31 Mar 2025 2 min read

Hard news from Berlin

So, I have been talking to the crew at A MAZE Berlin about coming over to do a Downpour workshop there (spoilers!). And earlier this week I got an email saying "hey, there's some news you should be aware of, totally fine if you want to pull out as a result". Here's the news, I don't want to do the delicate task of trying to recap it:

And, like, this kind of shit is hard for everyone to deal with. Often the difficulty of dealing with it, or the trauma from it being dealt with badly, totally outweighs the original harm done. So, I just want to make a few statements which reflect my view of the situation:

Whilst I was not there, I had heard about what happened in Sheffield from people who were. It seemed like a bad situation which upset a lot of people unnecessarily and harmed A MAZE's reputation.
I was not entirely surprised - it tracked with what I'd heard about the difficulties of organising the event in coordination with A MAZE, and it did not seem out of keeping with Thorsten's previous behaviour.
I did not expect any consequences as a result - I assumed people would be sour on A MAZE as a result, but that the folks in Sheffield would run events without A MAZE, and that A MAZE would continue on as if nothing had happened. It would be a bad situation, and no resolution. This happens.
To then see this statement, where action is being taken to try to address the harm that is being caused, and handled in what I can see from my outside perspective seems like sensitivity and care... it's great news. It's surprising news, it's more than I expected.
I have a ton of time for the team who have had to be dealing with (I can only assume) a lot of stress from this situation on top of the considerable stress of organising a festival. The announcement hints at some difficult internal organisational change around leadership - I wish them the best at that, and I hope the organisation comes out much stronger, and with less of a single point of failure.
Which means: I am happier to be attending (and running a workshop at!) A MAZE Berlin this year than I was before I got this news.
And, like... I do like A MAZE a lot. It's friendly, generous, well funded. It's aimed at people making games from an experimental or artistic perspective. It's a good time which I enjoy having with my friends and colleagues. It's a pull away from the money focus of most other games events, and it's a pull towards Europe and away from America.

So I guess my takeaway message is: don't let this news put you off A MAZE. Don't punish organisations for actually attempting to deal with this stuff rather than taking the easier course of putting on blinkers and going along regardless. And thank you to all the people doing stressful work behind the scenes to try to solve things – a group of people, which, going off the statement alone, seems like it might include Thorsten.