The ‘Verein für Aufklärung über Internet und Spielkultur’ (short form: VAISk) has been the organising body for gaming culture events in Basel since 2015. This association was founded as an official legal entity in 2016.
The association has set itself the goal of revitalising and uniting the play culture scene in Basel, which has already been achieved in the form of smaller and larger play culture events thanks to the generous support of the Christoph Merian Foundation (CMS). However, before any funds were awarded, the VAISk first had to prove itself through its own commitment for a year and organised play events using its own resources. This also resulted in a community that follows the ManaBar project founded by the VAISk and supports it on a voluntary basis.

For marketing purposes, a crowdfunding campaign was organised on the Kickstarter.com platform, which was successful and in which some supporters also donated as a group under one name. This successfully completed campaign shows us that the community wants a place like this. For a spatially defined project, the total sum is a great success for Switzerland and served as a tool to attract further investors and sponsors.

By organising various events and a successful crowdfunding campaign, we were able to convince Basel's largest cultural foundation: the Christoph Merian Foundation (CMS for short). Click on the following button to find our contribution on page 7.

The CMS not only supported us financially, but also linked us with a trio of architects who provided great support from the planning phase through to realisation. Among other things, they used renderings by Tom, our game designer, as a template. The support of CMS also helped us to find additional sponsors and investors.

While our architects took care of the extension, it was up to us to create part of the infrastructure. From refurbishing many chairs, to welding tables, to lasering the light board and much more. This not only saved us financial resources, but also provided us with a wealth of new experiences. To keep our community up to date with the project, we created newsletter updates.
Unfortunately, the project also brought with it many hurdles, which delayed the opening by quite a bit. However, the team's motivation did not wane and we were delighted to announce the opening on 31 August 2019. Above all, this gave us the opportunity to thank everyone who had supported the project over the past four years. This is just a very compact narrative of the ManaBar story. If you want to know more, visit us at the bar and ask for the longer version ;)