Initiated by SAZ, an international group of game designers with members of Spiele-Autoren-Zunft (SAZ), members of Société des Auteurs de Jeux (SAJ) as well as of not organized game designers, have created a Code of Respect and Responsibiliy during the last months.

The Model License Agreement published by the SAZ in 2020 led to discussions among publishers and a request for clarification. Our position paper on the participation of game authors responds to this request, explains in detail the author rights and content-related reasons, and provides practical examples.

The event is cancelled again this year due to the Corona pandemic. In consultation with the publishers, the SAZ will endeavor to create online presentation opportunities. The German Scholarship for Young Game Authors  will be held this year with the help of online elements.

Spielwarenmesse has published a digital product preview on January 25, the presence fair was postponed to July. Unfortunately, it is noticeable that almost all publishers do not mention the names of the game authors in the description text. Exceptions we found only in the German version: moses. and Schmidt Spiele.

The board of SAZ has decided to make its new model License Agreement for games available not only to SAZ members, but to all interested game authors/designers and publishers. In this way, we want to help ensure that fair conditions for game authors are enforced as widely as possible.

For years, the Spiele-Autoren-Zunft (SAZ) has been working to have analog games included in the collection catalog of the German National Library. Today, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) group in the German Bundestag has submitted a motion to this theme.

The game inventor Tim Walsh explaines in this video the roots of UNO, which was sold estimated 150 million copies. Cincinnati Barber Merle Robbins and his son Ray designed 1971 one of the most popular games in the world, and gave people so much fun.

The Game Designers Association (SAZ) has launched a new service on its website with the section "Publisher Profiles". Game publishers can introduce themselves there in short form with their focal points and search fields for new games and give contact information.

The Jury "Spiel des Jahres" announced today the winners for the Spiel des Jahres (PICTURES) and of the Kennerspiel des Jahres (THE CREW).

Unfortunately, in accordance with the City of Göttingen, we are forced to cancel the event due to the Corona pandemic and the foreseeable regulations for protection against new infections.

In this special tribute issue, we honor the person who is the greatest American game designer in terms of both quantity AND quality – a combination impossible to beat: Sid Sackson. The World of Games has lost a true titan. Judging from the reactions around the globe, gamers around the world know this all too well and he is greatly missed.

At the general meeting on the eve of the Game Designers Convention in Göttingen, the previous board of SAZ was re-elected. With approx. 350 participants – including approx. 170 Game Authors and 80 publishing house representatives – the Game Designers Convention in the new location LOKHALLE was a complete success.

The Dutch website spellenmaakgilde.net published an interview with the manager of SAZ, Christian Beiersdorf – introducing himself and the Game Designers Association to the audience in the Netherlands.

In the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Deepmind is a leading research and development laboratory belonging to Google. The researchers chose the card game Hanabi as the ideal game to consider how to incorporate the 'Theory of Mind' into Intelligent Agents.

The Italian meeting of the game designers reach new records of participation. About 200 authors were present at the 15th edition of the Italian game designer meeting the 12th and 13th of January at the Hotel San Marco in Ponte Taro, in the province of Parma. During the event, 400 new prototypes were presented and tested.

The rights and conditions for various forms of digital exploitation are becoming increasingly important. This is also shown by a lawsuit by the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, whose books were used as the basis for digital games. After a long dispute, a settlement was reached.

Some members of the Spiel des Jahres jury have launched the initiative "Spielend für Toleranz" (Playing for Tolerance), which has since been joined by many game bloggers and game websites.  The Game Designers Association (SAZ) supports this campaign ...

Recently, a campaign was launched on the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter for a new edition of Alex Randolph's classic TwixT, which has since been cancelled after repeated criticism on the platform. However, the initiator Wayne Dolezal of Lil' Cerebral Games still wants to publish the game in the USA.

The 37th Game Designers Convention, organized by the SAZ and the City of Göttingen, ended on Sunday, June 3 with a positive result.

The subject matter is the game NEXTPRESS, for which Karsten Adlung was also responsible as author and referred explicitly to EXPRESS by Reiner Knizia. This game has been in the program of Adlung before.

Currently, the publishers send the license statements for the last billing period, mostly for the second half of 2017. Despite all the joy of the upcoming payments, we recommend from actual experience to check these statements very closely.

The so-called "bestseller paragraph" (§ 32a German law of IP) provides for the subsequent participation of an author if the original remuneration is in a "conspicuous disproportion" to the income. On the basis of this law, the cameraman has now been awarded an appropriate remuneration.

For this demand, SAZ and German game publishers have submitted an application in the section Socio-Culture and Cultural Education in the German Cultural Council. Games are a valuable cultural asset and have a high social significance. Facilitated access is worthy of promotion.

At the gamescom 2017 in Cologne, the representatives of five parties expressed their support for the promotion of the digital game culture. We now confronted CDU, SPD, DIE LINKE, B'90/DIE GRÜNEN and FDP with our demands for the promotion of the analogous game culture.

The famous game author Wolfgang Kramer is celebrating today, June 29, 2017, his 75^th birthday. The SAZ congratulates him cordially and honors him by awarding the honorary membership.

The 36th Game Designers Convention in Göttingen on the 10th and 11th of June 2017 can announce a participation record with more than 300 registrations this year.

After the termination of the contract to Reiner Knizia EXPRESS, Adlung Games launched in autumn 2016 NEXT PRESS with the author stating "Karsten Adlung" – promoted by the publisher expressly as a further development and as "The new EXPRESS".

The PREMIO ARCHIMEDE 2018, organized by studiogiochi in Venice (Italy), is a competition for unpublished board games. Further, some special prizes will also be awarded. The entry fee is May 31st, 2018.

The Game Designers Association (SAZ) lost its founding member and first chairman of the board (1991–1993). The games designer and book author Hajo Bücken died on 30th December 2016 in Berlin at the age of 72.

On June 3, 2011, the eve of the Game Designer Meeting in Göttingen, the Game Designer Association (SAZ) held it‘s general meeting. At the regular end of the term, a new executive board was elected: As new members join Harald Mücke, as 1. Chairman and Dr. Michael Feldkötter as 2. Chairman. Christian Beiersdorf was reelected as treasurer.