Schedule:

Friday:

• 15:00 – 03:00 Meet’n’Play – Play local games! – loc::GAME DEV AREA
• 19:00 – 21:00 TALKING DEV EXTRA EVENT – loc::2nd floor! 

Saturday:

• 10:00 – 22:00 Meet’n’ Play – Play local games! – loc::GAME DEV AREA
• 19:00 SAGA AWARDS – Main Stage 

Talking Dev @ button 2019:

Special Event: Friday, 15.3. 19:00 – 21:00: TALKING DEVS

Free Entry!

• • 18:45 – Door opens.
  • 19:00 – Official Opening
  • 19:00 Klemens Franz: Storytelling in Analogue Games
  • 19:45 Wolfgang Tschauko (SAGA Alumni): How the SAGA Award sparked my career 
  • 20:15 Hector Moran: Character Design Principles And The Modern Remote Work Opportunities

Speaker: Hector Moran

Hector is a Freelance Character Artist from Mexico living in Austria. He has been working in the graphics and video games industry for more than a decade, much of that time as Lead Artist, later as Head of Art, and later as Freelancer.

Speaker: Klemens Franz

“Storytelling in Analogue Games” What we can learn from new narrative trends in an old medium

Klemens Franz was born in Graz. He studied at the University of Applied Sciences, Graz „Information Management“ and at the University of Tampere, Finland „Digital Games Research and Design“. For six years he worked as an Assistant for New Media at the FH Joanneum. In 2007 he started illustrating and designing analogue games. Since then he has worked on more than 250 games. He’s married, has 5 children and lives in the south-east of Austria.

Speaker: Wolfgang Tschauko (VR Giants): 

“How the SAGA Award sparked my Career”

Wolfgang Tschauko studied Psychotherapeutic Propaedeutic at KF Uni, Mediatechnology & -design at FH Hagenberg and Interaction Design at FH Joanneum Graz. His master thesis dealt with the subject of body presence in virtual reality. As a practical demonstration for his research a local two-player coop-game was created named Goliath VR. Goliath VR won the SAGA Audience Choice Award 2017 and the Reversed Best Concept Award 2017 and has since then be exhibited at numerous international game events. The original version of Goliath VR used a Kinect Sensor to create a unique body presence of the player. Since 2018 the project Goliath VR has been modified to work with customer VR devices and has recently been renamed to VR Giants. VR Giants won the Innovation in Games Award (Ludicious Zurich Game Festival).

Meet’n’Play:: Here is a list of games which will be showcased at the game exhibition @ button 2019:

Accidently Awesome presents Pixel Soldier

Have a look at the game here.

Wolfgang Tschauko presents VR Giants

VR Giants is a local coop VR game in which one VR player and on gamepad player work together. The VR player controls a giant and must protect and support the dwarf who is controlled by the gamepad player. To solve the puzzles good communication and teamwork is demanded.

Have a look at the game here.

Follow the Feathers presents Weaving Tides

Weaving Tides is an isometric singleplayer adventure for PC/Mac. Ride dragon-like creatures and use their ribbon tail to stitch up torn areas in a completely woven world. Tie down quirky mobs and pull the right strings to master puzzles while you’re on your quest to unravel the whereabouts of your parents. Currently in alpha, planned release in Q1 2020.

Have a look at the game here.

Rarebyte presents We are screwed!

Have a look at the game here.

Tunadragon Studios present Summonent

A F2P Trading Card Game ARPG. We combine the best of all worlds with an infinite amount of cards and some innovation in gameplay. No waiting around for your opponent to finish his turn.

SAGA Finalists:: These five games will be exhibited in the Game Dev area as well @ button 2019:

SAGA Award :: Second Styrian Games Award will be presented at Button Festival!

You can vote for the finalists to get the Audience Choice Award at the Game Dev area. The awards will be announced on Saturday at 20:00.

International Jury: 

Ivan Buchta, Bohemia Interactive, Czech Republic
Tara J. Brannigan, 5CA, Netherlands
Saku Lehtinen, Remedy Entertainment, Finland
Sithe Ncube, Ubongo Game Lab, A MAZE Johannesburg, Zambia
Philomena Schwab, Stray Fawn Studio, Switzerland

Get to know the five SAGA finalists here:

Title: Hamlet’s Breed  (playpublic) 

Hamlet’s Breed is an AR Game where you meet real people which long time ago passed away, depending on your geo-location

“Death divides us, Hamlet’s Breed unites us. AR for the gone.”

Watch the pitch video here

Title: WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND

WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND is a story-driven roguelike game with point-and-click adventure elements. The game is set in a fictional japanese city where time and space are out of balance. Thus, time only moves when the player moves and the characters and layout of the city change randomly everytime the player dies. To escape this violent place, the player has to either sneak around enemies or fight them by combining items to create chain reactions. Furthermore, all characters have their own branching dialogue and talking to them may result in them joining forces with the player. Characters will remember how the player treats them and interacting with their storylines will have an influence on the final ending of the game.

Watch the pitch video here

Title: Fantastic Fetus (Fantastic Humans)

Watch the pitch video here

Title: Sikanda (Dyadic Games)

Sikanda is a 3D top-down Action-Adventure with RPG elements, inspired by famous Japanese SNES classics of the 90s. The game takes place on a fantasy island called “Galintrea” and tells the story of a young hero who incidentially found an ancient pendant named “Sikanda”. Throughout the adventure, the hero acquires several skills for “Sikanda” to transform it into powerful weapons and tools. All of them are invaluable instruments in order to fight their way through dungeons and encountering fierce enemies. As the very existence of the island gets threatened by a group of sinister strangers, the hero not only will have to accept that “Sikanda” is the only way to stop them but also that there is a connection between their world, the ancient relic and the hero’s own fate.

Watch the pitch video here

Title: Kemono Heroes (Mad Gear Games)

Join 3 friends in an arcade-platformer game like those you used to play in the arcade rooms. Every character has different abilities and there are different weapons to unlock and upgrade. You’ll also fight giant monsters at the end of each world, beat them and reach the final boss before the time goes up and the curse becomes permanent!

Watch the pitch video here

Get to know the five SAGA finalists of the previous year 2018. here: SAGA 2018

and also the finalists of 2017: SAGA 2017