-Rausch is a self-proclaimed "Art-stronaut". She is a visual designer who completed her Master's degree in Media Studies at the University of Cape Town with a focus on video game culture in marginal settings. In 2018 she was awarded her Ph.D. which... Read More →
Ben Rausch
Ben Rausch is an "artstronaut" - a multidisciplinary artist exploring the unknown, through new combinations of creativity and technology.
Since 2014, Ben's primary focus has orbited around games, how they can disrupt status quos, bring people together, positively rewiring... Read More →
Crystal Farmer
Crystal Farmer is a Social Anthropologist. She spent 3 years of Masters research applying her body as a research tool to study the socio-spatial entanglements of the Cape Town game dev scene. She co-runs the Playtopia Volunteer Program and identifies as a Super Friendship Arcade Superfriend... Read More →
Evan Greenwood
Sithe Ncube
Sithe has been an active member of the African game development community since 2013 beginning with organizing community events in her hometown Lusaka, Zambia. She is currently directing a project called prosearium.net with the goal of documenting 1000 African women and their contributions... Read More →
Video Game kills the Video Star.
We want to find out what music means in the age of digitalisation and playfulness. How video games influence the musician, the performer, the artist. Specially in the days of Covid-19. What is the music performer doing. Are there ways to not only make licence deals with video game studios but collaborate and maybe the music video times of the 80s/ 90s back but in form of a video game or vr experience.
Freya Berkhout
Freya Berkhout is a multi-award winning composer, vocalist and creative technologist based in Eora (Sydney). Her practice is informed by Feminist TechnoScience and delves into digital ecologies, human / nature entanglement and emergence. An activist at heart, she is inspired by cultural... Read More →
Oliver Baurhenn
Oliver Baurhenn is one of the curators and organisers of the annual CTM – festival for adventurous music and art. He arrived in Berlin in the very early nineties, where he studied Comparative Literature and French followed by Cultural Studies. Before taking the step into sound... Read More →
How to bring your illustrations to life
Learn how to create an interactive illustration using Unity. Bring along your own illustrations (separated into layers) or a digital drawing tool so that your art can be transformed into an interactive project. We will be focusing on adding depth, small animations and other interactions to your artworks.
- Digital Illustrations (separated into layers) or digital drawing tools
- Laptop with Unity installed
This workshop will be given through Zoom
Kirsten-Lee Naidoo
Game Development Lecturer and avid game jammer who loves dogs.
Rohun Ranjith
Hi, I am a junior game developer at Free Lives in South Africa. I love to make small games and to draw in my free time.
Audience Illustrators, 2D Artists, Beginners
Subject 2D, Illustrations, Animation
Patchathon
A new way of making music is emerging in virtual reality - connecting sophisticated musical and visual inventions as a series of connected pipes and full-body interactions. Working in the in-development platform Patch.XR, a selection of multimedia artists from around the world have been imagining new musical instruments and audiovisual performance environments in an intensive, one-week laboratory. These are their results, debuting for the first time.
Creative technologist and journalist Peter Kirn (CDM.link), a facilitator for the lab, hosts their final presentations.
An expert jury led by Patch.XR advisor Muki Kulhan (SxSW, IBC, MTV, BBC) will announce awards and special mentions.
Presented by Patch.XR.
Peter Kirn
Art + Games World Tour: Latin America
Latin America:
Shitty Games(AR)
Dario Georges - tumbagames (AR)
Agustin Pontura – tumbagames(AR)
Julian Palacios (IT/AR)
Mateo Amaral (AR)
Daniela Fernandez (AR)
Gabi Pella (AR)
Taina Felix (BR)
Raquel Motta (BR) & Marcos Silva
Galamot (MX)
Shittygames
A brief review on some of the studio creations and their repercussions in the social networks and the mass media
Mateo Amaral
we were humanity
Live AV set made with ableton live and unity 3d. It is an abstract sci-fi narrative that tells the story of a future where Artificial Intelligences merged with plants and try to remember their ancestors: the extinct humanity. Combining 3D representations of natural landscapes, the imaginary of cyber-space, primitive digital aesthetics, manipulated samples of ancestral rituals and contemporary popular culture, I seek to reflect on the artificial minds that are being born right now.
