Nottingham (28/10/12) - GameCity, the world’s best loved videogame culture festival powered by Nottingham Trent University, today announced the GameCityNights tour, in partnership with Edge and sponsored by Maxis’ SimCity. The tour will run throughout the year in a number of venues. For more information, or to discuss your venue becoming a future tour destination, contact GameCity’s PR & Marketing Coordinator, Chris White, chris@gamecity.org
The monthly after-dark explorations of videogame culture have long been a popular event in Nottingham’s calendar, fusing intimate developer presentations with a relaxed and accessible atmosphere.
But after three seasons and more than 20 events, GameCityNights is going on tour with help from Edge and Maxis’ SimCity. Wild parties, groupies, cars in swimming pools, the GameCityNights tour will have literally none of these things.
In partnership with Edge and sponsored by Maxis’ SimCity, GameCity will bring its imitable style to some of the best venues in the UK (once we’ve had a short rest after GameCity7, of course) and help create and support communities interested in the cultural and creative, all in celebration of the best the videogame industry has to offer.
Tour stops;
2012
Nov 13th - National Media Museum, Bradford
Nov 20th - BFI Southbank, London
Nov 21st - Dublin Science Gallery, Dublin
2013
Jan 24th - Antenna, Nottingham
Jan 29th - Arnolfini, Bristol
Jan 31st - Junction, Cambridge
Feb 5th - MAC, Birmingham
Feb 22nd - Animated Exeter Festival
Feb 23rd - Margate, GEEK2013
Feb 25th - Carriageworks, Leeds
Feb 26th - FACT, Liverpool
GameCity Director Iain Simons said “After three years of nights' gigs in Nottingham and loads of brilliant guests and audience members, it seemed like a good time to share the love. The one thing we love more than doing GameCityNights events, is driving - so this really is the ideal combination for us. We're really looking forward to making some new friends and trying out some new ideas on them. More than anything else, we'd really like people to get involved - so if you've got something to say or a game to show - get in touch."
Edge publisher, Richard Keith said, “There has always been a close connection between Edge and GameCity so it’s good to be able to bring the two together for what will be a unique series of events celebrating the best in videogame culture.”
Commenting on SimCity’s involvement, Jacqui Ashworth, Maxis Product Manager, added, “We are really excited to go on tour with GameCity and Edge, and hope to meet many future mayors and SimCity fans along the way.”
The details of each event, including headliners and support acts, will be announced at a later date, but as with all GameCityNights events, the tour will feature the GameCity Arcade, free exhibition space for independent developers to get their work in front of crowds for promotion and/or play testing. Titles exhibited at each GameCityNights tour stop will feature in Edge Online.
About SimCity
SimCity will engage an entirely new generation of PC and Mac gamers as they take charge of their own customized cities and build a world that co-exists alongside friends. For the first time in SimCity franchise history, players’ decisions will have long-lasting repercussions that will extend beyond their city limits. Together, players will address real global challenges such as climate change, the search for renewable resources and natural disasters. It’s up to the players to decide whether to compete or collaborate to shape the world – for better or for worse.
For more details, go to http://nights.gamecity.org. To discuss exhibiting your work at a specific venue as part of the GameCity Arcade, contact PR & Marketing Coordinator, Chris White, chris@gamecity.org
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NOTES TO EDITOR
Follow all the latest GameCity news on our website, www.gamecity.org
Get the latest updates on our Twitter page, www.twitter.com/gamecity
Find us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/gamecity.nottingham
*GameCityNights is a series of after-dark monthly events that brings together developers, students and players in an exploration of videogame culture. Every month a series of brilliant headline speakers share their insights, passions and experiences in games as they offer a unique look into their work.
GameCity is what a videogame festival should be.
GameCity is an innovative arts and culture project powered by Nottingham Trent University. It delivers major research and inclusion projects such as the GameCity videogame culture festival, GameCityNights, the Interactive Technology and Games (ITAG) conference and the National Videogame Archive, a unique collaboration with the National Media Museum.
GameCity’s aim is to bring together developers and the public to explore and celebrate videogames and videogames culture, with a particular focus on students. We attract the best speakers in the world, offer up-and-coming artists and developers a platform for their games and create totally unique events.
Some of GameCity’s greatest hits include a world-record breaking zombie gathering, Keita Takahashi designing a children’s playground and Masaya Matsuura, Lorne Lanning, Alexey Pajitnov and Eric Chahi having headlined.
We’ve worked alongside some of the most prominent names in gaming, including;
Nintendo, Microsoft, SCEE, Electronic Arts, Rare, Crytek UK, Harmonix, thatgamecompany, Warner Bros, TTGames, Activision, Namco Bandai, Ubisoft, Freestyle Games, David Braben, Media Molecule, Splash Damage, Harmonix, Denki, Naughty Dog, Midway, Zoe Mode, Nana-on-Sha, Amanita Design and lots more.
Going way beyond just playing games, GameCity offers other new ways for people to interact with videogame culture. Art exhibitions, director commentaries, playground building, live recreations of videogames, gigs, gong-shows, three World Records, arcade trails, club nights – nothing is off limits for this most radical of videogame festivals.
Don’t just take our word for it, see what others have said after working with us,
GameCity is everything which is true and unbroken in the games industry
Mads Wibroe, Producer, Playdead
(GameCity is) the Sundance of the gaming world
The Times
Surprising, transfixing, inclusive, joyful… I always run out of superlatives on the subject of GameCity
Guardian
GameCity continues to be the most culturally-interesting and left-field coming together of video game creators and players alike, taking over the English city for four days in a vivid celebration of the medium, from the tallest blockbuster to the meekest indie title
Gamasutra
Nottingham doesn't have the swagger of Los Angeles or the neon allure of Tokyo, but it can boast a games show that puts E3 and TGS to shame. GameCity is a festival in the truest sense of the word, a celebration of a community and a culture that's sadly all too often swamped by corporate concerns
Eurogamer
About Edge:
Multi-format videogame magazine Edge was first published in 1993/ Since launch, it has won the MCV award for Best Magazine Team and six Magazine Of The Year awards from InDin and the Games Media Awards
