London Game Festival 2021 Programme Announced

Hundreds of games creators from around the world are set to participate in the sixth London Games Festival, which today unveils the full programme for its brand new entirely online event. The London Games Festival runs 19 March to 28 March and will be the most accessible version of the event yet, with content free online to anyone.

For the first time, London Games Festival has chosen an Official Selection of 40 games from around the world, representing quality, innovation and diversity. The Official Selection highlights developers from a global pool of creative talent across its four themes of Made In London, Narrative Excellence, International Innovators and Pick Up And Play. The games will be presented via a dedicated showcase site available from 19 March, with associated store promotions at digital retailers. A number of the games are due for release during the festival period while others have free demos available.

The line-up includes:

• A Musical Story: The Road To Pinewood Glee-Cheese (France)
• Acolyte Superstring (UK)
• Aerial Knight’s Never Yield Aerial Knight (USA)
• Aeon Drive 2Awesome (The Netherlands / Spain)
• Antstream Arcade Antstream (UK)
• Beard Defence Jolly Good (UK)
• CityClick Lost Native (UK)
• Darkside Detective: A Fumble in the Dark Spooky Doorway (Ireland)
• Dead Man’s Phone Electric Noir (UK)
• DIdim Twohands Interactive (South Korea)
• Do Not Buy This Game Kingblade Games (Israel)
• Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins Maze Theory (UK)
• Drive Buy GLITCHERS (UK)
• Duality Biome Collective (UK)
• Genesis Noir Feral Cat Den (USA)
• Going Medieval Foxy Voxel (Serbia)
• Hundred Days – Winemaking Simulator Broken Arms (Italy)
• Innchanted DragonBear (Australia)
• King of Seas 3DCloud (Italy)
• Legend of Keepers Goblinz Studio (France)
• Lost Words: Beyond the Page Sketchbook Games (UK)
• Murder by Numbers Mediatonic (UK)
• Ping Pong Fury Yakuto (UK)
• Puerto Viejo Bocata Games (UK)
• Puzzle Heist Hutch (UK)
• Star Hunter DX 1CC Games (UK)
• Tandem: A Tale of Shadows Monochrome (France)
• The Companion Studio 46 (USA)
• The Wandering VIllage Stray Fawn Studio (Switzerland)
• Theropods Lost Token (UK)
• This is Reality ScribbleScape (UK)
• TOEM Something We Made (Sweden)
• Tunche Leap Games (Peru)
• Underdogs Moonbear (UK)
• Vahn’s Quest Plutomobile.inc (South Korea)
• Waver Buried Things (UK)
• Wild Planet Lukyantsev Company (Switzerland)
• WildMeta (UK)
• Zombieland: Headshot Fever XR Games (UK)

(NB. One title is still unannounced and is set to be revealed prior to 19 March.)

The Official Selection games will also be profiled at the LGF World Stage, the festival’s new destination for its talks, panels and broadcasts. Over 70 shows will be made available via YouTube and a dedicated LGF EPG at games.london over the course of the festival, with highlights including:

• 40 original previews of the Official Selection games with developer commentary, exclusive first looks and premieres
• Director’s Commentary: John Carpenter – a special event with the revered movie director which will be looking at his life through the lens of his love for video games
• A free screening of the Tony Hawk documentary Pretending I’m A Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story – which looks at the origin of the bestselling games series and its legacy and ways it intersects with skating and music culture – followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
• Original documentaries by Games London looking at Games Are Good For You and The Game Tech Revolutionising Movies
• Two exclusive music performances are scheduled for the opening and closing days of the festival, further showcasing the variety and depth of audio content in games. New York-based games designer Jane Friedhoff will be playing the EP mixes she has created using the game FUSER on Friday 19 March – while performances from Brian D’Oliveira (composer for Resident Evil 7, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and others), recorded at his studio La Hacienda Creative in Montreal, will close the festival on Sunday 28 March.
• Refreshed episodes of the Ensemble Salons, Games London’s recent series of one-to-one interviews with the key talent in its exhibition focusing on Black, asian and marginalised ethnicities working in games
• Launches of new programmes for consumers and industry alike from Games London’s Virtual Photography Challenge to a new cross-industry Green Games Guide intended to help developers hit 2030 sustainability targets
• A London-based edition of the popular Games Jobs Live event which features career advice and experts talking about working in the games sector
• Plus a series of industry panels and discussions on key issues and hot button topics in games, ranging from the ways fans have turned their love of games like Fortnite, Minecraft and Roblox into a career, through to metaverse (covered in an exclusive fireside chat with CCP Games CEO Hilmar Petursson) and how games aid mental health

Opening up the mental health conversation further will also be a strand for the festival as it partners with games industry charity Safe In Our World on its new Safer Together Campaign. Safer Together will offer a public Discord that will launch during the festival and continue beyond, with the purpose of providing a public platform for gamers and industry folk to connect, discuss games and be a safe space for all to talk. To find resources and more information about Safe In Our World, please visit www.safeinourworld.org where the Discord Link will be announced at the beginning of the festival.

Elsewhere, the Now Play This programme will feature a further 25 games and experiences as its four-day event (25 March to 28 March) looks to engage players and creatives around the climate crisis and ways interactive works and inform and educate. Now Play This’s programming includes online talks and workshops plus a number of innovative in-game activities, such as the opening event: a ‘flight’ to the festival using Hosni Auji’s Airplane Mode. The full line-up has also been announced today and can be found at www.nowplaythis.net

The Museum of London in collaboration with Sacha Coward is also launching a brand new virtual video games tour on the first day of the games festival, available at www.museumoflondon.org.uk. The tour will take in some of the titles in museum’s video games collection and journey through the galleries to see the incredible artefacts that inspired them.

Also set for broadcast during the festival is the BAFTA Games Awards, free to view live online during the evening of Thursday 25 March – the prestigious awards event named its nominees last week with over 30 games in the running.

The public-facing LGF content is also underpinned by a major business-to-business offer that will see hundreds of professionals log on for video meetings, pitches to investors and networking. The Games Finance Market specifically will feature 60+ major global funds meeting pre-selected studios from London, UK and around the world looking to get new games financed. The festival is using new online platforms and partners such as digital escape room company The Adventure Is Real (where delegates can network and meet new people while solving puzzles) to keep the business area fresh and engaging. The festival’s B2B strand is supported by Xsolla, Hiro Capital, CCP Games, Here East and Java Hub.

Overall, the online London Games Festival 2021 is set to include nearly 400 games businesses across all its programming making for its biggest showing since the festival started as a physical event in 2016. London Games Festival is backed by the Mayor of London and seeks to make London the games capital of the world. It is delivered by Games London, an initiative from Film London, the capital’s screen industries agency, and video games trade body Ukie (The Association for UK Interactive Entertainment).

Discover more about London Games Festival via www.games.london and @londongamesfest

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