WordPlay is a free, one-day festival that is designed to discuss and celebrate words and writing in modern videogames. The festival takes place tomorrow, Nov. 16 at the Toronto Reference Library.
The Hand Eye Society, a videogame arts organization, will host the festival to showcase games and demos that are described as “writerly”. In an interview with book industry magazine Quill & Quire, festival director and Hand Eye Society board member Jim Munroe explained the term.
“It’s our term for a game that has writing as a key component and generally has words on the screen, as opposed to, say, being voice acted,” Munroe says.
WordPlay will also feature panel discussions, workshops and premieres of games that incorporate such “writerly” themes. The Hand Eye Society acknowledges its festival takes place after the release of the PlayStation 4, but that doesn’t deter the organization from exploring the world of videogames from a text-based standpoint.
