The 9th WordPlay Festival takes place Saturday, November 13th & Sunday November 14th 2021 starting at 1pm EST both days!

FREE

Watch on our Twitch Channel

What an incredible time of the year! We’ve been waiting for this one for a very long time. We’re so happy and excited to be able to put together another event for everyone a fan of narrative games alike! This year we’re following the same format of being nice and safe online, so you can enjoy the festival while wearing your pajamas! We want to thank the community, friends of Hand Eye Society, the land we stand on, as well as our sponsors, Hand Eye Society members and staff who have worked tirelessly for the past few months to make this event possible, not only for free, but to also be able to support exhibitors for their work!

Well that’s it from me, look at these games! Play them! Buy them! Support the creators! Get cozy and listen to some talks! We got you! Stay safe and we’ll see you at WordPlay this weekend on our Twitch channel!

Games~

Raptor Boyfriend: A High School Romance

Rocket Adrift

Toronto, Ontario

Twitter | Steam |

Raptor Boyfriend: A High School Romance is a dating sim about a teen girl who moves to a small secret community of cryptids. Romance a magical Fairy, a sensitive Sasquatch and a bold Velociraptor. A satirical 90’s teen drama about trying to find love in your last year of high school.

Milton Summons the Devil

Gus Fuss Games

Brooklyn, NY

Itchio | Twitter |

You are Milton, a nine year old boy. You must search your house for the ritual items scattered everywhere throughout the house so you can summon the devil and kill your gym teacher. Just don’t wake up your parents or anger the devil!

Clam Man 2: Headliner

Marafrass/Team Clam

Canada

Marafrass | Team Clam | Steam

A combatless stand-up comedy RPG where jokes are loot and the boss fights are comedy shows. Under the sea. With fish people.

Frantic Fantic

Zeekayart and Michael

Toronto, Ontario

Twitter | Zeekayart | Website

A hilarious free-to-play creative writing party game where friends furiously write each other’s fanfiction. A round-robin style story game that is played like exquisite corpse but with words instead of pictures!

The Hayseed Knight

Maxi Molina (SandraMJdev)

Spain

Twitter | Steam

Join a ragtag band of misfits as they piece together how Ader, a one-eyed farmboy with seemingly impossible dreams, becomes the most celebrated knight the kingdom of Acazhor has ever known.

Divide Et Impera

Mauro Vanetti & Open Lab

Pavia + Florence, Italy

Mauro | Open Lab | Itchio | Pino | Pietro 

You: A disingenuous political leader keen on using some good old hate speech to further your aims.

Your Goal: Splitting your community in half, by detaching at least 12 people from the interconnected grid of 5×5 people.

Your Weapon: You have to choose hateful contents to post online and a specific target of 3×3 people for each post.

CW: Strong Language

Over Easy: A Diner Heist

Julian K. Jarboe

Salem, Massachusetts, USA

Twitter | Website | Itchio | Play

You and your crew are regulars at the local diner. This evening, the driver of a certain scrapyard truck will make a final pit stop at the diner before hauling away the remains of your neighborhood’s beloved, unique, and weird old landmark. Unless, of course, you and your crew can snatch it back.

Read The Room

Blah Books Studio

Chicago, IL

Devin | Devin’s IG | Jess | Itchio

Doors are locked and Grandma is missing! People are confused and you can read their minds somehow! What’s going on!?

Karen: An Outrage Simulator

Vagabond Dog

Toronto, Ontario

Twitter | Steam

You are Karen – Argue your way through ridiculous scenarios, and get everything you rightfully deserve in this short comedic game about entitlement.

The Fall and Rise of Sadcock-upon-Avon

Orbis Tertius Games

Lincoln, UK & Berlin, Germany

Twitter | Website | Itchio |

In the fiefdom of Sadcock-upon-Avon, strange things are happening. There are rumours of penises not looking or acting as they should…

CW: Sexual Themes

Union Drive

Matajuegos

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Itchio | Studio | Lunafromthemoon | Leno | PfQ | Trailer

Union Drive is a Latin-American visual novel about workplace unionization. You’ll step into the shoes of a young supermarket worker trying to strengthen the union at their place of work and fight against unjust working conditions.

Throughout the game you’ll build strong relationships with your coworkers and get to know their stories, all while learning organization skills used by real-world union organizers.

Internet Court

Oh, a Rock! Studios

Ithaca, NY

Twitter | Website | Paul | Arglefumph

A live-action courtroom comedy, where YOU are the prosecution, defense and the judge! It’s the year 20XX, and crime can happen anywhere—even in cyberspace.

If someone gets caught writing bad fanfiction or unfriending without due cause, they get hyperlinked directly to… The Internet Court. Where the courtroom is virtual, and trials are livestreamed for the whole world to watch.

Insomniac: The Movie: The Game

Insomniac Film Festival, Insomniac: The Movie filmmakers, and Lina Wu

Toronto, Ontario

Insomniac’s Website | Lina’s Website| Insomniac’s IG| Lina’s IG | Itchio

Insomniac: The Movie: The Game was developed as an interactive choose-your-own adventure experience in accompaniment with Insomniac: The Movie, a collaborative quarantine community cinema project.

