Applications are open until 1st November 2026 for a fully funded three-week residency in Ethiopia, where two African artists will make experimental games and playful media for an international festival in Berlin.
Imagine having three weeks, a workspace, a travel budget and a small production fund, all to make the strange, personal, unfinished game you’ve been sketching in your notebook. No sales targets. No publisher breathing down your neck. Just you, other artists and the freedom to experiment.
That’s the offer behind Playful Obscura, and its third edition has just opened for applications. The residency takes place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 25 January to 14 February 2027, and it’s aimed at artists based in Africa who work in arthouse games, playful media, digital art and interactive storytelling.
What Playful Obscura Actually Is
Playful Obscura is an artist residency, not a game competition. Its focus is on experimental approaches to games and interactive art rather than commercial production. Think of games that ask questions instead of demanding high scores, or interactive stories that feel closer to a gallery installation than a blockbuster.
The programme is part of GamesConnect AFRICA, a project commissioned by the Goethe-Institut, which aims to build a connected and sustainable games ecosystem across the continent.
It’s run by the Goethe-Institut together with A MAZE., the Berlin-based arthouse games label and festival. For this edition, the local partners are Goethe-Institut Addis Abeba, Creative HUB Ethiopia, the British Council and Alliance Ethio-Française.
If you’ve followed African games for a while, you’ll notice that the programme has moved.
The first edition was held in Ho, in Ghana’s Volta Region, in 2025, and the second took place in Accra in April and May 2026. The third edition takes the residency to Addis Ababa, widening its footprint to a new city and a new set of partners.
Two artists will be selected. Each one receives:
- Accommodation for the full three weeks
- Travel support
- A dedicated workspace to develop their work
- A production budget of up to €1,000 to cover materials and other costs needed to realise a project
- A €300 stipend
That’s a practical package. Many experimental artists struggle not because they lack ideas but because they can’t afford the time or materials to test them. A residency like this takes that pressure off, at least for three weeks.
Beyond the money and the workspace, the residency offers something harder to put a price on: a few weeks inside an international creative environment where games, technology and contemporary art are all in conversation.
The residency doesn’t end in Addis Ababa. Works developed during the programme will be showcased at A MAZE. / Berlin 2027, the 16th International Games and Playful Media Festival, scheduled for 5 to 8 May 2027.
For an artist, that’s a rare chance to put their work in front of an international audience of players, curators and fellow creators.
This matters because arthouse games often struggle for visibility. Experimental work rarely gets the marketing budgets that mainstream releases do, so a festival slot can be the difference between a project that disappears and one that gets noticed.
The programme’s history gives a sense of what the selection process values. For the 2025 edition in Ghana, the organisers received more than 45 applications from 10 African countries.
Two artists were chosen, among them Kenyan multidisciplinary artist Joanna Oluoch, whose storytelling blends game design, software development and digital illustration to build interactive worlds with strong aesthetics and narrative depth.
The artistic director of A MAZE., Thorsten S. Wiedemann, said the selected proposals stood out for their originality. That’s a useful clue for anyone applying: the programme is looking for distinct, personal visions rather than polished pitches.
Applications opened on 16 October 2026 and close on 1 November 2026, so the window is short. Here’s a simple timeline to keep in mind:
- 16 October 2026: Applications open
- 22 October 2026: Online information and Q&A session
- 1 November 2026: Application deadline
- 25 January to 14 February 2027: Residency in Addis Ababa
- 5 to 8 May 2027: Showcase at A MAZE. / Berlin
Attending the online Q&A on 22 October is a smart move if you have questions about eligibility or what the organisers are looking for. Applicants should prepare materials that show their practice clearly, which in past calls has meant a portfolio, a project proposal and links to previous work. The full application details are on the Goethe-Institut website.
Why This Matters Beyond One Residency
Africa’s games scene is growing fast, but much of the attention goes to commercial studios and mainstream releases. Playful Obscura proves there’s space for the other side of the conversation: games as art, as experiment and as a way of thinking differently about storytelling.
That matters for Ethiopia too. Hosting the programme in Addis Ababa puts a local creative scene in front of artists from across the continent, and it opens a door for Ethiopian artists to join the conversation about what African games can be.
If you’re an Africa-based artist working at the edges of games, playful media or interactive storytelling, this call is worth a serious look. The deadline is close, the support is real, and the stage at the end is one of the most respected in arthouse games.
Playful Obscura won’t make you rich. But for three weeks in Addis Ababa, it might give you something better: time, space and an audience for the kind of game only you would make.