WELCOME TO BRIEFS!
Briefs is a micro game publishing series curated by Georg Hobmeier and Evgeni Puzakov. Since 2022, gold extra has been offering scholarships for the development of games the size of a mustard seed every year on a new topic: It's about the quick, good idea, the game brainstorm, or small game essay that opens the world of triple AAA games and mobile games tailored to the target group urgently needed.
The topics so far are and have been: The Absurd (2022), Pigs! (2023) and DEATH (2024)
The call for proposals takes place in the spring, the selection by the curators and jury in May or June, and the presentation of the games in the fall. In 2022, the games were presented as part of the Absurd Realities exhibition in the Salzburg scene.
See gold extra games here.
Deadline 2024: Apply until 23rd of May 2024!
https://forms.gle/Cuybchh1RLRpsHoN9
BASIC SPECS
We want to see games done fast, rather than games that can be played fast. It’s up to you whether to make an infinitely replayable game with questionable presentation, or a two-second game with almost AAA production. We recommend spending no more than 40 hours on development in total. What you make with it is up to you.
We are looking for a digital game playable on a Windows PC. Other platforms and OS are up to you. We’re not accepting analog or
tabletop games.
FAQs
There are always questions left we've collected and answered them for you: BRIEFS FAQs
WHAT HAPPENED SO FAR...
The 2022 theme was ABSURD and yes, a rhino with yellow swimming briefs wearing an inside out shopping bag is considered absurd. Enjoy a literal Sisyphean typing game or enter the seventh dimension when encountering a long sinister cube thing. But don’t despair (yet), it's not all depressing and addressing the futility of life. The absurd part is also about making games wrong, ignoring the mainstream notions of how we should develop them.
In 2023 BRIEFS evolved around PIGS. What do you think about when you hear “PIGS”? I’m sure you’re going to start with cops (if you are American) or communists (if you are Russian). Maybe Ms. Piggy! What game can be viewed through the lens of PIGS, with protagonist PIGS, with villainous PIGS, with important PIGS? What game can be about PIGS?
2024 the theme is DEATH. Video games and DEATH have always been tightly bound, violence is a dominant way of interaction after all. Many developers don’t include DEATH as a design choice, it’s just one of our traditions. This year we want you to consider DEATH as a design choice narratively, mechanically, artistically, and politically.
