A MAZE. / Berlin 2019 is Coming Soon

From April 10th to 13th 2019 A MAZE. / Berlin will celebrate the international independent games and playful media scene. Since 2012, the heart of the festival are the A MAZE. Awards. In 2019, our international selection committee of about 50 people and the A MAZE. team reviewed 181 submissions from 32 countries.

ALL SUBMISSIONS FOR A MAZE. AWARDS 2019

“A MAZE. is a place of inspiration for game makers, digital artists, and creatives who are exploring playful systems for their future projects. In this sense it is important to us to present an artistic and forward-thinking exhibition of playful media as a whole, that includes games, immersive experiences and narratives, interactive art installations, and other mind-boggling projects on the fringe of play“, says artistic director Thorsten S. Wiedemann.

The submitters’ work ranges from all kinds of playful media, which underline the A MAZE. Awards categories. 25 games will compete in the following 6 categories:

• Most Amazing Game Award
• Human Machine Award
• Long Feature Award
• Digital Moment Award
• Explorer Award
• Audience Award
• in addition: Humble New Talent Award

AND THE NOMINEES ARE…:

• :THE LONGING: by STUDIO SEUFZ (Germany)
• 0_abyssalSomewhere by nonoise (Spain)
• A_DESKTOP_LOVE_STORY by alienmelon (USA)
• Anyball by Team Anyball (USA)
• Be B:E:R:N:D by MASO HfS Ernst Busch (Germany)
• Bird Alone by George Batchelor, Eli Rainsberry, Allissa Chan (UK)
• Blabyrinth by Sleeping Beast Games (Canada)
• Consume Me by Jenny Jiao Hsia & AP Thomson (USA)
• Fantastic Fetus by Fantastic Humans (Poland/ Austria)
• The Wanderer: Frankenstein’s Creature by La Belle / ARTE France (France)
• HanaHana Full Bloom by Mélodie Mousset (Switzerland)
• Horses by Andrea Lucco Borlera (Italy)
• Kassinn by Huldufugl (Iceland)
• Locus Solus by Dream Adoption Society (Poland)
• macdows 95 by Yunus AYYILDIZ (Turkey)
• Mundaun by Michel Ziegler (Switzerland)
• Operation Jane Walk by Leonhard Müllner, Robin Klengel (Austria)
• STATIC by Elijah Cauley and Amit Rai Sharma (USA)
• Sticky Cats by The Bones Brothers (South Africa)
• The Game: The Game by Angela Washko (USA)
• The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game by Grace Bruxner, Thomas Bowker, Dan Golding (Australia)
• To Call a Horse a Deer by Yuk-Yiu Ip (Hong Kong)
• VM – Virtual Materialism by Jens Isensee & Rico Possienke (Germany)
• WORLD4 by Alexander Muscat (Australia)
• Wrong Box by Molly Soda and Aquma (USA)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• after HOURS by Bahiyya Khan, Claire Meekel, Tim Flusk, Abi Meekel (South Africa)
• Haunted Garage by Games For Ghosts (South Africa)
• Laser Mazer AR/VR by Mighty Coconut (USA)
• Mosh Pit Simulator by Sos Sosowski (Poland)
• Pixel Picasso by Happy Volcano (Belgium)
• Small Talk by Pale Room (USA)
• The Book Ritual by Alistair Aitcheson (UK)

Nominations for Humble New Talent Award:

A MAZE. is thrilled that the Humble New Talent Award goes into the second round. 2018 Bahiyya Khan from Johannesburg won the prize and finished her game after HOURS. The Humble New Talent Award is a collaboration with Humble Bundle that will be honored for the second time at this year’s A MAZE. / Berlin 2019 – 8th International Games and Playful Media Festival.

The Humble New Talent Award will reward a deserving emerging artist from the A MAZE. community. This award is an opportunity to highlight new global talents, whose work have created a buzz in the last year. We are proud to nominate the following creators for the second Humble New Talent Award:

• Danila Yakovlev, Lowpolis (Russian Federation)
• Aleksandra Iakusheva, 5am Games (Switzerland)
• Moshe Linke (Germany)
• Project.99 (South Korea)
• Simona Maiorano (Italy)

The winners of each category will get chosen on-site during the festival in April by the international and multidisciplinary jury.

• Anita Sarkeesian (USA)
• Nina Kiel (Germany)
• Adriaan de Jongh (Netherlands)
• Peter Lee (South Korea)
• Vít Šisler (Czech Republic)

MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE JURY

Award Ceremony on April 12th, 8pm at the new festival location (SEZ), presented by the video game journalist and developer Tim Rogers from NYC and game designer and comedian Tsitsi Chiumya from Johannesburg. Speech by Thorsten S. Wiedemann, founder and artistic director of A MAZE..