Tumbagames
Perra Force
Perra Force is a 4 player beat em up about an all-girl gang who face off against a multitude of enemies that embody all the stereotypes of patriarchy.
Daniela Fernández
Presentation of the project ITA.
Ita is a 2D platform video game in which a young girl comes across a magical being, called Yasí Yateré, who kidnaps children that refuse to take a nap or siesta after lunch. He takes her to the Realm of Eternal Night, which is inhabited by all the beings of the legends of the Litoral, inherited from Guaraní culture. Ita must find her way home through the Portal of Dreams, where the rivers cross. To get there she will have to escape from the beings of the night, who want to steal her spiritual light.
Game e Arte (Tainá & Jaderson)
A decolonial, popular and black vision for games in Brazil
We will briefly present our way of creating games under a decolonial and popular vision. That puts the black person as the protagonist of their narratives within the language of digital games. How to create your game using accessible tools and a view parallel to the axis of the main stream game industry.
Agustín Pontura
Daniela Fernández is an Illustrator and an Image & Sound Designer from Argentina, specialized in audiovisual production and scriptwriting, and co-founder of Auto Rojo.The video game Ita, inspired on the Guaraní culture of Chaco, was sponsored by the National Fund for the Arts.
Darío Georges
Tumba Games is a punk videogame development team based in Buenos Aires. Their games address social and political issues from the perspective of dark humor. For the past few years, they have presented their works on arcade machines in art galleries, bars and nerdy events.
Gabi Pella
Born in Buenos Aires, on the 25th of July, 1991. Sound & Image Designer, graduated from University of Buenos Aires. Currently developing Manzana Misteriosa, finalist of the 2018 Indie Prize at Casual Connect USA and winner of "Best Desktop Game 2017" at the Awesome Game Awards... Read More →
Former graphic designer and Illustrator.Currently working in video game development and art direction as well as an independent artist in digital media.I like exploring everything digital art related to find new aesthetic possibilities.
Since 2010, we at Game e Arte have worked with cultural and social activities with video games. In the last 4 years we have developed two games: "A Nova Califórnia" and "Amora", in both, we approach the creation process under a decolonial vision, aligned to the black and... Read More →
Julián Palacios
Julián is an independent developer from Milan.He was born in Italy, son of two South-american inmigrants.In his work, he uses 3D space to explore the connections between memory, fantasy and identity.His effort is aimed at creating audiovisual narratives that evoke a feeling of r... Read More →
Marcos Silva
A young black man from the borderlands of São Paulo, Brazil. Marcos Silva started his game's career with a mix of technical skills and social impact causes. His love about music and games linked to afro Brazilian experiences contributes with creative insights in Sue The Real gam... Read More →
Mateo Amaral is a multidisciplinary artist who develops his work using techniques such as drawing and painting, three-dimensional digital animation, distortion of video through software errors, exploration of audiovisual noise and production of electronic music. His research leads... Read More →
Shitty Games (AR)
Shitty Games it's an indie(gent) videogame developers studio based in Argentina. Founded in 2014 with the need to communicate the unconformity about the socio-political situation of their country. They created more than 30 retro style games with a dark pixelated satirical sense of... Read More →
The [Amaze]ing Watermelon Sculpting
Bring yourself, a watermelon, a knife and come sculpt some watermelon lanterns with us.Warning: This will probably get messy.
Join us on Zoom here
A MAZE Live Cooking Show: Mini-Pavlovas for Edible Games with Jenn Sandercock
Share your cookalong thoughts & media via twitter (#AMaze2020, #AMAZELiveCooking) or on our discord channel.
Mini-Pavlovas for Edible Games with Jenn Sandercock
This recipe will give you supplies to play either High Tea Assassin (3 player game) or Flavour Roulette (1-5 player game).
For Meringues
For a small batch:
Double for more
For Fillings
For High Tea Assassin
⅓ cup any red jam, e.g. raspberry, strawberry
½ cup chocolate, melted
For Flavour Roulette
2 tablespoons of a flavour you dislike on sweet desserts, e.g. horseradish, mustard, Vegemite, curry powder.
