After our first NotGames Fest 2011 it’s time to do a short retrospective. I already wrote a little about the exhibition while the fest was running. So I won’t repeat myself too much. Instead I let images speak. Katharina Tillmanns from CGL made this beautiful video:
For German-speaking readers, here is another nice Feature by the German national TV channel ZDF. It includes a TRAUMA plug which I’m quite excited about.
And if you prefer written media, I suggest this wonderful post by Tale of Tales. It’s the keynote Tale of Tales gave at the finissage. I found it a tremendously inspiring affirmation of why we organized this in the frist place.
I’m delighted to see that, despite the setbacks of the previous decade, the first glimmers of hope have started to appear on the horizon of the video-games medium. That is what is presented in this exhibition. Video-games created by passionate people intent on exploring the potential of this new medium. Unsurprisingly, most of these have been created by independent developers, individuals or small teams working on shoestring budgets. It’s hard work. And we’re going against the grain. But we all believe that this work needs to be done. We owe it to this medium. And we owe it to humanity. We will find a way.
I was especially blown away by the party at the finnissage. All the NotGames developers were there. We had also Guests from ThatGameCompany, Kokomori Collective and generally a lot if indie enthusiasts. Some of them traveled hundreds of kilometers just for this very event. We had a BBQ and you could just walk up to people and have these great, thoughtful conversations. For me it felt exactly like the kind of gathering that pays tribute to what the independent developer community stands for – a more humane and approachable way of connecting with people.
As Jeroen put it so nicely: The NotPhoto
Needless to say we were all thrilled by the kind of feedback we received. I would personally like to thank everybody involved. I had the time of my life. I hope that we can repeat this next year. 
