GameCity is an independent, annual videogame festival in Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The festival is aimed at the general public, and many events allow members of the public to participate freely. The festival receives little funding from the commercial video game industry, and is concerned instead with exploring the ways in which videogame culture can be made more accessible. The festival is directed by Iain Simons of Nottingham Trent University

Nottingham Trent University

Nottingham Trent University is a public teaching and research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as a new university in 1992 from the existing Trent Polytechnic , however it can trace its roots back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design...

. It has been described as the "Sundance

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

 of the video games world."

GameCity 1 (2006)

At the 2006 event, Lorne Lanning

Lorne Lanning

Lorne Lanning is an American game designer, writer and voice actor. He is also co-founder and president of the video game developer, Oddworld Inhabitants...

 announced the production of his feature film Citizen Siege and Richard Jacques

Richard Jacques

Richard Jacques is a British music composer. He is best known for his video game music, most notably for numerous video games created by Sega.-Early life:...

 performed a candle-lit piano recital of hit SEGA

Sega

, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

 tunes.

GameCity 2 (2007)

At the 2007 event the first playable prototype of Nobi Nobi Boy

Nobi Nobi Boy

is a video game for the PlayStation 3 and iOS by Keita Takahashi of Namco Bandai, creator of the Katamari Damacy series. The PlayStation 3 game was released worldwide on February 19, 2009. The iOS version was released on February 18, 2010, a day less than a year after the PlayStation 3 version...

 was shown by Keita Takahashi

Keita Takahashi

is a game director, his most notable titles being Katamari Damacy and its sequel, We Love Katamari. The original Katamari game was a surprise hit and was praised for its quirkiness, originality, and charm...

.

GameCity 3 (2008)

Gamecity 3 was held over Halloween

Halloween

Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

 2008. To coincide with this, GameCity arranged a successful world record attempt at the largest number of people to dress as zombies in one place. The record was set to 1227 people, although even more 'unregistered zombies' were present at the attempt. Also during the 2008 event, the National Videogame Archive for the UK was launched with the Save the Videogame campaign. This was led by the recording of the first public Director Commentary event, with Martin Hollis

Martin Hollis

Martin Hollis is a computer and video game designer and the founder and CEO of Zoonami. He has worked in the computer and video game industry for over 19 years and was Head of Software at Rare...

 and David Doak

David Doak

David Doak is a Northern Irish video game designer. Originally from Belfast, he later moved to England, where he studied at Oxford University on biochemistry specialty and worked as a research scientist...

 playing Goldeneye 64 live.

GameCity Squared (2009)

GameCity Squared took place from the 27th to the 31st of October, 2009. Events in 2009 included: Brickstock (a LEGO Rock Band celebration); Elite: Paper Universe - which celebrated 25 years of Elite by bringing together David Braben

David Braben

David John Braben is a British computer programmer, best known for co-writing Elite, a hugely popular and influential space trading computer game, in the early 1980s.-Life and work:...

, Ian Bell

Ian Bell (programmer)

Ian Colin Graham Bell is a game programmer, game designer and game producer. He is most famous for co-authoring the computer game Elite .He attended the independent St Albans School...

, Robert Holdstock

Robert Holdstock

Robert Paul Holdstock was an English novelist and author best known for his works of Celtic, Nordic, Gothic and Pictish fantasy literature, predominantly in the fantasy subgenre of mythic fiction....

 and others involved in its creation; Crysis: LIVE - a large scale re-enactment of Crysis

Crysis

Crysis is a science fiction first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek , published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, and released in November 2007. It is the first game of a trilogy. A separate game entitled Crysis Warhead was released on September 12, 2008, and follows similar...

; and various industry talks from Jagex

Jagex

Jagex Games Studio, based in Cambridge, is the UK’s largest independent developer and publisher of online games. Jagex is best known for RuneScape, the world's largest free-to-play MMORPG....

 and Masaya Matsuura

Masaya Matsuura

is a video game designer and musician based in Tokyo, Japan. He was born in Osaka on June 16, 1961, and majored in Industrial Society at Ritsumeikan University. He has worked extensively with music and images, and has been active with the J-Pop band,...