For Toppings
½ cup of at least 3 different chopped fruits (either fresh, tinned, or thawed from frozen). For example, kiwi fruit, bananas, peaches, passionfruit, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, etc..
Special equipment needed:
Electric mixer or stand mixer
Piping bag will make your life easier but is not essential
Prepare oven and trays:
Preheat oven to 140°C/280°F.
Line baking trays with sheets of parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Make the meringue mix
Whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Add sugar one tablespoon at a time while mixing each tablespoon in fully.
Create meringue shapes
Leave a small amount of space between each meringue.
If you have a piping bag:
Scrape out your bowl and put the meringue mix into a piping bag.
Pipe into a "nest" shape onto your baking trays.
If you don't have a piping bag:
Use a spoon to make dollops on the tray.
Use the back of the spoon to make a crater in your dollop.
Bake the meringues
Bake for 30-45 minutes or until dry and firm to touch.
Allow meringues to cool
Switch off the oven.
Leave in the oven for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven and put on cake cooling rack.
Add fillings
Place fillings inside nests according to the rules of the game you'd like to play.
Make 2 of the same flavour for each player. That is, make 2 with jam, 2 with melted chocolate, and leave 2 plain
Fill one with the "bad" filling.
Make at least one with nothing inside and up to the number of players -1.
Whip the cream
Put cream into a large bowl.
Whip until stiff peaks form.
Add cream as the topping
Using a piping bag or a spoon, put on cream on top of the meringue nests in a dome.
Place your nests carefully so you can remember which are matched based on fillings.
Decorate with your toppings
Chop up your toppings so they're small enough to fit on top of your domes.
For High Tea Assassin:
If you would like to play yourself, make sure at this point you move your pairs around so you forget what is inside.
Put the same toppings on any two that have the same filling.
For Flavour Roulette:
Put the same topping on every item for the round.
Make sure that for every round you have at least one item with the "bad" filling.
Jenn Sandercock
Game Designer/Producer, Inquisiment
Jenn creates games fostering friendship, curiosity, and challenge. Jenn has developed a wide range of digital and non-digital games, including LA Noire and Thimbleweed Park. She is the creative force behind the Edible Games Cookbook which contains 13 tabletop games that you have to... Read More →
Video games, African Women, and everything in between.
This is a relaxed conversation about my experiences interacting with video games, video game communities and tech spaces as an African woman. We'll also chat about the current state of representation of African women in the games industry as well as the progress of prosearium.net in documenting 1000 African women and their contributions to games.
Grand Finale Mega Overflow Session
Goal of the grand final with minimum 1000 A MAZE. friends to perform together a song: (tbc)
DJ Storno
8bit punk from Berlin.


text:
Q: Xamarin forms: Frame Shadow custom renderer I have a custom renderer to be able to change the properties of the Layer that mount the shadow, however this frame after shown on the screen, when I need to change its size does not "take" the shadow together. The shadow stays where I was before, I use a custom renderer because the native shadow is very "strong" and I have not found a way to change it.
Any suggestions for what is missing so that this is normal? I have already tried to take it to the propertychanged of the frame and have it do the Draw again but it was not solved.
Custom renderer:
public override void Draw(CGRect rect)
        {
            base.Draw(rect);
            Layer.ShadowRadius = 3;
            Layer.ShouldRasterize = true;
            Layer.ShadowColor = UIColor.Gray.CGColor;
            Layer.ShadowOffset = new CGSize(0, 1);
            Layer.ShadowOpacity = 0.25f;
            Layer.ShadowPath = UIBezierPath.FromRoundedRect(Layer.Bounds, Element.CornerRadius).CGPath;
            Layer.MasksToBounds = false;
        }

Cardfarme xaml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<customControls:CardFrame
    x:Class="dragon.Views.UserControls.CardListUserControl"
    xmlns="http://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
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                                        Grid.Column="0"
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Print:

In the image we have the first card with items inside the list that makes it expand and in the other card without changes in the list (no need to expand) is correct as it should, remembering that if the native shadow works, and Android is working too because it has no custom renderer applied.

