spawn!

Angoulême's Video Game Festival

In 2023, Cnam-Enjmin teamed up with SO· Games, the association for video game professionals in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region, to create a regional video game event open to the general public free of charge.

spawn! takes place over one and a half days and sets itself apart from many other French and European events by focusing on an original theme that has so far received little attention: Independent and Experimental Video Games.

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For more information about spawn! #3 in 2025, press the logo on the top right-hand side of this page.

What makes spawn! stand out?

The video game market is saturated. Many original games fail to make their mark due to a lack of visibility in the face of large-scale productions by major publishers. spawn! covers the types of games you don't usually hear about.

- Independent games with creative originality: These games can't easily find their market, so this event is a springboard to accelerate their chances of finding their production budget.

- Games that aren't just for playing, so-called “Serious Games”: Games that explore new aspects of society and culture. These games often have too small a market to attract a publisher, but the spawn! festival is an opportunity to showcase them.

- Interactive digital installations: These often require hardware that is difficult to install at home. They include interactive digital artworks, large-scale virtual reality spaces and imposing alternative controllers.

Who is spawn! for?

spawn! is a free event for the general public, promoting gender equality and non-discrimination.

In France, all generations play video games, and 48% of these players are women. However, the video game industry counts just 24% women and 5% non-binary people. In schools, the proportion of women varies depending on the course, but rarely exceeds 25-30%.

Through this festival, Cnam-Enjmin wishes to reach out to women from an early age (in primary and secondary schools in particular) to show them that a career in video games is possible, and to introduce them to the various professions in the field. Our institution therefore hopes to contribute to the evolution of women’s place in the video game industry.

spawn! is also aimed at people for whom traditional video games are not very accessible. This event is an opportunity to honour these people, with an accessible video game stand and a series of round-table discussions and conferences on themes such as disability and accessibility.

Finally, we also aim to promote social diversity in video games, which is why we collaborate with associations working in priority neighbourhoods.

In a nutshell, spawn! is aimed at:

General public,
Young people and students,
Female and non-binary audiences,
People with disabilities,
Public from priority neighbourhoods (Quartiers prioritaires de la politique de la ville, QPV),
Public from Angoulême, the Charente Department and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region.

Main aims of spawn!

spawn!'s B2B professional half-day is for Cnam-Enjmin students and independent studios in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region with round-table discussions, technical conferences and training workshops. The aim is to support professional integration into the industry.	spawn!'s public day is organised around experimentation, boasting a multitude of different stands introducing the public to over 60 innovative independent games (including VR games) and interactive works.
spawn! focuses on knowledge: round-table discussions and conferences for the general public. Many of these address current topics in the video game industry in an accessible way, in keeping with Cnam-Enjmin's public service mission of spreading this knowledge.	spawn! allows for the unprecedented encounter between digital art, musical creation, theatre and light. A “videogame and experimental” evening combining various art forms is offered at the end of the festival to awaken senses and curiosity about these new creative ensembles.

spawn! is also the perfect opportunity for the general public, and young people in particular, to find out about degree courses in the video game sector in France and learn about the different professions in the industry. We aim is to spark curiosity in people and provide key tools for students wishing to pursue a career in our industry.