. The final location of the Keita Takahashi

Keita Takahashi

is a game director, his most notable titles being Katamari Damacy and its sequel, We Love Katamari. The original Katamari game was a surprise hit and was praised for its quirkiness, originality, and charm...

-designed playground was also revealed as being Woodthorpe Grange Park in Nottingham.

GameCity Prize

The GameCity Prize

GameCity Prize

The GameCity Prize is an annual games prize celebrating games as a form of cultural expression. Established in 2011 as part of the annual GameCity festival, the prize seeks "to drive understanding and appreciation of videogames within a wider cultural context.".Nominations are made by a secret...

 was announced on 15 September 2011. It is awarded for a game's "accomplishments and contribution to popular culture".

Industry attendance

Each year, GameCity hosts talks and presentations from leading individuals and companies working in the games industry. Previous events have included talks from Free Radical

Free Radical Design

Crytek UK, formerly known as Free Radical Design, is a video game developer based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, probably best known for Second Sight and the TimeSplitters series. After going into financial administration, it was announced on February 4 2009 that the studio had been acquired by...

 (now Crytek UK), Media Molecule

Media Molecule

Media Molecule is a British video game developer based in Guildford in Surrey. The studio was founded in January 2006 by former Lionhead Studios employees Mark Healey, Alex Evans, Dave Smith, and Kareem Ettouney...

, Bizarre Creations

Bizarre Creations

Bizarre Creations was a video game development studio, best known for their racing titles: Metropolis Street Racer and the followup Project Gotham Racing series . The company has also developed games in other genres, including the Geometry Wars arcade series, plus third-person shooters Fur...

, TT Games

TT Games

TT Games group is a British video game developer and publisher. It is made up of three divisions, Traveller's Tales, TT Fusion and publisher TT Games Publishing...

, Splash Damage

Splash Damage

Splash Damage is an independently-owned British game development company that specializes in multiplayer first-person shooter games. The studio is best known as the creator of the Enemy Territory franchise for id Software.-History:...

, Torpex Games

Torpex Games

Torpex Games is a game development studio located out of Bellevue, Washington.The studio is notable for the fact that their video game Schizoid is the first Xbox Live Arcade title to utilize the Microsoft framework, XNA Game Studio Express...

, Harmonix Music Systems

Harmonix Music Systems

Harmonix Music Systems is an American video game development company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States...

, Sony London Studio

SCE London Studio

London Studio is an in-house Sony Computer Entertainment developer located in London. Established in 1993, London Studio is Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s largest internal development studio, with staff working in a purpose designed 7-storey building located in London's Soho district...

, Midway Newcastle

Midway Games

Midway Games, Inc. is an American company that was formerly a major video game publisher. Following a bankruptcy filing in 2009, it is no longer active and is in the process of liquidating all of its assets. Midway's titles included Mortal Kombat, Ms.Pac-Man, Spy Hunter, Tron, Rampage, the...

, Anthill Games, Alexey Pajitnov, Amanita Design

Amanita Design

Amanita Design is an independent Czech video game developing company that was founded in 2003 by Jakub Dvorský. The company has made several Webby Award-winning games, as well as educational and advertising minigames and animations, all using Adobe Flash. Clients include BBC, Nike and The...

, David Braben

David Braben

David John Braben is a British computer programmer, best known for co-writing Elite, a hugely popular and influential space trading computer game, in the early 1980s.-Life and work:...

, Martin Hollis

Martin Hollis

Martin Hollis is a computer and video game designer and the founder and CEO of Zoonami. He has worked in the computer and video game industry for over 19 years and was Head of Software at Rare...

, David Doak

David Doak

David Doak is a Northern Irish video game designer. Originally from Belfast, he later moved to England, where he studied at Oxford University on biochemistry specialty and worked as a research scientist...

 and Monumental Games

Monumental games

Monumental Games is an independent UK video game developer. It was founded by industry veterans Rik Alexander and Rocco Loscalzo in 2005...

.