A: Override OnElementPropertyChanged like this:
protected override void OnElementPropertyChanged(object sender, System.ComponentModel.PropertyChangedEventArgs e)
{
     var rect = new CGRect(0, 0, 0, 0);
     SetNeedsDisplay();
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Asheville topographic map
> United States > North Carolina > Buncombe County > Asheville
Name: Asheville topographic map, elevation, terrain.
Location: Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States (35.41646 -82.67036 35.65608 -82.46047)
Asheville features a climate that borders between a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa/Trewartha Do) and an oceanic climate (Koppen Cfb) with noticeably cooler temperatures than the rest of the Piedmont region of the Southeast due to the higher elevation; it is part of USDA Hardiness zone 7a. The area's summers in particular, though warm, are not as hot as summers in cities farther east in the state, as the July daily average temperature is 73.8 °F (23.2 °C) and there is an average of only 9.4 afternoons with 90 °F (32.2 °C)+ highs annually; The last time a calendar year passed without a single 90 °F (32.2 °C) reading was as recent as 2009. Moreover, warm mornings where the low remains at or above 70 °F or 21.1 °C are much less common than 90 °F or 32.2 °C afternoons. Winters are cool, with a January daily average of 37.1 °F (2.8 °C) and highs remaining at or below freezing on 5.5 afternoons.
Wikipedia (CC-BY-SA 3.0)
United States > North Carolina > Buncombe County
Black Mountain, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28711, United States
Candler, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28715, United States
Swannanoa, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28814, United States
Weaverville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States
United States > North Carolina > Buncombe County > Asheville
Arden, Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28704, United States
Fairview, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28730, United States
Canto, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28853, United States
Sandymush
Sandymush, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28853, United States
Biltmore, Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28803, United States
United States > North Carolina > Buncombe County > Asheville > Grace
Beaver Lake, Grace, Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States
Malvern Hills, Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28806, United States
Sayles Village
Sayles Village, Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28805, United States
Owltown
Owltown, Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States
Woodfin
Woodfin, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 288004, United States
Enka, Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28728, United States
Enka Village
Enka Village, Asheville, Buncombe County, North Carolina, 28728, United States

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Submit your UGF application and Star Citizen application if applicable.
Join us on our Discord so we talk to you and get you setup.
Here is a link to the Charter, you may want to open this in a new tab. The Charter is a document that states the intent of the Federation, and where you will find the rules. It may be in your best interest to read the rules in their entirety, so that you can ensure that UGF is right for you.
Note that we have 2 application forms. One is the main UGF Application everyone joining must fill in. The second is the Star Citizen application which should only be filled in if you plan to play Star Citizen.
Once you have done these 3 easy steps just poke one of our staff and we will get you onboard.


text:
The Missile Defense Shield: An Idea That Looks Better Every Day
19 Jun, 2006 by	John Hawkins
"North Korea appears to have completed fueling a long-range ballistic missile, American officials said Sunday, a move that greatly increases the probability that it will go ahead with its first important test launching in eight years.
…American intelligence officials say they believe that the system is a Taepodong 2 missile and that a three-stage version could strike all of the United States. One administration official said the missile at the launching pad was a two-stage version.
While North Korea claims to have developed nuclear weapons, it has never allowed outsiders to see them. American experts believe that North Korea has enough plutonium for at least half a dozen nuclear weapons and has produced a small but growing nuclear arsenal. It is not known if the North Koreans can build a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a missile, but experts say it seems plausible that they could do so.
"Assuming the missile is a Taepodong 2 and assuming the missile test is successful, North Korea would demonstrate that they have made important progress toward the ability to hit targets in the continental United States with a missile large enough to carry a nuclear weapon," said Gary Samore, a former senior aide on the National Security Council and a vice president of the MacArthur Foundation."
So, the Missile Defense Shield that the Bush Administration has been working so hard to get going, despite the fact that liberals have opposed it all the way? Is it looking a little better now? Does the big push to get it ready make more sense given this article? Does Bush's approach make a little more sense than say, the John Kerry or Ted Kennedy approach, which consists of counting on the rationality of that poofy haired psycho, Kim Jung-Il? Although we still have more work to do to get the shield fully operational, we have some protection now, because Bush had a lot more foresight than most of the Democrats.


