At the Different Games Conference this past spring, Colleen Macklin and I ran a workshop session called Queering The Metagame. Using Merritt Kopas’ “Queer Mechanics” design model (which we lifted from her essay Interrupting Play: Queer Games and Futurity), we encouraged players to hack into The Metagame and create their own cards, rules, and play rituals.
The Metagame is currently live on Kickstarter.
In the Metagame, you argue and debate about culture with your friends – it’s a card game that plays with literature and television, film and music, games and comics. And there isn’t just one game to play – the Metagame is a game system – a deck of cards that can be used to play a whole bunch of different games.
The Metagame is a project of Local No. 12 – the design collective that includes Colleen Macklin, John Sharp, and myself. You may have seen earlier versions of the Metagame – like the original version that focused just on videogames. This new edition of the Metagame expands the scope of the game to include all kinds of art, media, design, and culture.
If this sounds interesting, check out our Kickstarter page! There is plenty of information there, including PDFs of cards you can download for free and videos that explain how the game works. You can support the game and pre-order a boxed edition – plus we have other juicy rewards for our supporters too.
Thanks for your support!
In just a few weeks, Local No. 12 (the game collective that consists of Colleen Macklin, John Sharp, and myself) will be unveiling the next phase of our culture-jamming card game the Metagame. Meanwhile, the earlier version of the game has been getting a nice amount of attention online. So feel free to kill time until the next Metagame drops with these articles and podcasts.
It’s a bit of a blast from the past – last summer to be exact – but I couldn’t resist posting this link to the University of the Arts in Berlin. Nathalie Pozzi and I taught a workshop there last summer, and this page of their visiting faculty lists us, along with art world mega-stars Ai Weiwei and Tino Sehgal. I think now that I’ve shared a page with these luminaries, I can finally kill myself happily.
In other news from last summer, here’s a link to a somewhat impressionistic BBC radio program about Herman Hesse – the author of the Glass Bead game, one of the original inspirations for the Metagame. Alan Hall interviews me about the relationship between games and culture – and we play a round of the Metagame Culture Edition too.
Indiecade, that quintessential festival of independent games, is happening in just about a month. And it’s going to be a very busy few days for me.
Two of my games – Interference and Armada d6 – were selected as finalists and will be on exhibit there. Another project I helped design, Local No.12’s Metagame, is an Official Selection and will be available to play throughout the festival. I’m also giving a talk about the act of *being* a game designer and I’ll be interviewing the amazing Bernie DeKoven for one of the keynote sessions.
There are many incredible games being presented this year and it’s an honor being part of the festival. Plus it’s a great excuse to spend a few days in California wandering among the games and talks with other independent developers.
See you in Culver City.
being playful 