Hand Eye Society’s Twitch Stream Free

November 13th & 14th, 2021

DEADLINE: September 17th 11:59PM

The 9th year of the WordPlay Festival that celebrates the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games is happening, again!

This year’s theme of WordPlay is “Comedy” as in lmao and lol and hahahaha and hehehehe and kkkkkk and wwwww and tee hee and lolololol and jajajajajaja etc etc. If your game can make us do any of that and more, apply!

We’re had such a wild past few months…may I even say year? And one of the things that helps keep us going is something that uplifts our spirits and makes us smile and laugh. It’s a powerful emotion and gives us that oomph that makes most situations bearable. We’re so excited and curious to see ways in which developers this year can make us and the community laugh!

Submit a Speaker Application!

We’re opening up the submissions for speakers! We want you to submit your talk, panel, workshop, round-table, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it. If it deals with the subject of interactive fiction and writing in contemporary games, it’ll be right up our alley.

We want to hear about new and innovative ways to combine storytelling, digital media, interactivity, and the craft of writing into potent new forms of creative expression in relation to our comedy theme. What experiments are being conducted to change the face of interactive fiction? In what ways are the boundaries being pushed? We want to know! Take a look at our WordPlay Page see what presentations we’ve put on for past WordPlay festivals. Then check out our Speaker Proposal Form below and submit your idea! Don’t delay, the form is only active until September 17, 2021. Artist fees of $500 CAD will be paid for 1-hour talks and workshops. As WordPlay is entirely online this year some content will be prerecorded based off of the nature of selected speakers.

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Submit a Showcase Game!

Would you like to submit or suggest a showcase game? What we’re looking for are games with exceptional writing or that uses writing in an integral way. Please do so via the form below before midnight on September 17, 2021. You can submit your own game, or a game you feel strongly about. There is no submission fee and Toronto-made, Canadian, and international games are all welcome. We will be selecting between 12 and 14 games from everything entered through the Game Submission Form below. Game creators with games accepted into the showcase will receive an artist fee of $250 CAD. Depending on the nature of submissions, games selected to be in the WordPlay 2021 showcase will either be presented as a pre-recorded Let’s Play to be hosted on our Twitch channel, or be made available for free online for the duration of the festival. We will work directly with artists to figure out the format best suited for their project.

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Volunteer for Wordplay!

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Stay tuned for more announcements coming soon about the showcase jury, workshops and special guests!

About WordPlay

WordPlay is our free one-day festival celebrating the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games. Now in our 9th year, we will once again host a curated game showcase, talks by creators about their craft, and ways for the public to try their hand at making games. This year, we are supported by the following organizations:

Hand Eye Society’s Twitch Stream Free

Saturday, November 21st & 22nd 2020!

DEADLINES AUGUST 31ST 11:59PM

  Hand Eye Society’s WordPlay Festival is on its way and it’s…a bit different because of *gestures* our current earth’s issues. But have no fear, the festival is just taking on a new form and we’re already cooking up some exciting things for the 8th year of the festival that celebrates the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games. This year theme of WordPlay is “Empty Words”. Throughout the year it has been statement after statement after statement on just… everything. Games is going to ‘finally’ get rid of abusers, big brands marketing off of Black Lives Matter statements, human right violations by the state, promises of ‘meaningful change,’ defunding and abolishing the police; the list of empty promises goes on and on. Things don’t move forward and are just washed over by the constant stream of 2020’s ever-growing list of shitty and awful events. So let’s highlight these conversations and celebrate the resistance and perseverance needed to create a better, more equitable society. Be they angry, joyful, tired, hopeful, or otherwise, we want to hear from you! We’re open to a broad interpretation of this theme, so feel free to pitch anything you’ve got. We’re so thrilled to be able to have this event. We may not have a physical space, but the show must go on! Check out the applications!

Look at Xalavier Nelson Jr. having so much fun at WordPlay wow what a great time!

Submit a Speaker Application!

Firstly, we’re opening up the submissions for speakers. We want you to submit your talk, panel, workshop, round-table, or whatever-you-want-to-call-it. If it deals with the subject of interactive fiction and writing in contemporary games, it’ll be right up our alley. We want to hear about new and innovative ways to combine storytelling, digital media, interactivity, and the craft of writing into potent new forms of creative expression. What experiments are being conducted to change the face of interactive fiction? In what ways are the boundaries being pushed? We want to know! Interested? Take a look at our WordPlay Page see what presentations we’ve put on for past WordPlay festivals. Then check out our Speaker Proposal Form below and submit your idea! Don’t delay, the form is only active until August 31st, 2020. Artist fees of $500 CAD will be paid for 1-hour talks and workshops. As WordPlay is entirely online this year some content will be prerecorded based off of the nature of selected speakers.  

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WordPlay 2019, Everyone Playing all the games.

