Experimental games from the ATLAS community and beyond? Retro arcade classics? Industry luminaries, fans and friends? Unlimited breakfast cereal and nachos? It must be time for Whaaat!? Festival, Season 7.

ATLAS associate teaching professor Danny Rankin and assistant teaching professor Anthony Pinter are gearing up for this year’s gaming gathering, now in its seventh year. We discussed the inspiration behind the event and why everyone from noobs to S-tier gamers will find something to love.

What is Whaaat!? Festival all about?
“Whaaat!?” is the reaction to amazing interactions and experiences. It is the feeling you get when your expectations are shattered. The Whaaat!? Festival is a day devoted to that feeling—through experimental games, alternative controllers and playful interactions, we want attendees to wonder, “What could possibly be next?”
 
Who is the festival for?
Anyone interested in games, alternative controllers, and weird and playful interactions will have a great time at the Whaaat!? Festival. The festival is open to the public – we just ask that attendees do buy tickets on . We have a few different ticketing levels available, including a pay-what-you-want option for folks who might have limited financial means. Every ticket includes our all-you-can-eat cereal bar and nacho bar lunch.

What inspired you to start the festival?
The inspiration started with other great festivals that we've attended and shown work at. We love play-focused events like AMAZE and Indiecade, and we wanted to bring together the games and creators we love to an audience here in Colorado. Beyond that, we hope to stretch the imagination of our attendees by featuring work that expands the boundaries of what we call "games."

Is there a theme for this year’s event?
We've embraced a "golden-era 90s sitcom" vibe for this year's promotion style, and that will  connect with some of the surprises at the festival—hidden laugh tracks, haunted televisions, maybe even a sitcom living room set? That said, this year's arcade game selections are all over the place—the theme every year is just, "Games that make you say Whaaat!?"

Speaking of keynotes, any cool special guests scheduled to present?
Yes! We have two awesome guest keynotes this year – Josh Zhong and Naomi Clark!

Josh is a Resident Researcher at ITP, an interdisciplinary program housed within the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. (Coincidentally, several of our faculty past and present are ITP alums!) Josh will also be running his wild game, First Person Josh, and his talk is scheduled for our morning keynote slot around 10:30 AM.
 
Naomi is an Associate Arts Professor and the Chair of the NYU Game Center. Naomi has worked on over 35 titles in her career, and has several published books, including the seminal A Game Design Vocabulary. Naomi’s talk is scheduled for our afternoon keynote slot around 1:00 PM.

Why should people attend?

Because what else are you going to do on Saturday in �鶹ӰԺ when it's forecasted to be 50 degrees and rainy? [Editor’s note: at the time of this interview, the weather was forecasted to be sunny and in the 60s?]

But, actually, it is a chance to play awesome games (including some that haven’t been released yet), connect with local game makers and developers, and see what is going on in the local game community here in �鶹ӰԺ. It is also a great opportunity to see the ATLAS Institute, which sponsors the festival (and whose faculty serve on the event’s organizing committee.) 

We showcase ATLAS student games and projects as part of the festival, so it is also a time for students to see the sort of work they could do if they decided to join us as majors in the Creative Design and Technology program at CU �鶹ӰԺ.

Final thoughts?
We hope you’ll consider joining us for season seven of the Whaaat!? Festival… it promises to be the best one yet!
 

Whaaat!? Festival event details

Event details and schedule:  

Tickets:

When: Saturday, November 2, 2024 from 10 AM - 4 PM

Where: Roser ATLAS Center, 1125 18th St., �鶹ӰԺ, CO

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Buy! Sell!, created under the Bethancourts' creative firm, Mouse & the Billionaire, is one of 21 games to be exhibited at the 2020 Game Developer's Conference (GDC). The fast-paced, multi-player, stock-trading game uses analog telephones as game controllers, and players watch a terminal full of charts, graphs and breaking news to make split-second decisions whether to buy or sell stocks like, pizza, candy and gold. The goal is to dial the phone number for a stock and shout “Buy!” or “Sell!” before competitors; transactions affect the stock prices, and the player with the largest portfolio at the end of the trading day wins.

Matt Bethancourt and Rankin also co-direct the ATLAS Whaaat!? Lab, which explores new ways to "bring more delight to the world through games and experimental interactions." Two years ago the two also started the Whaaat!? festival in order to "geek-out with a group of like-minded game developers." This year the event attracted 250 participants, and 5280 magazine designated it as an "Editor's Pick" in its "Best things to do in Colorado in October" listing.

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Matt Bethancourt, senior TAM instructor and director of the TAM program, his wife, Lisa Bethancourt, and Danny Rankin, CTD graduate and TAM instructor, exhibited two games at the sold-out XOXO festival, in Portland, Oregon, Sept. 6–9.  

Both Matt and Danny say it’s a “huge honor” to show their games at XOXO, a conference that describes itself as "an experimental festival for independent artists and creators who work on the internet.”

Their games, “Busy Work,” created by the Bethancourts, and “Ravine,” developed by Danny Rankin were well received. “It’s crazy that two ATLAS games were there,” says Matt Bethancourt, who also directs the Whaaat!? Lab, a new space for game design and development at the ATLAS Institute. “It shows we are doing really good work.” 

Busy Work, winner of IndieCade17 Media’s Choice Award, is a satire of mundane office work, where players send as many emails as possible while constantly being interrupted by phone calls. It's offered by "Mouse & the Billionaire," the Bethancourts' name for their creative firm. Ravine is a board game where players who have survived a plane crash need to be strategic and cooperative to survive. Ravine recently shipped to backers of a Kickstarter campaign held in early spring, 2018. 
 

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