Following its debut last year, A MAZE. / Johannesburg 2013 has confirmed that it will be returning to inspire local media, art and game enthusiasts next month.

The media art festival will this time be bringing more than thirty international and African artists, game designers, speakers and musicians to showcase their craft in Braamfontein from the 5^th to the 7^th September.

As to what attendees can look forward to, the lineup on offer will apparently include lectures, panel discussions, indie games, interactive installations as well as a workshops, concerts and, of course, parties.

The guest lineup is a eclectic mix of both local and international industry players, including  Rami Ismail, game designer from the Netherlands; Chief Nyameya, game designer from Kenya and  Sameh Al Tawil, media artist and researcher from Egypt, Sos Sosowski, game designer from Poland; and SFA, animation artists from Germany.

Also attending will be  John Kevin Biretwa, digital entrepreneur from Uganda; Oluseye Soyode-Johnson, game consultant from Nigeria and Evan Greenwood, Tegan Bristow and Joao Orecchia, a game designer, media artist and musician respectively from local shores.

Pedigree and purpose

The festival, which is headquartered in Berlin, has some rather significant backing locally, and is being presented in partnership with the Digital Arts Department of the University of the Witwatersrand and the Goethe-Institut in Johannesburg, and also is co-funded by the European Union Network of Institutes of Culture (EUNIC). 

The founder of A MAZE. and festival director Thorsten S. Wiedemann enthused that the festival had further secured a partnership with the Digital Arts Department for the next four years.

“This strong relationship between an academic institution and an international label guarantees sustainability and visibility worldwide. This year we are welcoming artists, game developers, forward thinkers, entrepreneurs, nerds and geeks from all over Africa and Europe to share their knowledge and visions about games, art and technology,” he commented.

To the point

The full program and locations of all the happenings over the course of the three days will apparently be available online from Monday, from the festival’s website here. This means of course that gamers in particular will be spoilt in the months ahead, with this festival coming to town in September and then the annual rAge expo opening its doors in October.