OPEN CALL FOR APPLICATIONS – GAMIFY YOUR CITY’S FUTURE CREATE A LOCALLY BASED GAME ABOUT YOUR PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

ABOUT

The Goethe-Institut Namibia is looking for an interdisciplinary group of people with different backgrounds; from artists, architects and musicians to software and game developers and students who are willing to join this adventure. We want to create a playful experience concerning the future of your city and need answers to questions like: Can games make a better world? Can new forms of participation be made possible through gaming and gamification? Can the culture technique of gaming have an impact on the development of cities and countries? And how should such processes be designed?

You will be part of a 2-year-long programme including Game-Labs and cooperation between partners across a network in Africa. Gaming is about creating games while Gamification is about using game-mechanics in a non-game context. We will use both to create a digital analogue and playful experience that will be about one or more aspects of the transformation-process of your city. During the days of the Game-Lab, participants will design, develop and test a real locally-based-game that deals with the future of your city the way you want it. This includes insight into the core of game mechanics, creating a storyline, learning how to implement analogue spaces into a game and feeding all the elements into a digital platform. What we want is your creativity, dedication and interest for a better world.

DATES AND VENUES

  • MAR 10, 2018: APPLICATION DEADLINE
  • APR 9 – 12, 2018: FIRST GAME LAB
  • FIRST HALF OF 2019: SECOND GAME LAB
  • LOCATION: WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA

TIME: FULL DAY PROGRAMME

VENUE: GOETHE-INSTITUT NAMIBIA

GAME LABS WILL BE HELD IN ENGLISH

PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

During the programme, which will take place in 15 African countries, you will create a locally based game that is connected with the future of your city. The programme consists of two Game-Lab sessions (4 days in 2018 and 3 days in 2019) in your country and online support in between. Every team in every participating country will have the chance to send one representative to an additional Game-Lab in Addis Ababa to create a game for the continent based on the first Game-Labs. This mega game will be presented at the Gamescom in Cologne, Germany in 2019. Gamescom is one of the biggest fairs worldwide for game fans and game developers, with 919 companies from 54 countries presenting their latest games, current software and innovative accessories.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

We will apply an existing digital platform that can be used to create locally based games without any knowledge of programming and software development. Only basic digital skills are needed, plus your creativity to design a game!

WHO CAN APPLY?

Everybody who is interested to learn how to create games and how gamification can be used to enter Africa’s future is invited to apply. Applications are open to problem solvers, subject matter experts, fun makers, energy boosters and to inhabitants of Windhoek with an interest in the future of the city. We can accept up to 20 participants. The requirements to take part in this project are:

» Applicant must be 18-years-old or above

» Time and willingness to participate fully, at least in the first Game Lab

» The ability to use a browser and the internet, Microsoft Office and easy tools for working on pictures and videos

» Experience in using Smartphones

» Interest in the future of Windhoek

THE PROJECT TEAM

CHRISTOPH DEEG

Christoph Deeg is a consultant, speaker, and author in the field of gamification and digital analogue strategies. He is consulting national and international institutions, organizations, and companies on the development and implementation of comprehensive and sustainable digital strategies and is developing and realizing gamification projects in countries such as Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Austria, Germany, and Mexico. He lectures widely on this topic at national and international conferences and is the author of “Gaming und Bibliotheken” (Gaming and Libraries) and founder of the interdisciplinary network “games4culture.” For more information visit his website: www.christoph-deeg.com

BETHLEHEM ANTENEH

Bethlehem Anteneh is an experimental architect that felt an outsider amongst reserved architecture. Her natural curiosity in trying to understand intangible causes and processes that drive the world brought her forth with game-thinking. Her graduation project was then an application of that curiosity resulting in a new daring urban concept. Caught between experience design, playful experience and architecture, she specializes in the possibilities arising from the combination of game-thinking and architecture as well as urban development. Amongst her initiations are Rethopia, and co-founding of the Ethiopian game-thinking and gamification network ChewataAwaqi. It was created during the project “Gamify your City-Future!” with the Goethe Institute in Addis Ababa. Ever since, ChewataAwaqi’s main focus has been on the motivational process for civilians to engage and redefine possibilities of their future in real locations and situations through game-thinking

DAGMAWI BEDILU

Dagmawi Bedilu Degefe is an Ethiopian Software Engineer, an aspiring Entrepreneur and a GameThinking activist with an appetite for both Science and the Arts. In his Engineering career, he has managed to work as a Senior Software Architect for the country’s biggest IT company, designing and developing Location-Based Systems while leading a team of 25+ engineers/developers. He has supervised more than 15 projects, technically managing 6 of them including the National Fleet Management and Cargo Tracking System. He has also chaired a National Technical Committee during his time as a proud civil servant. In the entrepreneurial arena, he has founded gursha.org, a social enterprise that aims to enable societies to solve their own problems using indigenous knowledge. Also, a co-founder of ChewataAwaqi a cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary company with an overarching vision of curing the world with Game Thinking by bringing back the fun in the Learning, Loving and Living experience; meaning creating social impacts through the use of games, playful design, simulation, gamification and serious games. He is also a startup mentor in one of the country’s leading incubation center (BlueMoon Ethiopia). For more information visit www.dagmawi-bedilu.com

ROMAN RACKWITZ

Roman Rackwitz is one of Europe’s pioneers of Gamification. Since 2009 he is leading Engaging lab GmbH, Europe’s first Gamification-Agency. He teaches Gamification at universities in Germany and Switzerland and is regularly called in as Gamification-expert to appear on German TV and other media. Rackwitz is well known as an international speaker on the topic of Gamification and the Engagement Economy and curates the topic via video content and podcast. Rackwitz is well known as the declared enemy of mixing up simple reward-programs with Gamification. His core-philosophy instead – that he is well-known for – focuses on creating ‘Playful Experiences’ in everyday areas of human activities.

ORGANISERS OF THE PROJECT

THE GOETHE-INSTITUT is the cultural institute of the Federal Republic of Germany with a global reach. We promote knowledge of the German language abroad and foster international cultural cooperation. We convey a comprehensive image of Germany by providing information about cultural, social and political life in our nation. Our cultural and educational programmes encourage intercultural dialogue and enable cultural involvement. They strengthen the development of structures in civil society and foster worldwide mobility. For more information, visit www.goethe.de/addis

HOW AND WHEN TO APPLY

Download the application form www.goethe.de/namibia.

Fill in the application form and send it to both email addresses:

info-enterafrica@goethe.de and daniel.stoevesandt@goethe.de

Note: PDF version of this information is also available for download here.

“I am a conservative, I preserve the future”

– Arnold Schönberg

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.