In addition to watching the film, it’s also a way to explore the cinema, chat with filmmakers, and explore the fantastical horizons of the youth film community even during lockdown.

Quick Fix

Lawrence Le

Ontario, Canada

Twitter | Itchio

A short visual novel with point-and-click elements. What starts off as a simple errand quickly (d)evolves into a tale of fake currencies, goose sleuths, and caffeine abuse. Rub elbows with the oddball inhabitants of Yorkel and outsmart its cruel, coffee-drinking despot to finally secure some decent internet service.

Glom

Nice Games Club

Minneapolis, MN

Website | Twitter | Ellen | Mark | Stephen | Dale Lynn

You have three minutes to come up with a Glom: Re-write the Phrase, while following the Rule, to best meet the Goal… that’s it!

A romp of rewording regular remarks, for wordsmiths of all ages and skill levels. A tabletop party game from the hosts of the gamedev podcast “Nice Games Club.”

Loopy Lore

Guilherme Bandini and Thi My Nguyen

São Paulo, Brazil & Toronto, Ontario

Twitter | Itchio

Loopy Lore is a co-op storytelling game where friends collaborate in telling a story they know nothing about.

Using the cards and their imagination, players take turns as the narrator, giving shape to their tale. To win, they must work together to reach the ending created during setup.

An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs

Strange Scaffold

El Paso, Texas

Twitter | Steam

An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs is a first-person open-world comedy adventure game with a very long name. You and your fiancée are the last two human beings left in the universe.

Dogs run airports, along with the rest of society. Deal with alien logic, travel issues, and strange stock photo dogs as you attempt to stay in touch with the person you love, when you both live your lives on the go!

Speakers~

Martin Hanses (he/him)

Itchio

Roleplaying Comedy: Letting the player have the last laugh

In this talk, Martin Hanses goes over his work with the design and philosophy of writing comedy for role-playing games that the player can deliver, rather than be the recipient of.

Based on the work and research done for the stand-up comedy game Clam Man 2, the talk covers a series of techniques and approaches that can be implemented in the writing of most games, with a specific focus on player expression and assuming choice ownership.

Ryan Woodward (he/him)

Itchio | Steam

Cute, Funny, and Sad – Writing on Button City

Button City is a colorful game about a cute fox who tries to save the local arcade in the sky.

In this talk Ryan Woodward goes over how he approached writing for Button City to create a lighthearted comedy experience while also incorporating sad heartfelt moments.

Colton David (he/him)

Oops, All Characters: How to Write a Hundred Different Humans*: A character writing panel

Video games have characters; oftentimes, many characters. From RPG towns full of one-liner
randoms, to visual novels with 30 person main casts, game writers constantly need to fill space
with unique and memorable voices. Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, oftentimes pointless –
this panel seeks to share practical ways game writers can harness their brain to produce
characters that stick with players. Many, many characters.
The panel will have a light-hearted, conversational bent to it. Attention will be given to writing
funny characters, in keeping with the comedy theme of Wordplay, while also delving into pulling
deeper emotions from.

Carrie Patel (She/Her)
Game Director at Obsidian Entertainment
Carrie has been writing with Obsidian since 2013, writing and co-leading the Pillars of Eternity
franchise, narrative designing The Outer Worlds, and directing an exciting unannounced project.
Aside from her game writing, Carrie is a published author, having released acclaimed
speculative fiction novels: The Buried Life (2015), Cities and Thrones (2015), and more!

Giselle Francis (She/Her)
Writer at Red Thread Games
Giselle is a writer and game designer, currently working on Dustborn, an upcoming title being
developed by Red Thread Games. Previous to that, Giselle has worked on Project Alina, a
puzzle-action RPG for Microfun Inc. As well, Giselle has also done advocacy work and panels
with Latinx in Gaming.

Cobysoft Joe (He/Him, They/Them)
Writer, Artist, and Composer of Dome-King Cabbage
Cobysoft Joe is the one-man band behind Cobysoft Co. a real (but also fictional) gaming
company that makes the award winning Dome-King Cabbage. Dome-King Cabbage is a visual
novel that takes place within the world of a monster collecting RPG. Joe currently lives in the
Midwest of the United States after having spent three years in Japan teaching English. Joe
spends his spare time making 3D images on his computer and playing with his hamster
Thimble.

Jaclyn Seto (She/Her)
Writer at Respawn Entertainment
Starting her career in the medical field, Jaclyn transitioned from physician’s assistant, to writing
on Apex Legends, carrying with her a unique insight into both fields. An avid fan-fiction writer in
her youth, Jaclyn persisted with her passion, graduating from Vancouver Film School’s
screenwriting program in 2019, then working on Project Alina, a puzzle-action RPG for Microfun
Inc.

Marina Kittaka (She/Her)
Co-Director at Analgesic Productions
marinakittaka.com
Currently working on Sephonie.

Melos Han-Tani (He/Him)
Co-Director at Analgesic Productions
@meloshantani (tiktok)
Currently working on Sephonie.

