Playful: Game Design London was a one-day event all about game design – in all its manifestations, throughout the contemporary media landscape. The event promoted lively debate on the nature of games: what they mean to different people – both inside and outside the industry. Focusing on the creative and cultural dimensions, Playful examined game design as both a discipline and craft, offering different perspectives on its current and future possibilities.

The conference featured key practitioners from other areas of the creative arts, and ‘collided’ them with practitioners from within.

Following on from Sense of Play 06 and 07, Playful '08 moved further afield to bring in experts and exponents from the cultural ‘mainstream’ to explore how to make the games medium more meaningful, to more people. Attracting a wider audience is now very much in the minds of many developers and publishers, and the knowledge that 65% of people who could engage with interactive entertainment choose not to. Despite bold efforts in the past few years by insiders and outsiders, cultural deficiencies are still there – or at least perceived to be there. So what can those of us who design games really learn from other parts of the creative arts? Conversely what does game design have to offer other areas of entertainment and culture?

Playful looks to chart the way forward, and on its way will visit not just the conventional console and PC game, but the myriad of interactive and play-based entertainment experiences which are increasingly becoming part of online, film, television, theatre, installation and performance arts.