text:
Easy Star All-Stars Announce New Album 'Ziggy Stardub' For April 2023 Release; Share New Single "Starman" Featuring Maxi Priest
Hannah Boyle January 24th, 2023 - 12:59 AM
David Bowie, Amen! Easy Star All-Stars has recently released an homage to the great Ziggy Stardust with a new album 'Ziggy Stardub' featuring covers of the late rockstar's work. Included in the album is a featured cover of the masterpiece of a song, "Starman". Find the tracklist for the album 'Ziggy Stardub' below, as well as the album cover. The song "Starman" is also available below.
Easy Star All-Star's version of 'Starman', while an homage to the great David Bowie, has its own uniqueness. While a cover, the artist has had no problem respectfully making it their own. Perhaps it is because the song is so incredibly well known (as is its creator) that Easy Star All-Stars can have fun with it. The cover is similar to Guns N Roses' cover of the song "Sympathy For The Devil", originally written and performed by The Rolling Stones. Seeing as the song is already so iconic, the artist has more freedom in making alterations. There is no cover that could ever compare to the original as written by Bowie.
"Starman" has a more festive, reggae feel to it. It is different but interesting. It is far from the song that everyone knows and loves, but still worth the listen.
Ziggy Stardub Tracklist:
1. Five Years (ft. Steel Pulse)
2. Soul Love (ft. Mortimer)
3. Moonage Daydream (ft. Naomi Cowan)
4. Starman (ft. Maxi Priest)
5. It Ain't Easy (ft. Samory I)
6. Lady Stardust (ft. SunDub)
7. Star (ft. Carlton Livingston)
8. Hang On To Yourself (ft. Fishbone and JonnyGo Figure)
9. Ziggy Stardust (ft. The Skints)
10. Suffragette City (ft. The Expanders)
11. Rock 'n' Roll Suicide (ft. Macy Gray)
12. Five Years Dub
13. Moonage Daydream Dub
14. Lady Stardust Dub
15. All The Young Dudes (ft. Kirsty Rock)
Easy Star All Stars
Hannah Boyle


Archivists don't always talk about it, but you have to do refreshes occasionally if you really want your stuff to survive. Pawing through piles, blowing off dust, scrubbing down computers. It doesn't matter how nice your facility is but you have to do these things. And my facility (my house) ain't so nice. I've been going through my collections/projects in my office and found a bunch of stuff that I have to get moving on.
Among this is cd.textfiles.com, that erstwhile collection of shareware CD-ROMs and CD-ROM-based archive stuff that has ballooned well past every other site on textfiles.com. Weighing in around 205gb, it's just a monster to deal with. But that's not the problem.
The problem is I'm about to triple its size.
Some time ago, I was asked to provide ISO images of these CD-ROMs where possible, providing pristine digital captures of the data. I agreed, along with label scans and the rest. These will be added to cd.textfiles.com over time. Additionally, I'll be adding Apple Macintosh disks, in some way that makes sense. (It's a little weird to add them.) I have over 100 of those to add. And their ISOs.
So really, there's this cascading flood of data I'm about to blow out onto the net. It's going to make a lot more stuff available. It's going to be quite exciting. It's also meant I bought another hard drive I'm installing into the server, a 750gb, to handle all this incoming data.
This, and all the similar issues I'm encountering, are delightful crises; the problem of too much stuff, the problem of too much interesting things to do, the problem of so many things to accomplish. My days are not filled with aimless wandering; they're filled with excitement of wondering which amazing thing to work on, and how much more of stuff to add to the piles.
It's a busy bunch of months ahead, indeed.
There's no point in storing the same exact data twice! If you really want the 'pristine' ISOs of the CDs, use a shell script to mount all of them as filesystems! With FUSE + AVFS you can even mount ZIPs and RARs and whatnot.
Mac discs? That is pretty awesome of you! Thank you very much, there.
Oh, the anticipation is killing me! I wonder if there are many HyperCard stacks?
The issue with using the ISOs live for FUSE is twofold. First of all, it's somewhat resource intensive, and second of all, it assumes the arrangement is exactly the same between the two entities. And it's not.
But I appreciate someone wanting my life to be better/easier. The ISOs will be compressed, saving hundreds of megabytes along the way.
