Matt Bethancourt and Danny Rankin started the Whaaat!? festival in order to geek-out with a group of like-minded game developers; in just their second year, they managed to attract 250 participants to the all-day event, assisted by聽5280 magazine designating it as an "Editor's Pick" for their "Best things to do in Colorado in October" listing.
"We鈥檙e really excited to expand the discourse around games and play," said Bethancourt, co-organizer of the event and director of the Technology, Arts and Media (TAM) program. 鈥淕enerally people focus on the business or entertainment-value of games, but we鈥檙e more interested in areas where聽games can function as art, cultural artifacts, storytelling tools and other areas."聽
Overall the annual event is geared towards games that don't fit traditional boxes; the kind of聽experiences that make you say "Whaaat!?" That's not "What?,"聽but "Whaaat!?," defined as an expression of both amazement and disbelief, combined with delight. They include聽weird new games, old clunky games, overlooked gems,聽games with bizarre controllers, games that live in art museums聽and even games that may start arguments over what a聽game actually is, says Rankin.聽
Guest speakers included聽game designers Colleen Macklin and Jason Rohrer.聽Rohrer's work includes the first full-scale museum show devoted to videogames of a single artist at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College in 2016 and聽his 2007 game聽Passage聽is included聽in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art.聽Macklin is聽an associate professor of media design at Parsons The New School for Design and founder and co-director of PETLab, which focuses on games for experimental learning and social engagement. Her聽work has been shown with Come Out & Play, Creative Time and the Whitney Museum, and she鈥檚 co-authored two books: "Games, Design and Play" and "Iterate: Ten Lessons in Design and Failure."
In addition to talks Macklin, Rohrer and others,聽the聽festival featured workshops,聽an聽all-you-can-eat cereal bar and the聽鈥攁 large collection of聽tabletop and digital games聽that聽filled the ATLAS聽Black Box Experimental Studio.
The festival was sponsored by the ATLAS Institute and CU Boulder's Engineering Excellence Fund.聽Conference organizers Bethancort and Rankin聽co-direct the聽ATLAS Whaaat!? Lab聽for Games and Experimental Interactions.
