Wrapping things up…

It’s taken us a while to really properly process this year’s Freeplay…

First off, it’s worth bearing in mind that while Freeplay started in 2004, this is just our second festival as directors – and everything about 2010 was bigger than last year.  We had more projects showcased in Experimedia, we had more workshops and panels, we had more speakers and more internationals, we had more work in terms of pulling together the awards, and we had probably double the number of people through the whole event as last year.  Across the board, it was a huge increase, and one that makes us wonder how we can top it next year

But let’s take a step back first…

After 2009 we thought long and hard about what would be best for 2010.  We looked at an industry caught in a work-for-hire mentality and at the creative energy coming out of Freeplay that seemed slightly unsure of it’s direction.  It took us a little while to get there, but eventually we decided to build a festival that looked not at the established industry or at the old question of games as art or at education or getting a job, but that looked at what lies at the heart of why we do this – the drive to make things, the drive to create.

Which, in the aftermath of 2010 sounds really simple, but in early 2009 when we made the decision, there were no sessions, no speakers, no workshops, and no panels.  There was nothing – except an idea.

So we started to dig around what that meant and to create what Freeplay 2010 eventually became, and in doing so, in designing something that reflected on the creative process while being built out of that same process, new ideas came to us, new people were suggested as speakers, and new and interesting topics came out of the woodwork from both the games space and from fields like animation and product design and storytelling.  We were overwhelmed as we found ourself with this incredibly generous array of speakers who wanted to get together and share their thoughts with the community – in many cases a community that they were only peripherally (if at all) connected to.  All up, 65 people spoke at Freeplay across 29 sessions to what looks like over 1000 people, and we’re incredibly thankful to them for giving up their time and experience.

But it’s only afterwards, in the wake, that we’re really able to appreciate the scale of those numbers.

Running a festival, you’re never really sure how people are going to react to it, you’re never really sure if anyone is going to turn up.  Sure you sell tickets, but what if they decide it’s too hard to come in through the rain? You’re also never sure how people will respond to the creative decisions you’ve made about how to organize sessions and speaker.  What if, you think, nobody likes it?  What if all the work, all the effort, all the energy you’ve spent fails to connect with anyone?  What if, you’ve wasted their time and their money?

Fears, I’m sure, every creative person can easily understand.

And compounded with that is the fact that you don’t get a do-over.  The festival happens just once.  Sessions run just once.  You have one chance to get it right. And if you don’t, then what happens?

And not everything can go right. Not everything was perfect.  There are things we learned from 2009 that we did our best to deal with, and just as many things we learned from 2010 – ways to improve the festival, to streamline it, to make things easier for us and our audience.  We’re sure there will be as many in 2011 for 2012 and in 2012 for 2013, and on into the future of us running Freeplay.

But back to 2010…

It seems like there was something there in that weekend.  Something that went beyond our program or our speakers or us as directors.  Something that needed to be said or expressed through action or that was waiting to find a voice.  Coming out of Freeplay 2010, we felt a change in the energy of how people thought about things, in their desire to just make things, and their awareness of the broader creative community.  At the after parties it seemed to be almost palpable as people talked not about the industry or eduction or how to get a job, but about their ideas and their projects and how they could get them out of their head and into the hands of an audience.

It was something we hadn’t expected.  We’d hoped that Freeplay would connect with people, hoped it would inspire, but I don’t think either of us really thought what that might look like.

We know now.  And it looks pretty amazing.

We really hope that the energy and ideas and creativity that spun around those 2 days continues and we see the most amazing, brilliant, experimental, and inspiring successes and failures come out of it.

I guess, in short, we really hope that people keep making stuff.

See you at Freeplay 2011