Wow, I totally am still finding more and more game preservation stuff. I'm so new to this – neat to see game shareware there!
Anyway, great blog, and this project of yours sounds really good – for Shareware CD's, I presume these are just things like magazine front page CD's? And you're looking for donations, of any specific time period? (I myself am not that old, but my Dad on the otherhand…).
I was also reading about this site (which I for some reason never found before) on wikipedia, shame about people having legal issues with the content. I don't know anyone else recording this kind of history.
Okay, long comment over 🙂 Hope you have enough space for all the content! and I will help contribute if I can.


Type: New aftermarket item (NON-OEM/NON-Original Equipment Manufacturer). Can also be used as primary power source when battery is low. Compatible with Ni-Mh, Ni-Cd, Li-Ion Batteries. Auto-Switching adapter can be used in the worldwide. Tested before shipping. Best quality. Returns accepted within: 30 Days.
Wideband Stainless Steel Discone Base Station Antenna. 25-1300Mhz receive. Transmits 144-160Mhz, 430-470Mhz, 220-225Mhz & 902-928Mhz. 200W. Requires Optional mast pipe, & coax lead-in cable.


text:
Ronan Keating announces new album release
It's been three years since he's released any material, but Ronan Keating has revealed a brand-new album is on the way.
The singer took to Twitter to announce his 10th album is currently available to pre-order and will be released on February 12, 2016.
Recently, Ronan's taken on more acting roles and made his West End debut in "Once" earlier this year, picking up some great feedback from critics.
He's also found a home in X Factor Australia, enjoying five years on the show to-date and mentoring two winners.
Ronan's last solo album was 2012 record "Fires".
Tlc announce new album David Bowie reveals teaser for new "Blackstar" video David Bowie announces new album "Blackstar" Shakira talks about new album
By allaroundnewmusic|2017-04-12T23:16:58+00:00November 28th, 2015|NEWS|0 Comments


text:
Analaysis: RTI Amendment Bill
Reading time: 6-8 minutes.
The modern democracy is institutionalised by the system of checks and balances. The government officials violated this Right to Information Act by virtually usurping the fundamental right of "an informed citizenry." This Amendment, struck the very foundation of the citizen-centric Right to Information Act, by disabling its neutrality making it favourable to the government.
The authorities under the RTI Act, are merely toothless tigers at the mercy of the government for tenure and salary structure. The ethos of RTI, i.e. transparency and accountability of the government is torn into pieces as the ultimate accountability is not to the people forming the democracy, but to the government running it.
Right to Information Act was passed by Parliament on 15 June 2005 and came fully into force on 12 October 2005. This act was enacted to consolidate the fundamental right in the Indian constitution 'freedom of speech' which is guaranteed under Article 19.
It empowers individuals to access information that is being kept by the state. It thereby ensures transparency as the government remains accountable to individuals in the way it carries out its functions. The RTI Act has also consciously given Information Commissioners status and privileges equal to Election Commissioner to guarantee that they operate independently and autonomously.
The Right to Information holds that every citizen should have the right to obtain access to government records. The reasons often advanced in support of the right are; First, that the right of information adds the accountability of government and its agencies;
Second, that it empowers the citizens to contribute more efficiently to deliberate on the relevant questions of public policy and third, that right to information renders justice in administrative decision-making processes concerning individuals.
Salient features of RTI:
The right to information endeavours maximum transparency in the functioning of the Government, and it provides access to pertinent information to their stakeholders so that they get extensive knowledge about government policies.
The core objective of the Right to Information is to ensure that the activities of public officials are to open to the sharp eye of citizen's scrutiny.
The applicant can solicit inspection of works, documents record certified copies of documents, etc.
Information under this act includes any material in any form, including documents, records, email memos, etc.
The public authorities are required to designate senior officers as Central / State Public Information Officers who would be responsible for the disposal of applications.
Period: In the ordinary course, information to an applicant is to be supplied within 30 days from the receipt of the application by the public authority. If the information sought concerns the life or liberty of a person, it should be supplied within 48 hours.
