LEVEL 3 ACCESSIBLE GAMING FESTIVAL NOVEMBER 2022 Level 3 is a festival of playable art made by and for autistic, learning disabled & neurodivergent (A/LD/ND) people which celebrates, promotes and enriches the culture of arts within these communities. The 2022 festival will happen both online and in three real locations for two days each; Folkestone, Hastings & Brighton. Audiences will engage with playable artworks created by A/LD/ND artists, participate in accessible workshops, experience VR installations and attend talks and panels with the artists. The outcomes of workshops across all events will be combined to create an evolving communal artwork and the festival itself will be used as an opportunity to improve upon the accessibility of playful media. The festival is developed by a group of five A/LD/ND people, with support from Level-3 productions and BRiGHTBLACK productions. The 2022 festival will be launched in November in partnership with ScreenSouth, Hastings Commons & The Phoenix Arts Space. The entire project is made possible because of lottery funding from the arts council. PLAYABLE ART EXHIBITION: Throughout the festival audience will be able to play and engage with a varied selection of playable artworks made by A/LD/ND artists. This will include artworks which have been developed with Level-3 support, scouted indie games, and games that have been discovered through call outs. All games will be digital, displayed on large monitors around the space, using gaming controllers and headphones. Currently confirmed exhibits: ‘Treasure is Nigh’ - Terry Watson A sci-fi themed side scrolling game which tells the story of a technologically advanced future in which augmentations have changed the the human experience. ‘Psionicavator: Before the beginning’ - Dan Land An epic tale which uses mythology and fantasy themes to explore Dan’s experience of school as an autistic person. ‘Save the stage’ - Wednesday & Friday Companies CFT Starting with nothing but a 3D scan of the theatre, the Chichester Festival Theatre ‘Wednesday and Friday’ community companies for adults with learning disabilities combined gaming technology with theatrical storytelling and music to create a new virtual theatre experience. ACCESSIBLE WORKSHOPS The accessible workshops will be free, walk-in sessions in which participants can learn how to use a variety of 3D modelling software. Participants are free to join for as long as they want and our teaching approach will be adaptive and changing based on individual access needs. Throughout each day of the festival the workshops will focus on either Magica Voxel, Oculus Medium, 3D Scanning, or KingSpray. Participants will be able to create their own 3D models, which can then be quickly inserted into our real time games engine environment where they can experience it either with a game controller or in virtual reality. This environment will become a community built game over the course of the festival. ARTIST TALKS & PANELS Each day of the festival will end with a talk or panel with either one of the exhibited artists or the Level-3 committee. Talks will be approximately 45 minutes long with an additional 15 minutes for Q&A. The artists talks will predominantly be about their work and the story they are telling, with a focus on how (in)accessibility has either helped or hindered their creative process. The talks will vary from being live in-real talks, via zoom and/or partly pre-recorded depending on artists individual access needs. The panel discussions will focus on the creative process of the festival committee, why they think the festival is necessary, and what their vision is for the future of Level-3. All talks will be recorded and made available to online viewers. Where possible tallks will also be live streamed via twitch. ONLINE FESTIVAL SPACE In addition to the in-real festival, Level-3 will also host an online festival space for audience and participants who cannot attend the physical locations. Accessible through the festival website, the online space will be made in real time games engine software to create an exhibition space which can be walked around. Exhibited games will be made accessible to download and play on audiences own devices. The workshops will be made available through a combination of video and written word tutorials. Step-by-step guides on how to download the relevant software will be available via the Level-3 website. Any at home participants will be able to send their 3D models to us throughout the festival to be inserted into the community game. The community built game will then be uploaded to gamejolt at the end of the festival as a free download. Artists talks and panels will be live streamed, with consent from the artists, via twitch. Through twitch, live audience can engage in the chat feature and participate in the Q&A by posting questions. The live streams will be recorded and then uploaded online for viewers unable to attend live.