Host & Panel Organizer
Colton David
Writer at Lo-Fi Games
Colton is a writer and narrative designer based out of beautiful Toronto, Canada. For his day
job, he writes with Lo-Fi Games on the sequel to the hit sandbox RPG Kenshi. In his off-time he
develops games with Bad Pet, notably releasing Devil Express in March of 2020. Devil Express
has gone on to be one of the top 10 highest rated adventure games on itch.io! Currently Colton
is working on Anti, a narrative platformer, with his friends at Bad Pet.

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.

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’Submit a Speaker Proposal’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://forms.gle/r53x8FpiUNQ7DLpo7′ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=’center’ margin=”]

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.

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’Submit a Showcase Game’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://forms.gle/3Xpjxo1Up78bBHW39′ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=’center’ margin=”]

Volunteer for Wordplay!

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’Volunteer for Wordplay!’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://forms.gle/xwRURQsNAQnc1eH4A’ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=” margin=”]

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:

WordPlay is our free festival celebrating the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games. Each year there will be a curated game showcase, talks by creators about the craft, and ways for the public to learn about making games.

The 8th annual WordPlay Festival takes place Saturday, November 21st & 22nd 2020!

Stream starts at 11am EST on Saturday and Sunday!

twitch.tv/handeyesociety

Free!

SCHEDULE

Saturday

Josh Labelle

Xalavier Nelson Jr.

Dhruv Jani

+

Sunday

Kaelan Doyle Myerscough

Sharang Biswas

Kinsey Erickson

Hello everyone! Wordplay is here and we’re so excited to be able to put on this event to feature so many amazing games, speakers and artists and AHH! It’s finally here! This blog will have links to all the information you need to know about the festival this Saturday and Sunday. We will be streaming the event exclusively on our Twitch channel and well as our Discord channel for those who aren’t 

Here are the featured speakers for Saturday and Sunday! This is definitely our best lineup so far and we’re so happy to be able to bring their expertise to you.

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’Check out the Wordplay 2020 Speakers!’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://www.handeyesociety.com/event/here-are-our-wordplay-2020-speakers/’ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=” margin=”]

Here are the features games for the festival! Please consider supporting these awesome creators! Follow them, engage with them, tell others about their work! Also, the commissioned games creators who are working on their game and we will share their completed works in a followup blog post! We’re so excited to see what they make!

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’Check out the Wordplay 2020 Games Showcase!’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://www.handeyesociety.com/event/here-are-our-wordplay-2020-games/’ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=” margin=”]

Credits

Festival Director
Royel “Rokashi” Edwards

Executive Director(s)
Len Predko & Sagan Yee

Director of Operations
Amanda Wong

Editor/Director of Technology
Jordan Sparks

Animators
Paige Lincecum
Emily Hammersley-Ambroise
Miranda Juncos

Volunteer Coordinator
Aaron Demeter

Volunteers
Riggy El-Shebiny
Elissa Park
Nelson Kim
Denise Gutierrez Maldonado

Special thanks to Ontario Creates. With their support events like WordPlay are possible, so thank you so much!

The 8th annual WordPlay Festival takes place Saturday, November 21th & 22th 2020!
Sat. November 21th, Sunday November 22th

Hello friends! It’s now November and WordPlay is coming in just a few weeks! We’re so excited to be able to share some amazing speakers and games this year as we transition from a physical space festival to an online one. But we cannot do it without your help! We’re looking for volunteers to help make this event a safe space on our Twitch as well as Discord platform to make it a fun experience for all!

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’WordPlay volunteer form’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://forms.gle/77bVyyTaKAkXMyNN9′ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=” margin=”]

Interested? Then fill in our handy dandy volunteer form above and let us know! Note: volunteer hours can be used towards a Hand Eye Society Membership status! More info on that here! Also, if you haven’t seen the good news, we have our full lineup of speakers and games highlighted for this year’s festival! Please check them out from the buttons below! Support them, purchase their games, and consider tuning in to see what they have to say! We’re so so SO excited to make this happen and we appreciate all the support from our ongoing members! Thank you for supporting us as we transition our events!

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’Check out the WordPlay Speakers’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://www.handeyesociety.com/event/here-are-our-wordplay-2020-speakers/’ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=” margin=”]

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Don’t forget to follow our socials to make sure you get all up-to-date information on WordPlay and other events Hand Eye Society is up to these days! Stay safe out there, wear a mask and see you at the WordPlay Festival!

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.  

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’Submit a Speaker Proposal’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://forms.gle/mJD7MP9Hmb16Fyt68′ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=’center’ margin=”]

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.  

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’Submit a Showcase Game’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://forms.gle/ew4TSVe1KFQcDdzC8′ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=’center’ margin=”]

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!

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’Submit a Commission Game’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://forms.gle/sMtSrcjmNmWQtuiV7′ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=’center’ margin=”]

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:

The 7th annual WordPlay Festival takes place Saturday, November 9th & 10th 2019!

Sat. November 9th, Sunday November 10th

Saturday 11:00am – 4:30pm and Sunday 1:30pm – 4:30pm

Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St. (Bloor-Yonge subway)
Free!