Section 8 (1) of this act mentions exemptions against furnishing information and Section 8 (2) provides for the disclosure of information exempted under Official Secrets Act, 1923 if the larger public interest is served.
Section 8 of the Act provides that no information should be disclosed if it creates an unwarranted invasion of the privacy of any individual.
This exception states that there is no obligation to disclose information which pertains to personal information, the disclosure of which has no nexus to any public activity or interest, or which would cause unwarranted invasion/intrusion of the privacy of the individual unless the more sufficient public interest justifies the disclosure of such information.
Changes in the recent Bill:
The Right to Information Bill will alter the provisions of service of the Central Information Commissioners and Information Commissioners at the center and in the states.
The Bill intends to modify the fixed tenure of 5 years of the Information Commissioners as "for such term as may be prescribed by the Central Government."
It further gives the rulemaking power to the Central Government to determine the pay and service conditions (salary structure) of the Information Commissioner.
Implications:
The Bill will water down the independence of the information commissions by bringing them under substantive government control. Consequently, the right to information will become just an illusory without the independence of the Information Commissioners.
Critics believe that amending the two cardinal provisions of the act, as envisioned by the amendment bill, will jeopardize its effectiveness.
Opposition parties argue that authorizing the Government to take a call on the tenure and salary structure of the RTI authorities will only rob their independence. Terming the Amendment as the "RTI Elimination Bill," they have claimed that even honest officials will stop disclosing sensitive information if their jobs and salaries are at stake.
The Amendment has disempowered common people while empowering the Central Government.
The Amendment violates Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution.
By controlling the tenure and acquiring the authority to fix salaries, allowances and other terms of service, the Government has radically altered the character of the Information Commissions, consequently violating Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
This amendment shall be challenged in the court to restore the status quo, failing which, the right to information would be virtually violated.
–This article is brought to you in collaboration with Gauri Suri from Army Institute of Law, Mohali.
Posted in NationalTagged RTI
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text:
Named Entity Results, Clotho (Minnesota, United States)
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T. Maccius Plautus, Menaechmi, or The Twin Brothers (ed. Henry Thomas Riley) 2 0 Browse Search
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T. Maccius Plautus, Menaechmi, or The Twin Brothers (ed. Henry Thomas Riley), act 5, scene 5 (search)
: He complains that the Parasite, who used to be his adviser, and as good as a Ulysses to him, his king, or patron, has been the cause of all his mishaps., who has brought so great evil on his king--a fellow that, by my troth, if I only live, I'll soon finish his lifeFinish his life: "Vita evolvam sua." Literally, "I will wind him off of his life." He probably alludes to the "Parcae," the "Fates" or "Destinies," who were fabled to be the daughters of Nox and Erebus, and of whom, one, named Clotho, held the distaff, and spun the thread of life; another, named Lachesis, wound it off; and the third, called Atropos, cut it off when of the requisite length.. But I'm a fool, who call that his, which is my own. With my own victuals and at my own expense has he been supported; of existence will I deprive the fellow. But the Courtesan has done this in a way worthy of her, just as the harlot's habit is: because I ask for the mantle, that it may be returned again to my wife, she declares that s


New study deciphers bird sounds to reveal language precursors in babbler birds.
Stringing together meaningless sounds to create meaningful signals was previously thought to be the preserve of humans alone, but a new study has revealed that babbler birds are also able to communicate in this way.
Researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Zurich discovered that the chestnut-crowned babbler – a highly social bird found in the Australian Outback – has the ability to convey new meaning by rearranging the meaningless sounds in its calls. This babbler bird communication is reminiscent of the way humans form meaningful words. The research findings, which are published in the journal PLOS Biology, reveal a potential early step in the emergence of the elaborate language systems we use today.
"In contrast to most songbirds, chestnut-crowned babblers do not sing. Instead its extensive vocal repertoire is characterised by discrete calls made up of smaller acoustically distinct individual sounds." she added.
"We think that babbler birds may choose to rearrange sounds to code new meaning because doing so through combining two existing sounds is quicker than evolving a new sound altogether." said co-author Professor Andy Russell from the University of Exeter who has been studying the babblers since 2004.
