Emanuele Briano talks about The "Game Designers Association" (SAZ) - tBR Company of the Week
The "Game Designers Association" (SAZ) represents the interests of game designers to the public as well as to publishers and other work users. It supports game designers and campaigns for a stronger recognition of games as a cultural property in our society.
The SAZ is a strong community with many advantages for its members. Founded in 1991 in Germany, it now represents more than 500 members all over the world. SAZ is gaining an international character through its multitude of members from other countries. SAZ-Italia, which was founded in 2017, is a good example of this.
The counseling of our members and the promotion of the exchange of experience are an important focus. This includes, if required, negotiations with publishers for fair contractual conditions. As co-organizers of the Game Designers Meeting in Göttingen and other meetings around the world, we are promoting platforms that bring together game designers and game publishers. Recently SAZ has launched a new service on its website with the section " Publisher Profiles". Game publishers can introduce themselves there in a short form, describing their main focus and search fields and presenting the contact options. Game designers thus have the opportunity to find suitable publishers for their newly developed games quickly and clearly, and to pitch to them at the fairs or by online communication tools. The service is free of charge and freely accessible to all visitors of our website.
On the political side, we advocate a fair framework for cultural activities as well as copyright, tax and social security laws. In 2018 SAZ, together with the German Cultural Council, had invited cultural politicians to a panel discussion in order to raise public awareness of the "cultural asset of games". German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently said: "Board games are much more than just a pastime ... playing together also strengthens social cohesion".
In addition, SAZ supports further training activities for the professionalization of our members, ranging from game design to pitching to legal aspects.
