End of Februari the international Global Game Jam was once again organised: teams make a game in 1 weekend, inspired by a theme. This time the theme was 'repair'. In Groningen this was the 5th time the event was organised. 180 participants showed up and made games. I had the honour to be one of … Continue reading GGJ 2020 Impressions
In our goal to stimulate the local tabletop design scene there is a new initiative under the rallying banner that is the 'Spellenmaakgilde' (Dutch Game Design Guild). Dennis Merkx, a few designer initiated this and together with Jeroen Geenen and Ellis Hendriksen we kicked off the first annual Dutch Tabletop Game Designer Award. The goal … Continue reading A new initiative: Dutch Tabletop Game Designer Award
An impromptu playtesting afternoon, with help of Glitch, Evgen. Even though we decided to rally students at the last moment, still around 50 students showed up to playtest their game. Well done all!
At our study CMD at the Hanze Applied University we held another playtesting event. With around 50 participants multiple student projects were experienced by guests, lecturers and fellow students. In addition, several companies came over for user testing and showcasing, including the academic hospital UCMG with their LEAN game, the big governmental organisation DUO with … Continue reading Looking Back: Test & Chill – December 2019
Once again a few students took up the challenge to develop a game with a preset theme within 24 ours. Design muscles were flexed, custom art was made, the 3D printer set in motion and the lazer cutter burned wood. In the end, with various amount of night time playtesting, 3 games reached the finish … Continue reading Day Jam November Impressions
Just before the student Autumn break we had another edition of the playtesting event 'Test & Chill', co-organised with the student association Glitch. With around 80 participants -from all study years- we had a great turn up! It meant year 1 card game concepts were played, as were digital games. Check out the pictures below … Continue reading Looking back: Test & Chill October 2019
Spring 2019 I was contacted by the municipality of Groningen. Their Kids Council is involved with serious topics and currently they had discussed poverty for kids and their families. They wanted to make a game out of it. Could I help? Together with a co-designer I asked to join, Robert Brouwer, we set out with … Continue reading Monster Problems: Co-creating a ‘serious’ game
The Dutch tabletop games podcast 'Het Ludieke Gezelschap' contacted me to chat about the playtesting Guild 'Spellenmaakgilde' and discuss our activities. Especially now a 3rd location will start with events in Ede, in the center of the Netherlands. It is in Dutch, check out episode 73.
In the first weekend of July once again the yearly game designer convention was organised in Göttingen. The SAZ has taken on the organisation and the location changed to the Lokhalle. Together with a fellow designer and a game illustrator we participated on Saturday. Time to look back (for more tips and tricks see this … Continue reading Göttingen Game Designer Convention 2019 Impressions
Beginning of June we had another playtesting sessions. It was a small crowd that showed up. However, it was great to see students playtest their year 1 to year 4 projects! After the summer break we will be back with events. Until that time students, the Makerspace is a great spot to setup a playtest! … Continue reading Looking back: Test & Chill Playtesting June 2019
Arjan van Houwelingen 