Did you hear the good news? WordPlay 7 is happening THIS WEEKEND!

We’re so excited and proud to be able to bring you games from all over the world by the amazing creators and hand-picked speakers which some, by the way, are flying into the city just to talk to us! We also have tons of workshops–we know you like those! It’s going to be a fun time especially that WordPlay is now TWO (2) days of narrative fun instead of one, so get plenty of rest, don’t want to miss any of this!

Just as a reminder, let’s be sure to make WordPlay a safer space together. Here is our Safer Spaces Policy that we will abide by including all speakers, participants, volunteers, and staff members. We will have Safety Check Personnel on site which is comprised of both staff and volunteers. They will be wearing prominent red ribbons and will be present throughout the weekend. If you have any questions or concerns during WordPlay, we can help to address them. If you would like to contact us after the event, you can email us at safe@handeyesociety.com or you can fill out this anonymous online form.

But allow me to break down the event for ya, like cookies in milk!

Look at this cool WordPlay poster! Oh my god! Credz to Elizabeth Zhang.

Where to go

Saturday

Micro-Talks

Sunday

What to Play

Our Partners

Event Details

Sat. November 9th, 11 am – 4:30 pm
Sun. November 10th, 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm
Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St. (Bloor-Yonge subway)
FREE!

Hey everyone! This month, everything’s coming up WordPlay! You’ve known it in the past as is our free one-day festival celebrating the most interesting uses of writing and words in contemporary games. But this year we’re blowing it up into two days of wordtasticness. And to do that, we’ve enlisted the help of a stunning array of guest stars who will be presenting a series of fascinating talks, informative workshops, and inspiring performances.

[button size=’large’ style=” text=’See the games of WordPlay 2019!’ icon=” icon_color=” link=’https://www.handeyesociety.com/event/wordplay-games-2019/’ target=’_self’ color=” hover_color=” border_color=” hover_border_color=” background_color=” hover_background_color=” font_style=” font_weight=” text_align=” margin=”]

It’s my distinct pleasure to present to you our official schedule for WordPlay 2019!

Schedules

Saturday

Micro-Talks

Sunday

Now that you’ve seen our schedule come meet the people who are making it all happen – allow me to introduce our WordPlay 2019 speakers!

Alexander King

Alexander King is a game designer and professor based in Brooklyn, New York. His work centers on data-driven design and simulation, and he was the systems and economy designer on the recently released Apple Arcade launch title Dear Reader. Alexander is also an adjunct professor at the NYU Game Center and Parsons School of Design, where he has taught classes on game design, and math and economics for games. Before working in games, Alexander was an analytics consultant working in finance and eCommerce, but now the economies he models are largely fictional ones.

Talk: Artisanal Procedurality: Designing Procedural Word Puzzles using Classic Literature

Join us for a close-up view of the systems behind Dear Reader, a mobile game that uses the text of public domain literature as the raw material for procedural wordplay. The design of Dear Reader balances algorithmic elements and manually-defined components. Designer Alexander King will walk through the game’s development in finding this balance, and share some best practices and lessons learned from turning classic books into procedural puzzles.

Alfe Clemencio

Alfe Clemencio is an indie game developer behind the company Sakura River Interactive. He gave a talk at University of Waterloo, was a guest at Fan Expo, and exhibited at Tokyo Game Show. His passion for gameplay-impactful story choices in games has led him to study various techniques in games new and old. As old as DOS at least.

Micro-talk: Making Choices Matter and More! (explained in under 6 mins)

If you ever scratched your head about how to make choices matter this talk is for you. Learn about “meta” characters, foreshadowing for “fairness”, compound choices and more!

Benoit Esmein

Benoit: I fell into game localization at a very early age. When I was around 7, my dad started localizing games aimed at children, such as Putt-Putt, Pyjama Sam, Spy Fox, Marine Malice, and my sister, my brother and myself became early localization testers, and contributors. I have always been interested in languages, studying Russian as a first foreign language in school, and became completely fluent in English by spending summers in the US, staying with host families. Taking advantage of my Law background and of my fluency in English, I started translating professionally in 2015, in order to finance a double Bachelors in Scandinavian Languages and Russian, and to support myself while moving and trying to settle in Sweden. Life happened and led me to move to Canada to be closer to my partner. I have so far worked on 16 games and game-related projects, ranging from Indie (Russian Subway Dogs, Quench) to AAA (Battlefield 1, For Honor, CoD Black Ops 4).

Micro-talk: The importance of showers in Indie Game Localization

In a world that is increasingly rushed, and where localization can often be an afterthought for developers, leading to compressed deadlines, I make the case for leaving ample time for translators to do multiple passes on their work. I will go over the necessity, especially for Indie developers, to take into account the effects that a bad localization can have on the success of their game abroad, whether it breaks immersion or simply isn’t funny. I will touch on Deep Work (concept popularized by Cal Newport), background brain processing and what the French call “esprit d’escalier”, and the importance of taking breaks to produce work that one can be proud of.

