Make a Scene! is a weekend-long exploration and celebration of in-person narrative games. But it’s not just about games – it’s also a celebration of your creativity and the unique energy you bring to the community. Make a Scene! is guided by three main principles that inspire us to cultivate a compassionate and creative community.
Bringing People Together
We all benefit from the inclusion of the widest possible variety of voices and perspectives. Make a Scene! strives for inclusion in several ways.
- By implementing a progressive code of conduct that’s centered on safety, support, and equity. Read more about our policy here.
- By offering sliding-scale admission to individuals for whom the price of admission is a financial barrier to participation. You decide what’s best for you.
- By calling for and focusing on new scenarios that are created by people of color, women, LGBTQIA* individuals, non-binary individuals, individuals with disabilities, and new designers in general. Read about our call for submissions here.
- By focusing on scenarios that are centered in accessible play. Read more about the scenario style.
Bringing Stories to Life
We believe that play is a powerful medium for expressing a story. In addition to telling stories together through the use of novel techniques, one of the objectives of Make a Scene! is to inspire the next generation of scenario writers. Playing games is one thing, but we also want to make space for discussing our play experiences and cultivating the creation of new scenarios that build upon existing works in the pursuit of more profound play.
Bringing Hearts to Mind
Play is so much more than sharing a story together. The scenarios we curate for the event cover a wide range of subjects – subjects that many other styles of games often do not approach. At Make a Scene! you’ll have the option to play in scenarios that are fun and exciting, as well as scenarios that are thoughtful, personal, and serious. We aim to highlight scenarios that explore innovative game procedures that push the boundaries of play in order to explore new vistas of play experiences.
This Year’s Theme: MAKE // BREAK
…a careworn family quilt, stitched together across multiple generations… nomads spin tales of the world’s beginnings and destiny in the bright stars above… a tumultuous relationship’s moments of repair or retreat… the library of Alexandria… to fire into permanence or render back into clay… a spider spins a beautiful trap… sixty seconds to make our pitch… a game that destroys itself… “We’ll show them! We’ll show them all!” Make a Scene! 2024 focuses on MAKE // BREAK moments of creation and destruction. What courage or mistakes are needed to bring something new into the world? What fears or wisdom are needed to eradicate it forever? Let’s explore the process of collaboration, courage, costs, mistakes, and consequences of making and remaking the world anew. What do you want to see in the world? What would it be better off without? Make something. Break something. Make a scene!
Your Experience
Here is a walkthrough of what your Make a Scene! experience will be like, assuming you attend the entire festival. You can find an hour-by-hour breakdown of the entire schedule at the bottom of this page.
Registration & Scenario Selection
When you register, you’ll review the scenarios on offer and indicate your interest in playing each scenario, including the one that you most want to play. We’ll assemble your schedule based on your responses. You’ll play up to five scenarios in total. We won’t schedule you for any scenarios you aren’t interested in. If you are so inclined, there is also a scenario library of pick-up-and-play scenarios for your enjoyment. If you don’t register online, we’ll fit you in wherever we can once you arrive.
Commuting to the Venue
Our venue is the Center For Performing Arts, 3754 Pleasant Ave, Minneapolis, MN 55409! The information below has not yet been updated for 2024. Biking: Several streets with bike lanes pass this building or nearby. Busing: Several bus routes have stops within a few blocks.
About the Venue
Bathrooms: Wheelchair accessible, single stall, gender neutral. Doors: Doors are 3 feet wide, and have automatic door opening buttons. Climate Control: The building has AC. Sensory Overload: We will have a designated quiet area. Childcare: This is an 18+ event. There will be a dedicated lactation area and fridge space set aside for lactating parents. We can help connect parents with others interested in offsite childcare: you can opt-in during registration. Public Transit: Several bus routes have stops within a few blocks, including
- the 4, connecting Richfield, downtown Minneapolis, and Columbia Heights
- the 18 E/C/D, connects Bloomington to downtown Minneapolis, nearest stop at Nicollet and 38th
- the 23, which links St. Paul’s Highland neighborhood with Uptown Minneapolis, intersecting the Light Rail Blue Line at the 38th Street station
- the 113, connecting NE and South Minneapolis
See https://www.metrotransit.org/ for trip planning, maps, and further public transportation details. Their app is also quite good! You can find more information about the venue here. We want to hear from you in order to accommodate you. If you have questions or would like assistance selecting scenarios that best suit you, please don’t hesitate to write us a message.
Arrival at the Festival
When you arrive you’ll check in and we’ll give you your badge (with an array of pronoun stickers to choose from), your schedule, and a pamphlet with some handy info.
Meals, Snacks, & Beverages
After you check in the first item on the agenda is a group dinner on Friday evening. We’ll also be serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday and brunch on Sunday. Snacks, coffee, tea, and juice will be available in the kitchen throughout the event. All food served will be vegan. Read more about our menu here. At meals you can mingle with other attendees and discuss the scenarios you’ve played. You are likely to play with most other attendees at least once.
Scenarios
You’ll get the chance to play in two scenarios on Saturday and a scenario or two on Sunday. Some will be shorter (around two hours in length) and some longer (around four hours in length). Most scenarios are for small groups of four to six players, but some will be larger (eight to twelve players) and a few will be smaller (two or three players). As mentioned previously, we’ll schedule scenarios covering a variety of subjects and play styles and assemble your schedule based on your preferences. Finally, you can always find something in the scenario library if you find yourself with time on your hands. There are a few optional pick-up slots throughout the weekend, so if you want more, you can have more!
Social Time
There will be space for people to just hang out between scheduled activities and after games in the evenings. There are also quiet areas if you need somewhere to chill out, as well as outdoor spaces, cafes, and restaurants nearby the venue.
Party!!!
After dinner on Saturday, instead of scheduling scenarios, we’re throwing a party! Take this time to unwind and enjoy each other’s company outside of play. You can expect music, dancing, and more! If you don’t want to attend the party, the scenario library will also be available along with spaces to play pick-up games.
Wrapping Up
On Sunday we’ll take a moment to debrief on the festival as a whole. You may or may not love every scenario you play – that’s to be expected. But we hope that, no matter what, you’ll leave Make a Scene! with new experiences, new friends, and new ideas! Afterwards, we’ll ask those who are able and available to help us clean up and head out to an optional off-site dinner, and the festival will be officially over.
Approximate Schedule of Events
Friday
5:00 pm: Sign-in, Dinner, Social Time
6:30 pm: Full group scenario
8:45 pm: Social Time
10:00 pm: Doors close
Saturday
8:30 am: Breakfast
9:30 am: Two short scenario slots/One long scenario slot
2:00 pm: Lunch, Social time
3:30 pm: Two short scenario slots/One long scenario slot
7:30 pm: Dinner and Optional pick-up scenario
8:00 pm: Party!!
10:00 pm: Doors close
Sunday
8:30 am: Breakfast
9:30 am: Two short scenario slots/One long scenario slot
2:00 pm: Lunch, Social time
3:30 pm: Debrief and Closing
Looking for more?
Here’s a visitor’s guide that was put together by the good folks behind Just a Little Lovin’ USA 2017.