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 and to the publishers. 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. An overview about the history of the SAZ you will find here.
Currently we have 421 members from 23 countries (as of May 25, 2013).
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: Application form (PDF form 81 KB)
Bylaws of the Game Designer Association (PDF 62 KB)
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 joined in January 2013 the "Initiative Urheberrecht", a federation which fights for the copyright of all types of authors. Members are unions and associations representing the interests of authors, creators and performers. The initiative is a discussion forum, which is also open to other organizations. It actively supports the interests of all creators.
- Cooperation partner is the Illustratoren Organisation e.V. ("Illustrators Organization"), the professional association of illustrators in the German-speaking area. and member of the Initiative Deutscher Designverbände (iDD; "Initiative of German Design Associations"). Illustration and design are important elements for the success of games, so we feel connected to colleagues and partners to support their concerns.
- Our cooperation partner Wiener Spiele Akademie sees itself predominantly as a "Think factory" for the Austrian game scene. It focuses on the development and implementation of ideas and solutions to make games in Austria more popular, e.g. with events like the "Spielefest".