A MAZE. / Berlin Festival
an international game jam network meets in Berlin

circled. is an experimental abstract game which criticizes how we approach interpersonal relationships and explores social issues, such as rejection, social adaptation, social pressure, personality shifts, identity loss, and destructive behaviours. How much are you willing to compromise to be part of a group? Is it fair to sacrifice our identity for the sake of social adaptation?

SunShine konfrontiert Spieler*innen mit einer unvollkommenen Utopie, einer virtuellen Realität. Anders als viele Mainstream Spiele ist dieses Singleplayer Game nicht niedlich gestaltet, sondern cool und brutal. Jede Einheit auf dieser virtuellen Erde ist eng miteinander verknüpft, um eine Utopie zu formen. Gestalte Deine eigene Utopie, bring sie zur Blüte und beschütze sie!

2984 Little Brother is set a thousand years after George Orwell's 1984. After humans have destroyed the Earth, some escaped to a planet called Utopia. The Utopia Union comprises many tribes who named themselves ‘Little Brothers'. A direct democracy is at work and citizens participate in politics through nine interactive ‘telescreens’. You are one of the Little Brothers. What does your utopia look like?

Help refugees remember and envision better and brighter times, so they can gather the strength to move on and escape danger. As a player, you must observe the playing fields meticulously in order to find a path towards a safer future.

Babel-o-Rama experiments with the format of multiplayer games on a mobile platform. Three or more players can join to solve word puzzles together. Their shared dictionary will continuously expand by cooperation and teamwork.

Every choice entails a hidden cost in the consequences that we have to bear for making it. However, we are uncapable of ever predicting the outcome and foreseeing our destiny, as everything we have and everything we know is always tied to the present. In Choo-Choose as well as in life, we are forced to make these choices blindly. Some would say that’s unfair, but we would say: That's the joy of the ride.

Make It Rain criticises corruptive systems by provoking its players to corrupt their opponents. Inspired by true events, players are prompted to rain money on police officers and the military in order to get away with the crimes committed. In this way, it sheds light on the fragility of legal systems in the face of financial fortunes.

Status is an analogue game that explores the relations between politics and people. The basic idea is derived from the limited nature of resources as well as the notion of ‘status’ as a measuring unit within society. As a player, you have to overtake others in order to secure your own place in the social system. In doing so, this game questions hierarchical structures, economical positions and ethics in a position of power.

Cacophony is a virtual reality experience that explores the importance of forming opinions independently and the complexity of freedom of speech. As a conductor of a choir of disparate voices, the responsibility to navigate and guide the flow of information becomes evident as well as the state of perversion of truth that results from living within one's secluded, personal bubble of information.

Four individuals are imprisoned for their different selfish crimes against their tribe. Mislead to think they found an escape route, they trail through a dungeon that turns out to be their tribe’s concept of judgement and trial. Chained to each other, they have to co-ordinate their movements to escape and learn anew how to socialize.