The Overkill is a playful and interdisciplinary festival organized by Sickhouse that welcomes game makers, digital creators, and playful artists from all over the world. The Overkill presents indie, arthouse, and experimental games curated around a theme, aiming to be inclusive, diverse and challenging.
This year, driven by the worry that the technologies we use every day are turning us into hyper-productive workers, with short attention spans and no energy left to dream, Dream No Return researches how games and playful media might help us reclaim spaces to dream together. One of those works exhibited at the festival is the winner of the Ultimate Indie Mash, an international experimental playful contest hosted and broadcasted by Sickhouse.
Last year, ten contestants showcased their projects through creative and humorous performances, and then joined each other for a chaotic, joyful play session. The winning project was VENTILASTATION: an open-source electromechanical game console with a wonderfully odd display, designed for creating and playing circular video games. Fully conceived and built in Argentina by Alejandro J. Cura.
Do you want to make an arcade game for an open-source console and showcase it at The Overkill Festival 2026 on a real VENTILASTATION? Follow the documentation on GitHub, tinker with the emulator and submit your game!
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