VSW will host a one-night pop-up arcade with Barnyardia, a NYC-based experimental games collective pushing the boundaries of gameplay, interaction, and controllers. Their work focuses on live, collaborative play through subversive or silly game mechanics and alt-controllers. Barnyardia will have an interactive installation of a dozen games of varying length for audience members to play and participate in. The evening will culminate in a live performance.

Barnyardia is Blake Andrews and Frank DeMarco.

Frank DeMarco creates games, game hardware, and arcade installations, independently in New York City. He has cooked and sold chicken nuggets as a game for years in various forms, one of which is a device called the Playzing which is a toaster oven that is also a video game console. His games have been featured at alt.ctrl GDC, Experimental Gameplay Workshop, MAGFest, Wonderville, and Play NYC, and have been covered in PC Gamer, Polygon, VICE Motherboard, and Kill Screen. He is currently working on a web game called Cakefoot for release in 2024.

Blake Andrews is a game designer, illustrator, animator, and instructor living in Brooklyn, New York. Blake has published hundreds of short experimental web games since 2013 on websites like itch.io and Glorious Trainwrecks. Primarily, Blake has posted under the aliases snakesandrews, everythingstaken, Pumpkin Clowning, April Ghoul, and Yoke Mart. Blake has published larger scope games with the game collective JRPG Combat Systems. Blake is currently developing their No Quarter commissioned party game called Motor Away Trip.

This event is curated by nilson carroll, VSW Assistant Curator and Preservation Specialist.

Suggested: $10 [tickets]

The VSW Salon is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts and by the ArtWorks program of the National Endowment for the Arts.