The researchers noticed that chestnut-crowned babblers reused two sounds "A" and "B" in different arrangements when performing specific behaviours. When flying, the birds produced a flight call "AB", but when feeding chicks in the nest they emitted "BAB" prompt calls.
When the researchers played the sounds back, the listening birds showed they were capable of discriminating between the different call types by looking at the nests when they heard a feeding prompt call and by looking out for incoming birds when they heard a flight call. This was also the case when the researchers switched elements between the two calls: making flight calls from prompt elements and prompt calls from flight elements, indicating that the two calls were indeed generated from rearrangements of the same sounds.
Co-author Dr Simon Townsend from the University of Zurich said: "This is the first time that the capacity to generate new meaning from rearranging meaningless elements has been shown to exist outside of humans.
This is a chestnut-crowned babbler. Image credit: Jodie Crane.
The authors report that in the chestnut-crowned babbler, the first sound element "B" is what seems to differentiate the meaning between flight and prompt vocalisations, akin to cat and at in English, where the c represents the meaning differentiating element, or phoneme.
"Although this so-called phoneme structuring is of a very simple kind, it might help us understand how the ability to generate new meaning initially evolved in humans" added Dr Simon Townsend. "It could be that when phoneme structuring first got off the ground in our hominid ancestors, this is the form it initially took".


text:
ALK gains paediatric approval for its ragweed SLIT-tablet in the USA
April 19, 2021 05:40 ET | Source: ALK Abello ALK Abello
Hørsholm, DENMARK
ALK (ALKB:DC / OMX: ALK B / AKABY / AKBLF):
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved extending the current product labelling of RAGWITEK® to include paediatric allergic rhinitis patients
The approval is based on data from one of the largest-ever paediatric SLIT-tablet trials, involving over 1,000 children 5 through 17 years of age in North America and Europe
This label extension advances ALK's efforts to expand the coverage of its tablet portfolio to all relevant ages
ALK today announced that it has gained approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to expand the use of ALK's ragweed sublingual allergy immunotherapy (SLIT) tablet RAGWITEK® (RAGWIZAX® in Europe) to include paediatric patients, down to the age of 5, with ragweed-induced allergic rhinitis.
Ragweed is a common cause of seasonal, airborne allergy in North America and in certain parts of Europe, as well as international markets. RAGWITEK® was first launched for adult use in the USA and Canada in 2014 and was approved in nine European countries and Russia in late 2017. In addition, ALK recently received European and Canadian regulatory approval for paediatric use of the ragweed tablet.
ALK's Executive Vice President of Research and Development, Henrik Jacobi, says: "Ragweed is a major cause of allergy in North America. This expanded approval means there can now be an earlier intervention to treat what can be a distressing condition. It also advances ALK's commitment to address unmet medical need by expanding the coverage of its tablet portfolio to cover patients of all relevant ages."
The application for paediatric use drew upon clinical data from a Phase III safety and efficacy trial involving 1,022 patients 5 through 17 years of age with a history of ragweed-induced allergic rhinitis. The randomised, multi-centre, placebo-controlled, double-blind, comparative trial met its primary endpoint, with a major reduction in the average total combined score (TCS) during the peak ragweed season of 38%. Moreover, efficacy in children was consistent with that seen for its sister product, GRAZAX® (GRASTEK® in the USA) for grass pollen allergies.
Since RAGWITEK® is already on the market in the USA for patients 18 through 65 years of age, the product becomes available for paediatric use with immediate effect.
ALK-Abelló A/S
Investor Relations: Per Plotnikof, tel. +45 4574 7527, mobile +45 2261 2525
Media: Jeppe Ilkjær, tel. +45 7877 4532, mobile +45 3050 2014
About ALK
ALK is a global specialty pharmaceutical company focused on allergy and allergic asthma. It markets allergy immunotherapy treatments and other products and services for people with allergy and allergy doctors. Headquartered in Hørsholm, Denmark, ALK employs around 2,500 people worldwide and is listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen. Find more information at www.alk.net.
ALK_PressRelease_ALK_PaediatricApprovalForRagweed_SLIT-tabletUSA_19Apr21
ALK_PressRelease_ALK_PaediatricApprovalForRagweed_SLIT-tabletUSA_19Apr21...