TICKETS AVAILABLE ON THE DOOR FOR FESTIVAL AND MOTHERLODE

The 2026 Games Transformed Festival explores how racial justice and migrant justice are part of the same fight, and how games can help us resist the forces that try and push our communities out.

Join game makers, activists, artists, and curious comrades to play, discuss, and challenge the systems shaping our world.

With 80+ games, workshops, talks, experiments, and a dedicated youth and families programme, the resistance has never been more fun!

What's more? For the first time ever Games Transformed has a dedicated youth and families programme and we're finally releasing our feral party crew motherlode (see below for further detail).

When?

Friday 30th of October
18:30 – 23:00

Saturday 31st of October
10:00 – 18:30 + motherlode afterparty from 20:00 till late

Sunday 1st November
10:00 – 19:30

Where?

Three locations in Bethnal Green, East London:

• Proposition Studios

• Pelican House

• Three Colts Tavern

What’s on?

Friday 30th of October

We’re kicking off the Festival with several fringe events including: ReImagining Value Action Lab Games Against Borders, and How to Beat the Boss: Games for Organisers hosted by Games Transformed, Class Wargames, Jarrow Insights, King's College London, Equity and IWGB. Note that these events are ticketed separately.

These fringe events will come together with a relaxed social evening featuring drag and performance artist Dungeons and Dragons Liveplay hosted by Connor Pearce. Plus lots of games, music and an opportunity to meet fellow gamers and organisers. It's the perfect opportunity to enter the festival space early, settle in, collect your wristband and programme (and beat the queue!), all whilst making new connections ready for the weekend.

Saturday 31st October 

MONSTREOUS  Costume and Cosplay Competition

At this terrifyingly spooky Halloween edition of Games Transformed, our costume theme is MONSTERS! 👹 What does monstrosity mean to you? A creature from the depths? A threat to the established order? Something that was never supposed to exist? The monster haunts our collective imagination. It lurks in the shadows, takes forms we don't recognise, threatens the world as we know it. But monstrosity has never been just about things that go bump in the night. Monstrosity is political. ✊️ Those who threaten the established order are often cast as monstrous by those who uphold it. Racialised people, trans people, revolutionaries: those who challenge oppressive gender regimes, the myths of white supremacy, and the cogs of capitalism are repeatedly cast as monstrous others.

Across the Saturday day and night programming, there will be opportunities to win free games, festival tickets and other lovely prizes for the most MONSTREOUS outfit.

Saturday night party

Our feral little monsters over in Games Transformed party HQ have been cooking up a wicked broth to make a night to remember. From 8pm all 3 venues shift energy into the motherlode of all experiences. See below for further information on the party.

Sunday 1st November

Games to play on both Saturday and Sunday

Food and drinks

We are working with a chef and volunteers to prepare cheap and delicious vegan meals for you. Our partner venue Three Colts Tavern serves wonderful pizza and will offer a small discount on drinks to ticket holders.

Accessibility

We've done our best to make sure the festival is accessible to people with many kinds of mobility. Our venues at Proposition Studios, Pelican House, and Three Colts Tavern are all accessible to people who use wheelchairs. Those with reduced mobility and sensitivity to crowded spaces should be aware that we are expecting some of our spaces to be quite busy. We will have a quiet space available for anyone who wants to take a break during the festival. Unfortunately at this time, we are not able to provide consistent accessibility features for people who cannot see or hear. There will be plenty of seating and helpful stewards on hand to support with wayfinding and navigating the site. There are plenty of toilets, including accessible toilets, at each venue.

If you have other questions please email us gamestransformed@gmail.com.

Youth and families

We have a dedicated youth and families program running all day October 31st and November 1st for ages 8 and up. Need childcare during the festival? We're pleased to be working with Nanny Solidarity Network to offer a crèche at the festival, so that parents and carers can take part in the weekend. If you're planning to bring children and would like to use the crèche, please let us know as soon as you can.

For more information please email us gamestransformed@gmail.com.

What a State!? An immersive world of ridiculous challenges, baffling bureaucracy and wonderfully pointless activities for all ages. Work your way through our Very Completely Official British Citizenship Test and explore the cultures, quirks and contradictions of these isles. Aimed at ages 8-88, with younger or older children welcome to join in the nonsense.

Solidarity tickets

If costs are a barrier, please email gamestransformed@gmail.com with the subject "Solidarity ticket" to get free or discounted tickets.

No one will be turned away for lack of funds at the event, though we cannot guarantee tickets will be available on the door if we are sold out.

Why Games Transformed?

The games industry is the biggest media industry in the world. Two billion people play games every day. But despite this, many progressive and social justice movements have ignored the potential of games as a way to engage people, imagine alternative futures, and create positive change.

For decades, fascists have run rampant in gaming spaces. They have successfully created a pipeline that begins in Reddit gaming forums, funnels people into Andrew Tate or Elon Musk brainrot content, and eventually spits them out into a 4chan “red pill” fascist hellscape. We want to smash that pipeline and reclaim games as a force for joy, community and liberation for all of us.

Love games. Hate capitalism.

Games Transformed brings organisers into games, and game makers and players closer to organising.

Through festivals, events, and partnerships, we explore how games can challenge power, build solidarity, imagine revolutionary futures, and collectively work towards liberation.

We celebrate games as an art form, connect play with movement struggle, and create spaces where cultural work, political education, and collective imagination intersect to inspire new worlds.

We are one of the only spaces where organisers, activists, academics, game makers, players, and workers come together to fight this struggle and have a wicked fun time along the way.

Here to Stay, Here to Play

The theme for the 2026 Games Transformed Festival is Here to Stay, Here to Play.

In the 1970s, migrant and anti-racist communities in East London used the slogan “Here to Stay, Here to Fight” as a statement of defiance against racism.

In 2026, this is more important than ever. While fascists are attacking racialised and migrant communities across the world, governments push through more and more cruel immigration policies that criminalise the right to move.

Over three days, we’ll explore how racial justice and migrant justice are part of the same fight, and how games can help us resist the systems that try and push our communities out.

motherlode

When the sun goes down, the game glitches, and the monsters come out to play 👹

motherlode is the Games Transformed afterparty, a chaos laboratory transporting you to an alternate dimension.
On Saturday 31st of October, from 8pm till late, join us for a night of banging tunes, live coding, shibari performance, cross-venue quests, immersive chill space, clowns behind the decks, games (of course), and a costume competition celebrating monstrosity in all its forms.
DJs include: Bledi, Dance Against Deportations, Nachtlicker and more international selectors and performers.

Cheat the system. Get your ticket now 🧨