The Artsy Games Incubator: Writing Edition is focused on writers of all stripes — novelists, journalists, bloggers, scriptwriters, zinesters, poets — who are interested in the expressive possibilities of videogames, but who have little to no experience with programming or gamemaking software. Meeting once a week for six weeks, participants will be introduced to tools, guest mentors, and community resources that will further their exploration of the interactive medium. By the end each will have made their own game.

After the program, they will also have the opportunity to showcase their work at WordPlay Festival of Writerly Games in Toronto as well as submit to the international Interactive Fiction Competition, now in its 20th year. By making videogame creation more accessible to a wider variety of artistic practices, AGI: Writing Edition hopes to continue the exploration of game art beyond stereotypical characters and action-driven plots into more diverse and expressionistic territory.

Our previous incubator focused on animators, and you can check out their games and video documentation here. (Please note that in contrast to these games, the games produced by the Writing Edition participants will be mostly text-based.)

PROGRAM DETAILS
Number of participants: 6
Cost: FREE!

Story Planet
1165 Bloor Street West (near Dufferin), Toronto
Runs every Wednesday from August 20 to September 24 (6 sessions)
6:30 – 9:30 pm
Coordinator: Novelist, filmmaker, and gamemaker Jim Munroe
Contact: jim@handeyesociety.com

Please fill out this form by August 13, midnight.
Update: applications are closed. We will select and inform our 6 applicants by August 15th.

No programming experience is needed, although some familiarity with computers will help. We are primarily looking for applicants with fresh writing styles and sensibilities we haven’t seen in games before, and while past experience is useful to note there are no particular requirements regarding publication.

Historical Note: While the original Artsy Games Incubators (2007-2009) involved any kind of artists, this new AGI series will focus on specific artforms. Subscribe to the HES mailing list if you’d like updates or hear how to apply to future incubators.

The Artsy Games Incubator is a Hand Eye Society initiative made possible by a grant from the Ontario Arts Council. The artwork above was created by Matt Hammill.