The doors of the Keyworth Centre will open at 9.30, with the first sessions kicking off at 10.00. We’re finishing up at 4.30, after which everyone will be adjourning to the Ship, at 68 Borough Road.

Getting to LSBU: this website does a better job of giving you directions than we could. The Keyworth Centre is building 13 on the map. Closest tube is Elephant and Castle.

Food and drink: we will be providing lunch and soft drinks, and there’ll be a lovely coffee van on site.

If you want to give a talk or run a session—and it can be on anything at all relating to games—you write the details on a card (provided) and stick it in an empty slot on the big board to show what time and room it’ll be in. Slots are usually 25 minutes: you can book a double or triple slot if you really need to but don’t get greedy. Here’s the science bit: now fill out a second card with the name of your talk and its timeslot, and put it on the door of the room you’ll be using.

If you want to run a digital demo or playtest, many of the rooms have big TVs or projectors. However you’ll need to bring a VGA cable and audio cable, or a component-video cable to connect your device to it.

A gong will sound for the end of each session.

Hashtag for the day is #gamecamp6. Be warned: phone reception and 3G in the building can be sucky.

Board-game library: we’ve got the usual stock, of course, but if you want to lend us anything for the day (and board-game prototypers we are particularly looking at you) then please bring it along. We’d be really grateful.

If you have friends who want to come but who missed out on tickets, it’s £20 on the door. Don’t tell everyone or there won’t be enough lunch to go round.

Things we know will be happening: George Buckenham will be showing off Tenya Wanya Teens, the extraordinary game developed in collaboration with Keita Takahashi of Katamari Demancy fame. Haberdashery will be along with a range of clever and bonkers physical games to awaken the kid in you. Playniac will be running Cat On Your Head. Haberdashery will be showing off a range of their delightful games. James Wallis will be playtesting Once Upon a Time in a Galaxy, the latest iteration of the best-selling Once Upon a Time card-games. And you—what are you bringing to delight us?

Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.

1. You can volunteer a couple of hours of your time to help the event to run smoothly—this will probably be on the registration desk, or helping to get food and drink into the building. Helping out means you can turn up early and get exclusive behind-the-scenes access to the GameCamp committee. If you’re interested, drop an email to james@gamecamp.org.uk
2. You can pay on the door. £20 to you, squire or squiretrix. We accept cash or bitcoins, except we’re lying about the bitcoins.

The hashtag for the day is #gamecamp6 in case you’re so tremendously excited that you want to start tweeting about it now.

Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Anyway, we still reckon that £15 for a full-day event including lunch is a steal of a deal.

It’s shaping up to be a great GCamp—have a quick look at the list of attendees on Eventbrite or Lanyrd—and we’re looking forward to seeing you there.

Click here for ticket booking via Eventbrite.

There’s a theme this year: Show and Tell, or Run What You Brung. Bring along a game you’ve made, a prototype you’ve got in testing or a work you have in progress, and be ready to show it off and talk about it. Digital or physical, both are great. Have a session to crow about your success or explore why something failed, or asking where you go from here, or to pull people into your new project. Get people to playtest and give you feedback on the day. Unashamed bragging is absolutely encouraged. Let’s find out what an extraordinarily talented bunch we all are.

Tickets will go on sale in the next few days, and we’ll be posting more information here and via Twitter (@gamecamp).

It’s always hard, as an event organiser, to judge how an event has gone and how attendees have seen it. Things that cause us a lot of stress on the day—the fact the huge bean-bags weren’t delivered, for example—are invisible to 99% of the people present. But it felt like GameCamp 5 went well. People were having a good time. Tweets were overwhelmingly positive, and blog entries have been too.

We logged something over 220 people through the door. People reported that it felt like fewer, but that’s probably because we were managing the space a lot better so there was less crowding and congestion than at GameCamp 4. It was our second event at London South Bank University’s Keyworth Centre and I think we addressed all the criticisms that had been raised after the first one. There are still a few problems to be ironed out before the next GameCamp, but they’re comparatively minor.

If you’ve got any photos of the event, we would really like to get copies of them. You can email them to us, or send us a link to wherever they’re posted online.

