SpilBar 66: The Creative Journey

When: Thursday, April 30th 2026, from 16:00 – 20:30 

Where: D15, Drejervej 15, 17, 2400 København

What makes your game unique? If you want your game to stand out, you’ll need a strong hook, a distinct art style, or a story that no one else has told before.

But where do you look for inspiration? How do you come up with a killer idea when all the killer ideas are taken? And how do you keep the creative juices flowing when the budget is tight, and the deadline was yesterday?

The creative journey from idea to execution is often a bumpy ride. Join us at Spilbar #66 as we talk about finding inspiration, about staying creative, and about finding that one killer idea.

Join us on April 30th, 2026, at 16:00 -20:30
Venue: D15, Drejervej 15, 2400 København

Programme

16:45 Doors open

17:00 Welcome w. Helena Sokol, Director of Members & Organization + Spilbar Coordinator

17:05 Demystifying Creativity by Fawzi Mesmar, Ubisoft 

Description 

What drives us to think outside the box? Where does a fresh idea originate? And how can one truly gauge originality? This talk delves into the core of the creative process, blending insights from psychology, neuroscience, and personal experiences. It aims to unpack the intricate dance of inspiration and dissect what gives birth to original thought through a grounded exploration of the mechanisms behind creativity and what needs to be done to arrive at originality.

“Demystifying Creativity” is a thought-provoking talk that delves into the elusive nature of creativity and originality in the realm of video game creation. This presentation explores the intricate balance between innovative ideas and the practical challenges of measuring creativity, shedding light on how these factors influence the development process in the gaming industry. Through a blend of psychological insights and real-world examples from game development, the talk aims to unravel the complexities behind what makes a game truly original and engaging. It addresses the tools and methods used to quantify creativity, the impact of these metrics on the creative process, and how developers can harness this understanding to push the boundaries of what is possible in video games. The session promises a deep dive into the heart of creativity, offering valuable perspectives for game developers, designers, and enthusiasts alike.

17:35 Oh, you’re still working on that? by Marlène Delrive

Sometimes the idea comes easily, and the real challenge is what comes after. How do you keep iterating on a concept for several years? How do you refine your gut feeling through multiple iterations, all while staying motivated?

In this talk, Marlène will share some of the learnings from expanding on an 8-week student game with a strong core concept to a full release 7 years later with ‘As Long As You’re Here’.

18:05 Coffee Break

18:20 Of Food, Friction and Ghosts – a subjective journey through a creative process by Nils Deneken

Creative processes change from ideation to the point where you release your game, and each phase of game development requires different kinds of creative thinking, especially if you’re wearing many hats working in a small team. Some forms of creative thinking appear to be in opposition to each other, and it often feels like creativity is especially challenged in the field of game development, with its multitude of constraints.

How do you consolidate all those different ways of creativity, and is that even possible without compromising too much?

Nils Deneken will try to zoom in and out on different aspects of his personal creative process, illustrating how it changes along the way: from the first spark of an idea to building a world, involving a team, and actually making the thing without draining your creative energy.

18:50 The Hunt For the Killer Idea by Thomas Ryder, Italic

Ideas are cheap, and yet a great idea can elevate your game from being forgettable to being memorable. Coming up with ideas is deceptively simple, and yet ideas are strange and unpredictable creatures. Sometimes they just pop up, and sometimes they take a lot of effort to lure out.

In this talk, Thomas Ryder will talk about the challenging process of idea generation and share his creative journey from blank paper to a fully fleshed-out idea. It’s a talk about managing the creative process, about selling your idea, and about paying attention to the strange voices in your head.

19:20 News, announcements, and info 

Do you have anything you’d like to announce or inform about? Please send Helena an email at helena@gamesdenmark.dk.

19:30 Mingling + Game Showcases 

Would you like to showcase your game? Please fill out this form. You will receive confirmation via email.

20:30 Goodbye

SPONSORS

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Fawzi Mesmar

Fawzi Mesmar is an award-winning Creative Director, Game designer, author, and public speaker who has been in the gaming industry for over two decades in a career that spans the Middle East, New Zealand, Japan, and Europe, working for companies such as Ubisoft, EA, Activision Blizzard, Gameloft, and Atlus, to name a few. He has worked many titles that have been enjoyed by millions of players worldwide, including entries in Beyond Good and Evil, Mario Rabbids, Battlefield, and Star Wars franchises. He is also the author of “Al-Khallab in the art of game design,” the first Arabic language textbook on game design, and “demystifying creativity on originality in game development”.

Fawzi was also the recipient of the Ambassador award in 2024. He is an Associate Professor at the Royal Danish Academy and a Senior Researcher at Ubisoft. A pioneer in Game Data Science and Player Modelling, he co-authored the foundational textbooks Game Analytics (2013) and Game Data Science (2021). His research focuses on transforming video games into “petri dishes” for understanding human behaviour, psychology, and decision-making through large-scale telemetry data. He previously served as Director of Data Insights at Ubisoft Massive, where he led user research for major titles like Tom Clancy’s The Division.

Thomas Ryder

Thomas Ryder is co-owner of Italic and is the art director, graphics artist, and musician on the game Midnight Girl. He has specialized in making atmospheric point-and-click adventures, and is also known for the time-traveling sci-fi thriller “The Silent Age”. Thomas combines a flat 2D art style with eerie synths to achieve a style which he describes as ‘moody minimalism’.

Marlène Delrive

Marlène Delrive is a game and narrative designer passionate about finding new stories to tell in video games and evoking feelings through gameplay. She has experience with the full range of emotion – from award-winning comedy games like WHAT THE GOLF? to the emotional game about Alzheimer’s, As Long As You’re Here. She’s a co-founder of Autoscopia Interactive, a small studio scattered across three countries, and As Long As You’re Here is their debut title. 

Nils Deneken is the creative director at the Copenhagen-based games Studio Die Gute Fabrik, which he founded in 2008. He is the originator of the highly acclaimed Mutazione, on which he worked as a Creative Lead, Artist, Writer, and Designer, and is now assuming a similar role in the studio’s next unannounced title. Nils is interested in hand-crafted games, tries to embrace human imperfection, and works exclusively in 2D.