Game-Based Learning Dev

Best Agile Games (un)Conference Ever?

Or at least until next year?

A week ago I attended the Play4Agile 2011 unconference. It was an excellent event (thank you, organizers): I learned a lot, had fun and made new friends.

The event was organized as an open playground (a mod of open space technology) - we the participants designed the program ourselves and were responsible for the success of the event. It worked like a charm: there were plenty of excellent sessions and I was completely engaged in the program most of the time.

I have to say that it was exhausting, too. Each day I had to sneak of for a nap or some alone time as I couldn’t keep up with the intensity level of the sessions for hours on end.

The evening program consisted of games, conversation and a bar – excellent entertainment! By Saturday night there were lots of playtests going on and people were also excited to try out different games they had heard of.

There was also lots of game concept creation, game design and playtesting going on in the sessions. I was involved with the design of (at least) three very interesting games, of which I’ll write about in this blog later. Jurgen Appelo playtested his agile management games and there were plenty of others, from Lego to rpgs to clay or putty to improv and applied drama games.

All in all, a very rewarding and energizing experience. The German hospitality and friendliness was outstanding and the attendees made the whole event simply amazing.