Experimental Gameplay Workshop Returns To GDC 2011, Calls For Submissions

Organizers for the Experimental Gameplay Workshop have issued a call for submissions from "innovation-minded game developers" to be featured at its 2011 incarnation. The Experimental Gameplay Workshop is dedicated to exhibiting "a selection of surprising and intriguing experiments" with gameplay crafted by developers from all over the world. Its featured projects seek to "inspire and ignite the imagination of all game makers." Though the event was absent last year and was substituted with "The Nuovo Sessions", the Experimental Gameplay Workshop has been a staple of the Game Developers Conference since 2002. The showcase will return to GDC at its February 28th - March 4th convention in San Francisco. Previous games featured at the Workshop before their rise to fame include Keita Takahashi's Katamari Damacy, Thatgamecompany's Flower, Jonathan Blow's Braid, 2D Boy's World of Goo, Valve's Portal, and The Odd Gentlemen's The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. Submission rules are open-ended, though organizers invite developers to enter playable prototypes that feature novel multiplayer interactions, innovative user interfaces, emergent gameplay, and generative elements. Titles that create "unexpected play experiences or [promote] unique feelings within players through mechanics" are also encouraged. Selected games will be presented at a two-hour GDC 2011 session that is expected to draw heavy attendance. Interested developers must submit their games for consideration by February 1, 2011, and can find more information about the event and submission guidelines at the Experimental Gameplay Workshop site. "Our goal is to showcase and encourage the process of gameplay experimentation: helping developers find new audiences without competing with conventional games, and exposing the industry to new ideas that it can nurture to fulfillment," say the Experimental Gameplay Workshop's organizers.