The GameCamp committee extends its grateful thanks to:

• You, if you came. An unconference is all about its participants, and the very high quality of the talks and extra activities was all down to you. It’s almost unfair to single anyone out in particular, but special thanks go to Mary and Grant for bringing their arsenal of Nerf weaponry and running massive crowdsourced games over an entire floor of the building.
• Siobhan Thomas and the staff of London South Bank University for the use of the venue and all their help.
• London South Bank University and the National Film and Television School for sponsoring the event.
•  All the volunteers, particularly the games-library staff.
• Strongman Games for help with logistics.
• The staff of the Student Union bar for opening specially for GameCamp attendees.
• Keith of Morgans Coffee Experience for bringing his coffee van.
• Under The Greenwood Tree for the modelling clay, and
• Princi for the food. (We pay for both of those, but both companies go above and beyond.)
• Anyone or anything I’ve forgotten.

The GameCamp committee is, in alphabetical order: Rachel Clarke; Emmeline Pui Ling Dobson; Rob Harris; David Hayward; Siri Hommelsgård; Ian Millington; Jeffrey Sheen; Siobhan Thomas; Philip Trippenbach; and James Wallis. Siri and Ian were unable to attend the event due to ill-health: we wish them both a full and speedy recovery.

If you have any comments about how the day ran, anything that was particularly good or bad,  and any things we should consider as we’re planning GameCamp 6, then please post a comment below.

Lunch will be supplied by the estimable Princi, who provided last year’s spread. Less foccacia this time, more salads, more selection for vegetarians. If you bring your own sandwiches you’re a mug.

Once again there will be a freebie on the door, with a game attached to it, and a prize at the end. Not Lego this time, sorry, but we think you’ll be entertained.

And when things wrap up at 4.30, we’ve arranged exclusive access to the LSBU Student Union Bar on Thomas Doyle Street. With tables large enough for gaming and beer at student prices, we think it’s the perfect way to finish off the day.

The hashtag for the event is #GC5.

See you tomorrow!

Slots in The Board will be 45 minutes long with a break for a delicious lunch, so we recommend a 15/15/15 minute outline for kicking off a discussion, developing the conversation and finishing-off, dispersing and locating your choice of next session.

The popular Board Game Library is back and open all day. Please bring your own games to add to the collection – they will be weighed at the outset and when loaned and returned by other guests. Borrowing and playing games is a great way to enjoy a mix of discussion, meeting people and chilling out.

The Keyworth Centre Mezzanine floor will be a comfortable chill-out zone with beanbags for continuing choice conversations or just taking a break.

WiFi is available – please blog, Tweet, comment and communicate! Official hashtag: #gc5

What people have had to say about previous GameCamps:

• I’ve run a few sessions where I’ve led the discussion rather than prepared a talk. Its very rare to get artists, programmers, gamers and critics in the same room with free reign to talk about what they want. You get interesting responses and views on things that you had never considered. Its an amazing opportunity. ~ Simon Roth
• I ran a discussion group on Heavy Rain at GameCamp2 and a taster session for Arkham Horror at BoardGameCamp. It was great to be in a circle of people who were all interested in exploring the themes and how they felt about a game that tried to do something different with the genre. ~ Debbie Timmins
• ZombieLARP. Running around the abandoned corridors of a university building with NERF guns was amazing. ~ Debbie Timmins
• Best bits? The ability to just play. ~ Dr. Mike Reddy
• Very friendly people, amazing food, great organisation. When “all talked out” it was good to get around a board game and make new friends. ~ Sarbjit Bakhshi
• Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a wide-eyed wannabe, there’ll be something at GameCamp guaranteed to inspire, educate or simply put a grin on your face. ~ Rhianna Pratchett
• The GameCamps, with their UNconference nature, are unique and there should be more of them. ~ Dr Mike Reddy
• Free Lego? Dammit I knew I should have gone… ~ANJAL28

Example past session titles:

Games are Art Astrophysics / Gladiatorial session on narrative / Caldsys2 Games 4 dyslexia / 2D art: vector vs pixel vs painting / Nerds: does it matter if we’re all the same? / Bomb disposal

You can find a growing list of attendees and live information on Lanyrd.com

Information about the venue and travelling to GameCamp5 can be found here.

In the run-up to the event we’ll be posting information about some of the many events and sessions that will be happening on the day, so keep watching this blog.

The best £15 you’ll spend this year? Could be!

The best way to get a reminder when tickets go on sale is to follow us on Twitter: @gamecamp.