Unexpected Media

London Games Festival

The London Games Festival, another of the projects I helped to get off the ground while working at the LDA, is a new major international event to celebrate the diverse creativity and cultures of interactive entertainment. The festival is the first of its kind in a country that is both one of the leading sources of creativity and innovation in video games and other interactive media as well as an international centre of business excellence in a rapidly growing industry.

The LGF programme will include a series of diverse events for consumers as well as industry. Participants will include publishers, developers, creative professionals, artists, students, trade organisations, academia, arts and media organisations as well as anyone who just likes to play.

The LGF is unique in the UK in being backed by every sector of the games industry: developers, publishers, platform owners and trade associations. The mainstream of the festival will include a range of consumer-facing events in major venues alongside B2B events organised by the industry’s trade bodies and other organisations. It includes BAFTA’s relaunched Games Awards.

The Festival’s ambition is to become the most significant event in the world celebrating the culture and creativity of video games and interactive entertainment.

The London Games Festival Fringe
Many computer games and most digitally mediated play falls beyond the scope of the recognised games industry. From the start, LGF will include a Festival Fringe to explore aspects of interactive entertainment as culture, creative form and a market that fall outside the mainstream.

The Fringe will reflect a spectrum of activity: independent development and distribution, participatory community play, artists’ games, live action role-play, augmented reality games, interactive storytelling and more. The Fringe will involve performance, exhibitions, masterclasses and seminars, participatory workshops and, of course, opportunities to play.

The Fringe will be a source of inspiration, innovation and opportunities. It will include a series of events aimed at new entrants and people who would like to develop careers in the industry – especially those currently under-represented.

Unexpected Media is organising the Fringe programme; contact us if you want more information.