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.
