GameBlast23: plans, programmes and possibilities

Only two months to GameBlast23, and we’re getting excited about the event.

Pete and I take part in it every February along with hundreds of other gamers across the UK. We all come together on Twitch to take part in extended gaming sessions, with the aim of raising as much awareness and funds as possible for SpecialEffect.

In case you’ve never heard of this charity before, let me give you a brief overview. It wants everyone to be included, and at the heart of its work is the mission to maximise fun and quality of life by helping people with physical disabilities to play video games. A range of technology including modified controllers and eye-controlled software is used to find a way for individuals to play to the best of their abilities.

This is just the start though. The organisation’s StarGaze service provides the introduction, support and loan of technology in intensive care, allowing patients to ‘speak’ and use a computer again using their eye movement. And the BubbleBlasters project tackles long-term medical through small home-controlled robots which place a child’s ears, eyes and voice right back into the classroom and playground.

The annual GameBlast marathon is the perfect way to do what we love and have a positive effect on the lives of others at the same time. During our last update, we revealed our format for the event’s tenth anniversary and what is perhaps the longest title ever for such a thing: The Super Excellent Great Dapper Gaming Decathlon. Over ten days from 17 to 27 February 2023, we’ll be hosting streams every day and celebrating each year of GameBlast’s existence with a different game.

We’d love to hear your suggestions for more games: which releases would you like to see us play for GameBlast23?

Ellen from Ace Asunder, Kevin from The Lawful Geek and friend-of-the-blog Phil are joining us on this adventure and we’ll be streaming across three different Twitch channels. Fancy getting involved too? Whether you want to join in for all ten days or just one, everyone is welcome to take part with us. The only requirement for The Super Excellent Great Dapper Gaming Decathlon is to stream a game from the specified year on the dates of your choosing – at any time of day and for however long you want.

Over the past month, we’ve been thinking about the games we’d like to play for the event in preparation for announcing the schedule towards the end of January. Our team has a wide range of gaming tastes so hopefully we’ll end up with a nice mix and have something on the final programme to appeal which appeals to everyone. Some of our ideas so far can be found at the bottom of this post and we’d love to hear your suggestions for more titles: which releases would you like to see us play for GameBlast23?

If you’d like to participate with us, let us know by leaving a comment below or using the contact form. I’ll then get in touch to fill you in on the details and give you access to our shared resources. We’ll never have the biggest team taking part in the event and it might not even expand from its current five members. But I can guarantee it’s going to be one of the friendliest, and we’re going to have a lot of fun together while doing something positive for a really amazing cause.

In our next update, we’ll reveal the games that have made it onto the final schedule. In the meantime, head over to the SpecialEffect website to find out more about the charity’s wonderful work, and follow the official GameBlast Twitter account to receive regular updates about the event. It’s time to help everybody get back in the game.