15’000 visitors in the Swiss Game Lounge in London

Swiss Game Lounge was the result of collaboration between Presence Switzerland of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, FDFA, the Swiss Arts Council, Pro Helvetia, the City and Canton of Zurich and HEAD – Geneva, which has curated the exhibition. The selection, which took place in the House of Switzerland, combined pieces by studios and designers with works by Swiss students from art and design universities.

The show focused on innovative games with a sense of fun and playfulness: great gameplay (game mechanics and interactivity), scenario (storytelling), visuals (aesthetics and graphic design) and/or experimental aspects. Sixteen casual games for mobile devices, three computer games and a playful interactive installation specially designed for this exhibition has introduced visitors to Swiss young developers. Some of them have attained success in international competitions, while others have been able to target specific markets by offering their products online.

Orbital, produced by Bitforge, was quickly listed as excellent in its class and was presented by Steve Jobs when he introduced the iPad in 2010. Three computer games produced at Zurich University of the Arts won the Swiss Game Award in 2011: Daina the Herbarium, designed by Dario Hardmeier and Raffaele de Lauretis, Mirage by Mario von Rickenbach (nominated for Excellence in Visual Art at the Independent Games Festival in San Francisco, 2012) and Feist, by Florian Faller and Adrian Stutz, an acclaimed platform game (awarded the Unity Award for Best Overall Game in 2008 and the Fantastic Fest Arcade Exciting World of Metric Award in 2010). In addition there was the Swiss Games compilation also by Bitforge.

The lounge was a success. Visitors gave very good feedback. "I normally avoid video games, they are violent and not interesting," explains Harini, a Londoner who volunteers for the Olympics. "But these Swiss Games are really constructive. I enjoy them a lot, and I wasn't expecting that from Switzerland." All in all 15’000 visitors came to the Swiss Game Lounge.