Betty Robertson & Evangelia Fahantidou

Betty Robertson is a Narrative Designer and Writer at Ubisoft Montreal. She’s worked on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and on the Odyssey Story Packs. She was one half of the coordinators for the Pixelles Game Writing Incubator from 2018-2019. A graduate of Camosun College, and BCIT, Betty is well versed in Creative Writing, Game Design, and Education. She considers herself a snappy dresser, and funnier than she actually is.

Evangelia Fahantidou is a Level Designer at Ubisoft Montreal. She was a Quest Designer for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and the Odyssey Story Packs. She has previously been a Computer Science lab assistant for the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth in Greece and a Game Design Intern for Minority Media. She graduated from Champlain College of Vermont in 2017 with a Bachelor’s degree in Game Design. She denies that she has a coffee addiction and that she understands French.

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Talk: Mission Design & Game Writing: A Marriage

Game Writer Betty Robertson and Mission Designer Evangelia Fahantidou break down the symbiosis of Writing and Mission Design. Common practices, misconceptions about roles, and the best way to compromise.

Dave Evans

Dave Evans is the owner and studio director of Falling Squirrel, a Niagara based indie game dev specializing in the advancement of narrative design and audio game mechanics for visually impared accessibility.

Dave began his career in film and TV as a writer/director before transitioning into AAA games as a Cinema Director (Too Human and X-men Destiny). Indie games eventually provided Dave the opportunity to write, design and direct projects (Phantom Compass’s Pinball/RPG mashup Rollers of the Realm) as well as pursue his own narrative driven projects through his company Falling Squirrel.

The studio’s current project, The Vale, is an audio based action/adventure title slated for launch on PC early next year.

Talk: A Soundscape is Worth a Thousand Words.

Creative Director, Dave Evans walks us through the The Vale; a narrative driven action adventure game that has no visual gameplay. This talk tracks the game’s development from cost-effective narrative experiment, to robust blind accessible game. Dave reflects on the unique freedoms that come with writing for an audio based game, the intimate experiences that 3D soundscapes can create, and how the development of The Vale was an education in how to make mainstream games more accessible.

Em Lazer-Walker

Em (she/they) is a Toronto-based an artist/engineer who makes interactive art, experimental games, and open-source software tools to empower creativity. Most of her work focuses on using nontraditional interfaces to reframe everyday objects and spaces as playful experiences and to inspire people to become self-motivated learners. She currently works as a cloud advocate at Microsoft.

Workshop: Analytics? In MY interactive fiction?!

Capturing analytics data about how players experience your game often feels a bit gross, or like something you’d only want to do if you’re making a AAA or free-to-play game. But it can be a valuable form of getting player feedback, even if you’re making personal and noncommercial narrative games. This workshop will discuss how analytics can be useful as a design tool, but also when getting too caught up in numbers can be a bad thing. We’ll also get hands-on with tools to integrate free analytics into your Twine game, without any coding required — bring your laptops and an existing Twine project if you’d like!

Jim Munroe

Jim Munroe is a “pop culture provocateur” according to the Austin Chronicle. His graphic novels and prose novels have been praised by Pulitzer-winner Junot Diaz and comics legend Neil Gaiman, and his lo-fi sci-fi feature films by Wired and the Guardian. His political videogames have appeared at Sundance and Cannes, and he co-founded the world’s first videogame arts organization. He was an Art Gallery of Ontario Artist-in-Residence in 2014 and he lives in the Junction neighbourhood in Toronto.

Workshop: Creating Interactive Fiction With Texture Writer

Narrative designer and indie game maker Jim Munroe will be running a workshop using a tool he created with Juhana Leinonen, Texture Writer. The session will begin by showcasing standard patterns in choice based fiction, go into paper prototyping, and then the participants will learn to implement their small games.

Jordan Jones-Brewster & Carol Mertz

Jordan Jones-Brewster: Jordan Jones-Brewster is a Brooklyn-based narrative designer, game designer, and writer who’s work focuses on dissecting interpersonal relationships. He has an MFA in Game Design from New York University. You can find them on Twitter @Versiphied.

Carol Mertz: Carol Mertz is an independent game designer, Executive Director of indie game conference PixelPop Festival, and MFA graduate of the NYU Game Center. Having worked for over a decade in interactive arts and media, her portfolio of work centers around creating and supporting multidisciplinary projects that expand our perspective, help us learn about ourselves and each other, and challenge the typical boundaries of play.

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Talk: The Design of ‘We Should Talk’: Putting a New Spin On Narrative Choice

How does it feel to explore a relationship playground? In We Should Talk, players are encouraged to think carefully about the words they choose as they interact with various people in a bar, while also texting their partner at home. Using the sentence spinner mechanic developed for this game, players craft sentences in response to the in-game characters, allowing them to explore the nuances of conversation with interactions of various intimacy levels.

Developers Jordan Jones-Brewster and Carol Mertz describe the development process of that mechanic, and how it allows for a different way to engage with meaningful choices.

Kate Gray

Kate Gray is a British writer living in Canada. She is the Narrative Director at KO_OP, an indie studio in Montreal, and writes about sex and relationships on a regular basis, most notably for Kotaku. She was a full-time journalist before moving to Canada, working for Official Nintendo Magazine, Xbox UK, and GameSpot, among many other sites and publications. She can’t tell you about the project she’s working on right now but she’s pretty sure you’d love it.