Submit a Showcase Game!

Would you like to submit or suggest a showcase game? What we’re looking for are games with exceptional writing or that uses writing in an integral way. Please do so via the form below before midnight on August 31, 2020. You can submit your own game, or a game you feel strongly about. There is no submission fee and Toronto-made, Canadian, and international games are all welcome. We will be selecting between 12 and 14 games from everything entered through the Game Submission Form below. Game creators with games accepted into the showcase will receive an artist fee of $250 CAD. Depending on the nature of submissions, games selected to be in the WordPlay 2020 showcase will either be presented as a pre-recorded Let’s Play to be hosted on our Twitch channel, or be made available for free online for the duration of the festival. We will work directly with artists to figure out the format best suited for their project.  

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Laura Michet doing her talk at WordPlay 2019.

Apply for a Commission Game!

New this year, we will be commissioning games specifically for WordPlay 2020! We are commission 3 games that are long the curatorial theme of “Empty Words”. If you want to apply please do so via the form below before midnight on August 31, 2020. The proposal can be of any length; we really want to give folks free reign of the things they want to discuss, whether it is long form or short. The game should be in a playable state for the festival, though it doesn’t need to be done. Overall the proposals just need to be in some way interactive fiction or writing in contemporary games. We have a pretty broad definition for that; it could be a physical game, LARP, Twine, Renpy, or any system you want. Any projects that fall along the spectrum of playful experience are welcome! Artists selected will receive $1000 CAD for their game, split into two payments of $500 each over the months of October and November. Please submit through the Commission Submission Form below!

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Stay tuned for more announcements coming soon about the showcase jury, workshops and special guests!

About WordPlay

WordPlay is our free one-day festival celebrating the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games. Now in our 8th year, we will once again host a curated game showcase, talks by creators about their craft, and ways for the public to try their hand at making games. This year, we are supported by the following organizations:

Sat. Nov. 9th & Sun. Nov 10th, 2019
Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St. (Bloor-Yonge subway)
Free

Believe it or not, the WordPlay Festival is coming up again fast. And we’re already hatching some exciting plans for the 7th year of the festival that celebrates the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games.

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Looking back, last year started off with a bang with a keynote by Laura Michet on the politics of editing “Where the Water Tastes Like Wine”. It was followed by some great talks and workshops from speakers both local and international, some of whom joined us from as far away as California, the UK, and Brazil. Our guest’s talks covered a gamut of subjects: writing romance about the elderly, using social media as an interactive medium, how to make a game political, and how mowing lawns for a cult can help with your game writing education. WordPlay had all of this, plus an electrifying arcade buzzing with people playing a hand-picked showcase of games on the cutting edge of narrative. WordPlay 2018 is going to be a hard act to follow.

Never fear, we’re up for the challenge! This year we’ll be expanding our festival from one day to TWO full days of programming. Saturday will be focused on workshops and other interactive pursuits, while Sunday will feature our fabulous line-up of speakers. The ever popular game showcase arcade will be running for both days, to give everyone a chance to get their fill of all the games.

We’re thrilled with the new format and we hope that you will be too. But all of that great programming isn’t going to happen by itself. This is where you come in…

Submit a Speaker Application!

Firstly, we’re opening up the submissions for speakers. We want you to submit your talk, panel, workshop, round-table, whatever-you-want-to-call-it. If it deals with the subject of interactive fiction and writing in contemporary games, it’ll be right up our alley. We want to hear about new and innovative ways to combine storytelling, digital media, interactivity, and the craft of writing into potent new forms of creative expression. What experiments are being conducted to change the face of interactive fiction? In what ways are the boundaries being pushed? We want to know!

Interested? Take a look at our WordPlay page at to see what presentations we’ve put on for past WordPlay festivals. Then check out our Speaker Proposal Form below and submit your idea! Don’t delay, the form is only active until September 1, 2019.

Artist fees of $80 CAD will be paid for 1-hour talks and workshops. Limited travel assistance may be provided for international speakers, depending on proposals and available funding (max $500).

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Submit a Showcase Game!

Would you like to submit or suggest a showcase game? What we’re looking for are games with exceptional writing or one that uses writing in an integral way. Please do so via the form below before midnight on August 11, 2019. You can submit your own game, or a game you feel strongly about. No submission fee, Toronto-made, Canadian, and international games are all welcome. We will be selecting between 20-25 games from everything entered through the Game Submission Form below. Game creators with games accepted into the showcase will receive an artist fee of $80 CAD.

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Stay tuned for more announcements coming soon about the showcase jury, workshops and special guests!

