Who we are
The Spiele-Autoren-Zunft e.V. (SAZ) - Game Designer Association - was founded in Germany in 1991 and represents the specific interests of game designers in the public. The SAZ is a forum of joint activities. Although its main area of activity is Germany, the SAZ is also developing a more and more international character as the result of an increasing number of members from other countries.
Membership is open to anybody who supports the goals of the SAZ. Only those members who have published at least one game have voting rights – all other members are supporting members. However, members without any publication can also be granted the right to vote by the General Assembly if they apply for it and their membership has been in existence for at least one year. Become a member!
Bylaws of the Game Designer Association (PDF-Download 128 KB)
The SAZ in current figures: The number of members is 437 now, 64 of which are women and 373 of which are men. 344 members are from Germany, 78 members from other European countries and 15 from non-European countries (as of November 12, 2011).
An overview about the history of the SAZ you will find here.
Memberships and cooperations
- The SAZ has been a member of the German Cultural Council since 2008 , namely in the section Socio-culture and Cultural Education. This membership clearly improves opportunities for game designers in advocating the cultural assets of games in society in Germany and doing active lobbying work with the intention of optimizing the intellectual property rights in the game designers' interest.
- The SAZ is supporting member of the Action Plagiarius that accuses imitators for their unimaginative and shameless behavior under the motto "Innovation vs. Imitation". The organization "awards" significant examples of product piracy and imitation every year . The trophy is a black painted gnome with golden nose to signify the illicit earnings from product imitation.
- Cooperation partner is the Illustratoren Organisation e.V. ("Illustrators Organization"), the professional association of illustrators in the German-speaking area. The Illustratoren Organisation e.V. has been a member of the Initiative Deutscher Designverbände (iDD; "Initiative of German Design Associations") since 2008. The iDD's task is to represent the designers' position in politics and economy, with the focus being on improving the social relevance of design, raising the appreciation of design (and, consequently, of designers), increasing the quality of education and promoting interdisciplinary exchange.
- Our cooperation partner Wiener Spiele Akademie sees itself predominantly as a "Think factory" for the Austrian game scene. It focuses – besides dealing with contemporary games in academia – on the development and implementation of ideas and solutions to make games in Austria more popular. Besides enjoying an intensive exchange of experiences, SAZ members are provided with several advantages at academy events and delivery of WIN, the Austrian online games magazine, for free.