Talk: How Romance In Games Can Change The World

Romance, relationships, and sex in games are no longer just sidequests and minigames — they’re ways that developers, artists and storytellers can express themselves and their world within a game. We won’t solve world hunger by playing Dream Daddy, but we can all learn to be kinder, more empathetic beings through romance in games.

Robert Kori Golding

Robert Kori Golding is the co-founder and lead game designer at Albedo Informatics, a Toronto-based development studio with a focus on location-based Augmented Reality (AR) experiences. Albedo is currently developing SIGIL, a location-based AR game that brings myths, folklore and local legends to life. Kori has been crafting geo-locative narrative experiences for the past 14 years.

Talk: Pushing Storytelling in Location-Based Games

With the arrival and widespread success of geo-locative augmented reality (AR) games such as Pokemon Go!, Jurassic World Alive and Harry Potter Wizards Unite, a new medium for storytelling is emerging. With these new types of games, the world itself becomes a giant sandbox for players to explore. As game designers, how can we embrace the unique opportunities presented by this medium to tell stories that truly embrace and integrate the world around the player? In this talk, we will provide an overview of the history of location-based games and narratives. We will also discuss how game designers can meaningfully incorporate local landmarks, terrain types, weather, time of day, local lore, and the experiences of the players themselves in order to forge powerful experiences that capitalize on this nascent medium. We will also provide a brief overview of the current tools available for potential creators.

Squinky

Mx. Dietrich “Squinky” Squinkifer (they/them pronouns) is a new media artist living in Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal). They create playable experiences in the form of videogames, interactive installations, and performances, touching on subjects of gender identity, social awkwardness, and miscellaneous silliness. Recently, Squinky’s work has been shown at the Ars Electronica festival in Linz, Austria, as well as in the Rainbow Arcade exhibition on queer videogames at the Schwules Museum in Berlin. Squinky has also been known to show up to various events making noise with some kind of large brass instrument.

Performance: How Making Videogames Turned Me Into a Depressed Gay Communist

“How Making Videogames Turned Me Into a Depressed Gay Communist” is a solo performance about my experience growing up as an undiagnosed autistic, proto-transgender nerd with immigrant parents, with all the loneliness such an experience entails, and my long time love-hate obsession with videogames that led me to a rocky career making them for money, burning out spectacularly in the process. This performance is illustrated in the self-demonstrating style of a choose-your-own-adventure story, wherein audience participation is mediated by a hacked together web app running on my aging laptop and a knockoff Google Glass-esque augmented reality device attached to my face and feeding me my lines. The defamiliarizing experience created by this intentionally awkward juxtaposition of theatre and technology mirrors the ambivalent feelings I experience living in today’s cyberpunk dystopian capitalist hellscape. Yet, the performance is also punctuated by moments of joyful movement and singing, as I celebrate my body as it changes from hormone replacement therapy, and learn to better connect with others by accepting myself.

Xalavier Nelson Jr.

Xalavier Nelson Jr. is an IGF-nominated narrative designer, game developer, writer, ex-PC Gamer columnist, IntroComp organizer, and MCV Rising Star. You might know him from his work on Hypnospace Outlaw, Can Androids Pray, SkateBird, We Are The Caretakers, or a dozen other things. He is very tired as a result, and appreciates your understanding.

Performance: Disco Never Died (But It Is Trying To Kill You): A #DISCOGAME

Building on the foundation of last year’s successful LARP “DESPITE YOUR RAGE YOU ARE STILL A RAT IN A CAGE — NICOLAS CAGE, WHO IS SUSPENDING YOU OVER A PIT OF LAVA WITH HIS FORMER SERVANT IGOR,” Xalavier Nelson Jr. again brings an absurd massively collaborative storytelling game to Wordplay Toronto. Explore a HAUNTED DISCOTHEQUE. Talk to chill DISCGHOSTS. Battle the DISCEMPEROR. Save your DISCSOUL.

This is #DISCOGAME.

Micro-talk: We Don’t Talk About The Toilets: Worldbuilding with Purpose

Award-nominated narrative designer Xalavier Nelson Jr. shows you how you can spend less time exhaustively explaining a plumbing system your audience will never see, and more time doing the worldbuilding your project actually needs.

Our Partners

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The 7th annual WordPlay Festival takes place Saturday, November 9th & 10th 2019!

Sat. November 9th, Sunday November 10th

Saturday 11:00am – 4:30pm and Sunday 1:30pm – 4:30pm
Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge St. (Bloor-Yonge subway)
Free!

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Hey everyone! We are at full HP from the Hand Eye Society Ball and we’re back again with another event–WordPlay 7 (they grow up so fast )! This year is going to be bigger than ever hosting even more narrative games from all over the world! Also, this year, WordPlay is now a 2-day event! Which means you’ll have more talks, more workshops and you-time to experience all of the games we have in store for you!

