I connected with A MAZE festival organizer Thorsten S. Wiedemann about a year ago in Berlin when he told me about his forthcoming plans to bring an indie game festival to South Africa’s largest city. It’s finally happening.:

From August 28th to September 2nd 2012 the A MAZE. Interact Festival will be introduced for the first time in Johannesburg. A MAZE. Interact is a multimedia and gaming festival that combines workshops, a conference, exhibitions, performances, street games and music on an international level.The festival will be a public platform for sharing ideas, providing enduring knowledge, creatinglasting relations and building a solid base for an extended cultural exchange. This will enable artists, musicians and indie game developers from the Sub-Saharan Africa to meet and face the international Gaming and Media Art scene and thereby strengthen the dialogue.

Together with the Goethe Institute in Johannesburg, A MAZE. and local partners are creating the AMAZE. Interact, featuring artists such as Julian Oliver, Donna Kukama, Anthea Moys, Jussi Ängeslevä, Emeka Ogboh, Danny Day, Invisible Playground (t.b.c.). The initial aim is to introducenew ideas and tools, as well as creating a framework that allows existing artists to be visible on aninternational level. Celebrating the convergence of games, art and technology, A MAZE. Interact expands on the existing media art and indie game scene in South Africa, and creates a sustainable andannual platform forging artist collaborations and strengthening the cultural exchange between the European partner institutions and South African institutions.

You can check out more on A MAZE here.