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About WordPlay

WordPlay is our free one-day festival celebrating the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games. The festival coincides with the last day of International Games Day @ Your Library Week. Now in our seventh year, we will once again host a curated game showcase, talks by creators about their craft, and ways for the public to try their hand at making games. This year, we are supported by the following organizations:

Here at the Hand Eye Society, we’re madly working away to come up with exciting plans for WordPlay 2018, our annual festival celebrating interactive fiction and writing in contemporary games. Last year, WordPlay was joined by Twine creator, Chris Klimas, featured a panel of AAA’s loving indie narrative games, and a variety of innovative narrative games. This year, WordPlay falls on the last day of International Games Day @ Your Library Week, so get ready to celebrate with folks all over the world and play games in your local library!!

Currently we’re looking for people to give talks or participate in panels around the subject of interactive fiction and writing in contemporary games. We want to hear about new and innovative ways to combine storytelling, digital media, interactivity, and the craft of writing into potent new forms of creative expression. What experiments are being conducted to change the face of interactive fiction? In what ways are the boundaries being pushed? We want to know!

Submit a Showcase Game!

Would you like to submit or suggest a showcase game? What we’re looking for are games with exceptional writing or one that uses writing in an integral way. Please do so via the form below before midnight on September 30. You can submit your own game, or a game you feel strongly about. No submission fee, Toronto and international games welcome. We will be selecting between 20-25 games from everything entered through the Game Submission Form. Game creators with games accepted into the showcase will receive an artist fee of $80 CAD.

Submit a Talk or Workshop!

Want to participate as a speaker? Take a look at our WordPlay page at to see what presentations we’ve put on for past WordPlay festivals. Then check out our Speaker Proposal Form and submit your idea! Don’t delay, the form is only active until September 30, 2018.

Artist fees of $80 CAD will be paid for 1-hour talks and workshops. Limited travel assistance may be provided for international speakers, depending on proposals and available funding (max $500).

Stay tuned for more announcements coming soon about the showcase jury, workshops and special guests!

About WordPlay

WordPlay is our free one-day festival celebrating the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games. Now in our fifth year, we will once again host a curated game showcase, talks by creators about their craft, and ways for the public to try their hand at making games.

Sat. Nov. 10th, 2018, 12-5pm
Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St. (Bloor-Yonge subway)
Free

Here at the Hand Eye Society, we’re madly working away to come up with exciting plans for WordPlay 2017, our annual festival celebrating interactive fiction and writing in contemporary games. Last year, WordPlay was hosted in London, England at the British Library. This year, WordPlay has triumphantly returned to Toronto with a new festival Director: Chris Tihor!

Chris Tihor is a writer and game designer with a keen interest in narrative in games. He’s the writer behind the award-winning cyberpunk mystery game Mandatory Upgrade: X Marks the Spot and has contributed words to many indie game projects including the upcoming sci-fi action game Primer and the tongue-in-cheek iOS art game Crab Attack 4. Chris has an extensive background running video game events, particularly in his previous role as organizer for the Victoria BC Chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). There he helped put on annual events such as OrcaJam & Global Game Jam Victoria as well as numerous monthly and one-off meet-ups for both the game dev community and the public.

We’d also like to introduce our showcase coordinator: Jo Summers!

Jo Summers is based in Brighton, UK and has been involved with Wordplay for the last couple of years. Last year she directed and produced Wordplay London at the British Library and she is back this year as the Showcase Coordinator. She brings over 10 years of experience curating and producing community technology events, including Hackathons, Barcamps, Maker Faires and videogame parties.  She is a passionate advocate for showcasing weird and wonderful games to the general public, as well as supporting and promoting diversity within the creation of games.

Currently we’re looking for people to give talks or participate in panels around the subject of interactive fiction and writing in contemporary games. We want to hear about new and innovative ways to combine storytelling, digital media, interactivity, and the craft of writing into potent new forms of creative expression. What experiments are being conducted to change the face of interactive fiction? In what ways are the boundaries being pushed? We want to know!

Submit a Showcase Game!

Would you like to submit or suggest a showcase game? What we’re looking for are games with exceptional writing or one that uses writing in an integral way. Please do so via the form below before midnight on September 30th. You can submit your own game, or a game you feel strongly about. No submission fee, Toronto and international games welcome. We will be selecting between 20-25 games from everything entered through the Game Submission Form. Game creators with games accepted into the showcase will receive an artist fee of $80 CAD.

Submit a Talk or Workshop!

Want to participate as a speaker? Take a look at our WordPlay page at to see what presentations we’ve put on for past WordPlay festivals. Then check out our Speaker Proposal Form and submit your idea! Don’t delay, the form is only active until August 25th, 2017.

Stay tuned for more announcements coming soon about the showcase jury, workshops and special guests!

About WordPlay

WordPlay is our free one-day festival celebrating the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games. Now in our fifth year, we will once again host a curated game showcase, talks by creators about their craft, and ways for the public to try their hand at making games.

Sat. Nov. 18th, 2017, 12-5pm
Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St. (Bloor-Yonge subway)
Free