Without further ado, we’re extremely excited to present to you the final lineup of games for WordPlay 2019! This year you can literally type your feelings out to the one you love in Types of Romance, all the way to doing your best to cover up a sacrifice with your friends in Animalia! Play them all! There’s plenty of time!

See you there!

Apologies, for what it’s worth

Shrunken Studios

Toronto, Canada

Read a dense letter from your sibling to explore your shared history and consider what you’ve left behind.

Can Androids Pray

Xalavier Nelson Jr., Natalie Clayton, Priscilla Snow

El Paso, USA

A shortform visual novel about angry femme mechs at the end of the world, and God.

Unbecoming

Bryan Depuy

Toronto, Canada

Unbecoming is a sonically-driven revisionist body horror denouement.

Unmaking, Unmade

G.C. “Grim” Baccaris

New York, USA

Manipulate an eerie videotape and confront a dangerous infatuation by rewinding, fast-forwarding, and pausing the tape to alter its contents and reshape the fate of your love.

Types of Romance

Mary Arroz & Xinran Ma

Oakville, Canada

Woo the high-born beauty of your dreams in this vintage shoujo-inspired dating sim/typing game!

We Should Talk

Kat Aguiar, Nobonita Bhowmik, Francesca Carletto-Leon, Jordan Jones-Brewster, Carol Mertz, Jack Schlesinger

Global

“We should talk” is a short-form narrative game that will make you think twice about the words you choose.

00 Comments in moderationpressspace

Michael Arcadi

Toronto, Canada

pressspace is a one-button typing game where you put the spaces in between words.

American Election

Greg Buchanan

UK

Play as Abigail Thoreau, a campaign assistant working to elect candidate Truman Glass in the 2016 American Election.

LIONKILLER

Sisi Jiang

USA

LIONKILLER is a choose-your-own-adventure game about Hua Mulan, a young lesbian who is conscripted into the First Opium War against the British Empire.

Recalculating***

Jessica Zhang, Benjamin Mora-Davison, Christine Kilfoil

Oakville, Canada

A soft thriller visual novel illustrating how women can be taken advantage of through daily social pressures, which men may be unaware of. Players navigate through conversations by launching a ball at words which visually represent their avatar’s thought process as the situation deteriorates.

Animalia

Ian Michael Waddell

Victoria, Canada

Animalia is a massively-branching interactive comedy in which you play four forest creatures who are trying to cover up the ritual sacrifice of a small child by piloting a replica of that small child.

The Library Of Babble

Demi Schanzel

New Zealand

Wander through a gentle garden of words, discover the mumbling words of other storytellers and leave a few of your own.

Electric Sleep

Jack Sanderson-Thwaite, Matthew Weekes, Vlad Abadzhiev, Michael Becze

Bristol, UK

Electric Sleep is a pixel art interactive story, where you explore a crumbling world as an emotionally driven robot.

The Horizon

Freya Campbell

Bristol, UK

A postmodern kinetic novel, finishing a trilogy about trans women in love, tarot, alien abduction, and escaping from cycles of self-loathing.

The Vale

St. Catherines, Canada

David Evans (Falling Squirrel Inc.)

The Vale is a story driven, action/adventure game that sets out to breathe new life into medieval combat and provide a truly novel experience for visually impaired and sighted gamers alike.

Bound Together

John Vanderhoef

California, USA

Bound Together is a top-down narrative adventure game made in Bitsy that explores the relationship between a bounty hunter and his captive.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening to Steal Treasure

Alexander Blechman

Chicago, USA

A comedic poetry game where you remix one of Robert Frost’s most famous works, swapping out words to transform it into an epic fantasy battle.

Curses

Emily Flynn-Jones

Brantford, Canada

A game about words and how they wound; emotional abuse and fantasies of revenge; and doing witchcraft with your cat.

Dear Reader

Local No. 12

New York, USA

Dear Reader turns classic literature into an addictive word puzzle game, and lets you curl up and play your favorite books from Pride and Prejudice to Pygmalion.

The Last Survey

Nicholas O’Brien

Brooklyn, USA

The Last Survey is a narrative essay game about a geologist contracted by a Brazilian mining company to survey rare earth metal reserves.

Strollplaying Game Trio Pack

Smolghost

Toronto, Canada

Three small self-directed narrative games to print and play wherever you are and whenever you feel like it!

Verdure

Sharang Biswas

New York, USA

Verdure is an analogue storytelling and role-playing game about witchcraft and revenge, played in an empty kitchen while preparing and eating salad.

Our Partners

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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:

Less than a week to go until WordPlay 6 is upon us! We are extremely excited to announce the final lineup of games that will be playable in this year’s arcade, selected by an international jury and spanning the globe from France to South Africa. Of course, the action all takes place right here at the Toronto Reference Library, where stories are the portals to a million possible worlds. Become a weird Internet cop in Hypnospace Outlaw; survive your job as an underpaid social media content moderator in Sentry; date your weapons in Boyfriend Dungeon; explore neo-veganism, food security, and gay aliens in It’s for Melody, and collect tales amidst a folkloric Great Depression USA in Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. Witchy Twines, historical interactive fiction, tough conversations, and genre-bending adventures await!

