GameZfestival

28/10/2025

The CH-Ludens research project has compiled a corpus of video games from the period 1980–2000 that were either developed in Switzerland or have a close connection to Switzerland. In addition to many other games, this corpus contains a good two dozen Atari games. The Atari games listed are spread across various platforms that emerged during these years and were used for the development and release of console and computer games. Read it in the CH-Ludens Blog:

by Beat Suter The CH-Ludens research project has compiled a corpus of video games from the period 1980–2000 that were either developed in Switzerland or have a close connection to Switzerland. In addition to many other games, this corpus contains a good two dozen Atari games. The Atari games liste...

05/10/2024

Why was it so difficult to develop and produce computer games in Switzerland in the 80s and 90s? Richard Holmes, the founder of game publisher Black Legend, explains. Holmes lived in Uster in the Canton of Zurich, had grown up here and had just graduated from the high school. The 20-year-old young entrepreneur wanted to produce games for Amiga computers and launch them on the market. Switzerland didn't turn out to be ideal for his enterprise. He went to London and searched for developers in middle ans eastern europe and became a successful producer and publisher.

https://chludens.hypotheses.org/2981 (English)
https://chludens.hypotheses.org/3073 (German)

by Beat Suter The video game publisher Black Legend was founded in Switzerland in 1992 by Richard M. Holmes. Holmes lived in Uster in the Canton of Zurich, had grown up here and had just graduated from KZO Wetzikon. The 20-year-old young entrepreneur wanted to produce games for Amiga computers and l...

06/07/2024

What was producing and publishing games like in Switzerland in the 1980s and 1990s? Was the game "The Neverending Story II" a success? And what happened to the Karl May adventure series? Article 4 focuses on LINEL's publishing business with the physical production of commercial games, distribution, licensing, litigations, marketing strategies and communication efforts by Markus Grimmer's game label LINEL.

by Beat Suter LINEL – a Swiss Game Publisher:Part 1 – A comprehensive list of LINEL’S gamesPart 2 – Collaborations and unreleased gamesPart 3 – People and Work at LINELPart 4 – The Publishing Business The following text originally appeared here. LINEL was a software developer and publish...

05/07/2024

Seit kurzem sind unsere Kollegen vom Schweizer Brettspiel Verlag Treecer wieder auf Kickstarter – und zwar mit der Erweiterung von Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game - New Shores.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marcduer/zoo-tycoon-the-board-game-new-shores

Der Start am Dienstag verlief vielversprechend. Unterstützt Treecer doch bei ihrer Kampagne und leitet die Infos an Personen weiter, die sich für ein solches Projekt/ Brettspiel interessieren könnten. Treecer ist dankbar für jegliche Unterstützung.

Get the updated 2nd edition together with the big expansion “New Shores”. This is your zoo in a box with over 460 animal meeples!

21/10/2022

2nd day of conference with Natahalie Lawhead
at 16:30: The Joy of silly useless software. http://gamezandrulez.ch
location: Zürich, ToniAreal or Online
(pic shows award to Nathalie for "everything is going to be okay" at gameZfestival 2017)

21/10/2022

2nd day of conference : The mechanics of play starts today at 1pm.
http://gamezandrulez.ch
location: Zürich, ToniAreal or Online
pic shows Mateo Bitanti