Ludology.org

Madrid Game Grad studies

"Master UCM en Desarrollo de Videojuegos". The Complutense University of Madrid is launching a game program in collaboration with Pyro Studios (the folks from the Commandos series and now Imperial Glory). Pre-registration runs until May 16. Here's the link (en Español). I'm really glad to hear about this new program.

FuturePlay deadline extended

It seems that FuturePlay's deadline just got extended until July 31st. FuturePlay, the conference in Michigan, you know. So you have an extra few days to work on your submissions. That's always good, so be happy.

Playing in miniature gardens

I have just published a new article at Project Cluster, a magazine published in both Italian and English. I had a lot of fun writing the article and I hope it shows. It's about games, cities and includes some pictures that I have taken while in Japan. You can download a pdf version of the article, both in English and Italian. The magazine is distributed in 12 countries, so you may want to go and grab a copy, too (their site has a list of distribution outlets, from Taiwan to Spain).
rOne more thing: if you pay close attention to the picture in this post, you'll notice that the girl riding the bike is carrying a Chihuahua dog on her bag. I have only one word to say: NIN-TEN-DOGS! My copy (Dachshund & Friends) should arrive next week...

CFP: Game On 2005

The CFP for Game On 2005 is out (this is the European conference, not Game On North America. Gee, I still remember when things used to be simple around game studies :). It will be held on November 23-25 at Leicester, UK.

More conferences

By way of gameconferences.com, I learnt about various new upcoming events. Among them, the Casual Games Conference (which I am sure I must have posted somewhere) to be held in Seattle on July 19-20. Another one to keep an eye on is the Advertising in Games (San Francisco, July 28) and its European counterpart (London, Nov. 2005, details upcoming).

CFP: Microwave

The 9th Microwave International Media Art Festival 2005 is coming soon. It takes place in Hong Kong, in mid October. They have a call for papers, installations and videos. I should mention that this year's theme is "Culture as Game". Here's a link to their website, which will be updated soon.

Virtual Vancouver

If you couldn't make it to Digra 05, there's plenty of stuff online. Here're some pics of both new faces and the usual suspects. You can even get access to Janet Murray's powerpoint files for both her pre-keynote and actual keynote. I am sure that more stuff will keep popping up in da blogs, so keep your eyes open.

Why do we play?

Game Brains asks the question and uses Lumines in order to review several reasons on why we play. I haven't played Lumines yet (the PSP will launch in Europe on May 2009, hopefully). But Warioware Twisted IS launching in Europe this Friday. It'll be a looovely weekend.

Zimmerman @ Gamasutra

Gamasutra interviews Eric Zimmerman. It's a really good piece, where Eric shares his insights on making games, writing about games and making games in New York City.

International Games Summit

Sorry for the late anouncement, but better late than too late. Tomorrow, June 21 and 22, the International Games Summit is taking place in London. Here's the schedule.