We’ve also got our full schedule of talks lined up below, so take a gander and Spread the Word!

The 6th annual WordPlay Festival takes place Saturday, November 10 2018.

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

RSVP on our Facebook page for updates!

Schedule

See the full list of speakers and talk descriptions here.

Arcade Showcase

The Tower

By Freya C / Communistsister, Bristol, United Kingdom

An interactive fiction horror game with interactive illustrations, about tarot, trans women, therapy, and alien abduction.

The Eyes That Look Back

By: Maria ‘Leno’ Heyaca, Buenos Aires, Argentina

We are surrounded with faces. The ones of the people around us and the ones we carry with ourselves.

Dead Horizon

By: Matthew Ritter, California, USA

A visual novel with no choices where you get to shoot people in the steampunk wild west and maybe feel bad about it?

Hypnospace Outlaw

By: Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson Jr., Gemany & USA

Hypnospace Outlaw is an alternate-reality internet simulator in which players explore a variety of strange websites to find violations.

Wolf at the Door

By: Deck of Bards, UK, Toronto, Global

Wolf at the Door is a slice-of-life folk horror game blending interactive fiction with resource management.

after HOURS

By: Bahiyya Khan, Johannesburg, South Africa

after HOURS is a point and click FMV whereby players are made witness to a night in the life of Lilith, a young woman that was molested as a child and has Borderline Personality Disorder as a result.

Powerless

By: Narratio Studios, London, UK

An interactive simulator designed to test humanity’s ability to survive without electricity.

Dialogue: A Writer’s Story

By: Tea-Powered Games, London, UK

Dialogue is a visual novel in which you play out a year in the life of Lucille, a writer working on her second novel, by making small choices during everyday conversations.

Spindlewheel

By: Sasha Reneau, Los Angeles, USA

Spindlewheel is a tarot-like storytelling game where you use the concepts in the cards as anchors to weave together a story with your friends!

Knife Sisters

By: Transcenders Media / Bobbi A Sand, Malmö, Sweden

Knife Sisters is a dark slice of life story, an erotic visual novel centered around themes such as peer pressure, manipulation, love, obsession and BDSM.

Nod If You Can Hear Me

By: Emma Kidwell, Maryland, USA

A short game about anxiety over aging, guilt, and and memory loss.

Circuits

By: Elieen Mary Howowka, Montréal, Quebec

Circuits is a narrative-based Twine game that explores what it means to remember, witness, and talk about sexual trauma.

Boyfriend Dungeon

By: Kitfox Games, Montréal, Quebec

Date your weapons in this flirty, playful, welcoming dungeoncrawler. Plunder the dunj and take cute blades on romantic outings to level them up!

NovaCorp

By: Marine Bernard, Nantes, France

When Video Game meets Dystopia YA Novel = NovaCorp.

Time To Feed

By: Sharang Biswas, NY, USA

A vampire’s latest victims unearth painful memories of his past.

It Will Be Hard

By: Hien Pham and Amos Wolfe, Perth, Australia

It Will Be Hard is an interactive graphic novel about two men, with two polar opposite sexualities, working toward one mutually fulfilling relationship.

Where the Water Tastes Like Wine

By: Dim Bulb Games, Santa Fe, USA

A game about traveling, telling stories, and the American myth, set in a folkloric Great Depression United States, with characters from a wide variety of writers.

The Mirror

By: Kim McAuliffe, Seattle, USA

A metaphorical RPG about self-image, reflections, and reality.

Headliner: NoviNews

By: Unbound Creations LLC, Seattle, USA

Short media bias adventure where YOU control national news and its impact on your career, society, and family.

Late Summer Nights, Episode 1

By: Anna Prein, Vancouver, Canada

A visual novel exploring friendship on the 90s/00s internet, and what happens when it intersects with the “real world”.

The Crimson Diamond

By: Julia Minamata, Toronto, Canada

Text parser graphical mystery adventure game.

Sentry

By: Josh Labelle, Toronto, Canada

An interactive short story in which you see how long you can last as a low paid social media content moderator — based on true stories of working conditions at the agencies where these jobs are done.

It’s for Melody

By: Jillian Wakarchuk, Toronto, Canada

It’s for Melody is a twine game about neo-veganism, food security, and gay aliens in outer space.

“Who Killed My Uncle?”

By: Devon Wiersma, Toronto, Canada

“Who Killed My Uncle” is a narrative game set in WWII about censorship, loss, and family you’ll never get to meet, made in memorium of my Great Uncle Sidney who died in the Spanish Civil War.

Doki Doki Literature Club!

By: Team Salvato

You’ve become a new member of the Literature Club, will you write the way into their heart?

WordPlay Jury

Lena NW
Cătălin Nedeluș
Andrei Olaru
Todd Anderson
Nuha Alkadi
Ben Kybartas
Andrew G. Schneider
Kyle Seeley
Matthew Seiji Burns
Paul Alex Gray
Jenny Goldstick
Salvatore Pane
Adoné Kitching

Jury Assembler: Jo Summers

Partners