154: Gathering Community with Ben Rausch and Anja Venter (Playtopia)

Doug and Rob are joined by Stephanie Boluk (UC Davis) and Patrick LeMieux (UC Davis) chat with Ben Rausch (Team Lazerbeam) and Anja Venter (Free Lives) about the Playtopia Festival for Indie Games & Immersive Arts that they help organize. They discuss some of the Festival's origins, the logistics of producing in-person games events, the state of alt-control/arts-focused games events around the world, the relationship between South African culture and Playtopia's structure, the importance of showing the new generation how to create these spaces, the balance of growing and maintaining a festival community, and more!
Audio edited by Dylan Shumway
Discussed in this episode:
Playtopia Festival playtopiafestival.co.za/about
Shroom and Gloom teamlazerbeam.itch.io/shroom-and-gloom
Jamming to map creative scenes and practices by Anya Venter tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02681102.2023…
A MAZE Festival 2026.amaze-berlin.de
The future of public game arts festivals and non-commercial games culture by Robert Yang blog.radiator.debacle.us/2026/02/the-future-of…
Draknek New Voices Puzzle Grant grants.draknek.org
Don't Get Your Hopes Up store.steampowered.com/app/3795490/Dont_Get_Yo…
boshi's place boshis.place/events
Glitch City glitch.city
Blood on the Clocktower bloodontheclocktower.com/?country=US
Pro Jank Footy store.steampowered.com/app/3621330/Pro_Jank_Fo…
Plum Road Tea Dream store.steampowered.com/app/3206340/Plum_Road_T…
Plum Road Tea Dream (Performance) plum-road-tea-dream.com/#performance
Dressmaker store.steampowered.com/app/4019220/Dressmaker
Cozy Lives Instagram instagram.com/cozylivesgames/reels
Free Lives Discord discord.com/invite/freelives
Sex with Friends store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/3407070
Wee Boats store.steampowered.com/app/3578080/Wee_Boats
Relooted store.steampowered.com/app/3255890/Relooted
Cadence store.steampowered.com/app/362800/Cadence
Starfriends starfriends.online
Playtopia 2025 Showcased Games playtopiafestival.co.za/games-2025

secretlives.games
discord.gg/tslog
patreon.com/tslog