“[The] WordPlay festival is one of my favorite curations of a given year’s niftiest narrative and text games. In recent years this space has become one of the most interesting for small indie games full stop…” –Leigh Alexander, Offworld

WordPlay is less than a month away, on Saturday, November 7th, 2015, from 12 – 5 p.m. at the Toronto Reference Library. Admission is free.

Here’s a quick peek at our mainstage program:

• An opening presentation by interactive fiction legend Emily Short on why IF matters, and why it’s enjoyable to engage with as a creator.
• A retrospective of the complete works of Christine Love featuring the author herself, in conversation with fellow game creator Kara Stone.
• Insights from the development team of Night in the Woods (pictured above), with a panel-style conversation of the role that text narrative plays in both NitW and Lost Constellation, as well as the collaborative process of bringing those narratives to bear.
• Author Sherwin Tjia will present thoughts on gamebooks, empathy and other topics intersectional to writerly games in concert with the launch of his new book You Are A Kitten!
• The creator of the critically-acclaimed Her Story, Sam Barlow, will be engaged on his past and present work in a unique, Twine-based interview format by game creator/critic Kaitlin Tremblay.

To learn more about our annual festival of writerly games — including showcase selections and workshop registrations — please take a look at the recently updated WordPlay page.

Also, please help us spread the word by RT’ing this tweet or by sharing our event on Facebook.

Want to volunteer? Email us. Got a couch? We are particularly looking for people who are willing to host out-of-town guests.