GameCity - GameCity5

Nottingham, 09/11/10 – GameCity, the world’s best-loved videogames festival, today detailed the finals scores of its week-long celebration, GameCity5. The festival ran from October 27-30 ^th throughout Nottingham’s key venues.

Officially opened by UKIE Director Michael Rawlinson, GameCity5 saw more than 45,000 people of all ages flock to Nottingham to enjoy the festivities taking place, with a wealth of free activities including LEGO workshops, family gym sessions and experiential games.

Fulfilling its aim to help change the world, GameCity saw Nottingham hop, skip and jump its way to becoming a slimmer, healthier city with EA’s help, partnering with Nottingham NHS Primary Care Trust in the Health Centre.  The Lounge saw AAA and indie games demoed side-by-side, late night LAN tournaments and Adam Saltsman and Rebecca Mayes creating a game and soundtrack devised by children, all enjoyed by friends, families and gamers alike.

Canabalt creator and long-time GameCity supporter Adam Saltsman said, "GameCity continues to be my favorite game festival on Earth.  It's not the biggest, but the focus on creativity, the assumption that games are a worthwhile form of expression, and the fact that it is open to the public make it really unique.  What other game event actually has kids in attendance?"

With the Lounge and Health Centre packed everyday all day, 11 other venues throughout Nottingham joined in to help extend the festival as well as launch OpenGameCity, a new platform for public events. Submissions included virtual speed dating, art exhibitions and spy training sessions.

GameCity Director Iain Simons said, "We've been surprised and delighted with the critical and popular response to GameCity5, both from the industry, public and media. This year really proved that there's a real appetite for alternative ways of celebrating and exploring videogame culture with the widest possible audiences. We can't wait to explore new possibilities for 2011..."

EA, Warner Bros, LEGO, Harry Potter, Rare, Playdead, Keita Takahashi, Jonathan Blow and Chris Hecker, to name a few, celebrated the week beside some of the best up-and-coming talent, including NerfGames, SpikySnail, Projector Games and more.

Festival pictures are available at www.flickr.com/photos/gamecityfestival

Video footage of every event will be available from the GameCity site over the coming weeks at www.gamecity.org

NOTES TO EDITOR

Follow all the latest GameCity news on our website,  www.gamecity.org

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*GameCityNights is a series of after-dark monthly events that brings together developers, students and players in a celebration and exploration of videogame culture - with prizes. Every month a brilliant headline speaker will be making their way to Nottingham to share their thoughts, passions and give a unique insight into their work.

GameCity is what a videogame festival should be. 

The Centre for Contemporary Play is a research centre based at Nottingham Trent University which pioneers innovative thinking through new partnerships. Since 2008 it has worked with a variety of leading organisations from the commercial and public sector to deliver major research and inclusion projects. These include the ITAG conference, the GameCity videogame festival and the National Videogame Archive - a unique collaboration with the National Media Museum.

Driven by leading thinking at NTU, the Centre for Contemporary Play continues to create radical and innovative projects in the academic and public engagement space.

Gamecity’s aim is to bring together developers and the public to explore and celebrate videogames and videogames culture, with a particular focus on students. We attract the best speakers in the world, offer up-and-coming artists and developers a platform for their games and create totally unique events.

Some of GameCity’s greatest hits include a world-record breaking zombie gathering, Keita Takahashi designing a children’s playground and Masaya Matsuura, Lorne Lanning, Alexey Pajitnov and Media Molecule having headlined.

We’ve worked alongside some of the most prominent names in gaming, including; Warner Bros, TTGames, Crytek, Activision, Namco Bandai, SCEE, Xbox, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Freestyle Games, David Braben, Media Molecule, Splash Damage, Harmonix, Rare, Denki, Monumental Games, Midway, Zoe Mode, ThatGameCompany, Nana-on-Sha and lots more.

Going way beyond just playing games, GameCity offers other new ways for people to interact with videogame culture. Art exhibitions, director commentaries, playground building, live recreations of videogames, gigs, gong-shows, three World Records, arcade trails, club nights – nothing is off limits for this most radical of videogame festivals.

Don’t just take our word for it, see what others have said after working with us,

GameCity looks poised to become our industry’s ?rst Sundance. A truly unique approach for hosting a game festival that seems long overdue.

Lorne Lanning, Oddworld Inhabitants

GameCity is unique. Any games festival that can reunite industry legends, lead to a Japanese game developer designing a playground, and evoke religious sentiments in a shopping centre is doing something very right for sure.

Edge Magazine

The year’s most inventively programmed new arts festival

The Times