Wer jemals einen Abend auf der Couch damit verbracht hat, seine besten Freunde in Nidhogg aufzuspießen, in Fingle zu befummeln und in Spaceteam panisch vor Meteoriten und Wurmlöchern zu warnen, weiß: Lokale Multiplayer-Games gehören zu den besten, unterhaltsamsten und chaotischsten Erfahrungen, die Videospiele derzeit bieten können. Asteroid – everybody shake! ist der Schlachtruf einer Gamedesign-Schule, die aktuell wieder massiv in Mode gerät und mit Join bekommt ‘Local Multiplayer’ am 9. August zum ersten Mal eine eigene Konferenz in Berlin. Worum es bei der Konferenz genau gehen wird, erklären die Organisatoren Lorenzo Pilia (A MAZE, Talk and Play) und Sjors Houkes (Game Science Center) im Interview.

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Asteroid! Everybody shake! Also: What is the background of the conference?

Lorenzo PiliaWhen Spaceteam came out I immediately fell in love with it, the way it uses mobile devices and verbal communication was something I had never seen before, a tiny revolution, a hint of the direction where things might move towards in the future. I started playing it with my colleagues at work, we also used it on a few occasions during job interviews with software developers, to see if they were good team players. It wasn’t a very reliable hiring method, but we had plenty of fun and even reached sector 11 on one occasion. (The guy joined the team afterwards, by the way).

I started looking for other iOS/Android/WP local multiplayer games and discovered there are not as many as you’d expect, I couldn’t find any resources about them online so I decided to compile a list myself and share it with the world. While searching for a web domain to register, localmultiplayer.com turned out to be available, which was a bit surprising. I grabbed it and built a small site that received a fair amount of interest from all over the world – that gave me the idea to organize an event focused on LMP games. To our knowledge there’s never been an event completely dedicated to this subject, with the exception of the Local Multiplayer Picnics, which did not feature talks, except on one occasion, but on a smaller scale.

So, who’s coming and why is that cool?

Sjors HoukesThey’re all great designers for very different games, and we’re so glad to have them. We have Adriaan de Jongh from Game Oven, who focuses on the interpersonal aspect of games. Their latest game Bounden actually lets players complete levels by performing choreographed dances together with one phone. We also have Martin Pittenauer from TheCodingMonkeys, who crosses the boundaries between digital and board games, and made the wonderful Carcassonne and Chicken Cha Cha Cha for iOS. Then there’s Dajana Dimovska from KnapNok Games, developers of Spin the Bottle for Wii U, and their new exciting title Affordable Space Adventures. She can teach us a lot about what it’s like to develop for a console. Finally, we can announce Alistair Aitcheson. He created Tap Happy Sabotage, a unique LMP game built for large touch screens. All of them have really different specialties, which we expect to lead to a very varied program.

LorenzoIn the last few days we received some additional confirmations: Zuraida “Zo-ii” Buter, Sos O. Sosowski and the Glitchnap team, aka Jonas Maaløe, Jonatan Van Hove & Mads Johansen Lassen. We’re expecting even more people to join us (sorry) as we get closer to the event.

Who is Join for? Developers? The public?

LorenzoI like to make events as inclusive as possible, and Join is no exception. I’m not a developer myself, and know well how you can sometimes feel “out of place” at these sort of gatherings – a couple of years ago at a game meetup in Berlin I was asked if I was a game design student, a game developer, or working for a game company, and when I replied negatively to all of these options the reaction was what are you doing here then? The fact that I could have just been a “simple” player or someone interested in the topic wasn’t enough. That episode was discouraging at first, but then it really motivated me to start my own video game meetup where no one would feel out of place. Still not sure I got there, but I ‘m doing my best.

Alright, so what do I get out of attending?

SjorsThe main part of the day will be focused on discussing different kinds of topics around local multiplayer, and everyone is invited to join the discussion. If you’re not speaking, you can also demonstrate a game or ask a good question. Everyone should go home enriched by the shared experience and knowledge, just like with a good LMP game.

And what’s the long game here? What is it that you want to add to the Berlin developer scene?

LorenzoWhen it comes to the independent game scene, which is what I’m mostly interested about, there are no conferences taking place in the city besides A MAZE. / Berlin. What Thorsten S. Wiedemann (the festival director) has been doing for more than 5 years is incredible and it single-handedly put Berlin on the indie map. Without A MAZE. I probably wouldn’t be doing any of the game-related things I’m involved with today. The “problem” with it is that it only takes place once a year. Berlin is a big city, and I strongly believe that it has a huge potential to become an important centre for innovative game creation: we’ve got talented people with the most different backgrounds coming from all over the world, and easy access to spaces where they can get together, collaborate and exhibit their work. More opportunities to meet and exchange knowledge with new people from other parts of Europe can only be a good thing, right?

Thank you, you can stop shaking now!

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Gewinnspiel

Die Local-Multiplayer-Konferenz Join findet am 9. August im Supermarkt in Berlin statt. Tickets kosten 16 Euro. Gemeinsam mit Join verlosen wir unter allen Kommentaren, die uns über ihr bestes Multiplayer-Erlebnis erzählen, zwei mal zwei Tickets im formschönen Jutebeutel mit einer Dinosaurier-Illustration von IndieStatik-Autorin Lucy Morris.