Events: Games wanted for Manchester’s first pervasive gaming event!

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  1.  
    • CommentAuthorTricia
    • CommentTimeJul 31st 2009 edited
     # 1
    Larkin’ About needs game designers for Manchester’s first pervasive gaming event on Saturday 5th December 2009. Games can take place inside or outside, must last between 1-2 hours, and must be able to accommodate large volumes of players (up to 200).

    An all day pervasive gaming festival Larkin’ About is a day of flashmobs and audience participation in labyrinths, conspiracies, chases, clues, impossipuzzles, Connect 4 challenges and urban adventures.

    In addition to games from established intenational designers, Larkin’ About will programme original games from local designers, putting a Mancunian stamp on the twelve hours of around-the-clock urban adventure and social gaming.

    Game designing is a great way to support the festival and put your creative twist on it. Don’t worry if you have never designed before – get in touch with your idea and we’ll go from there.
  2.  # 2
    I test trailed a game not knowing anything about pervasive gaming before.

    It was called The Street Novel, it was done in a gallery as an interactive art concept...

    Have a look at the blog and tell me if you think it has potential:

    www.thestreetnovel.com

    Q.C.W
    • CommentAuthorgwyn
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2009
     # 3
    200 players per game?! What kind of gig _is_ this?

    LaserTrap can handle, at most, 2 players every 3 minutes, or about 80 players in a two-hour session. Other games I've run can handle twenty or thirty.

    I'll see if I can't devise something on a grander scale. Are any more details on the festival available?

    • CommentAuthorTricia
    • CommentTimeAug 3rd 2009 edited
     # 4
    RE Street Novel: I have had a quick look and it looks really interesting, though I am not sure I completely understand how it unfolds...! Is there anything else I could read on it? Would it be possible to do an amended version over just one day?

    We are expecting 200-350 at the event and we don't expect that many to be playing at any one time but we don't want to turn people away. We are already programming games alongside other games so there are options on what to play - I will just have to be careful how I manage this so everyone gets to do something.

    I'll post weblinks and print up when it is done - it will be hosted at greenroom in Manchester www.greenroomarts.org
  5.  # 5
    I'm working on a new game - lemmings - which might be suitable for large numbers of players. Though I would suggest that running many games simultaneously is the way to go.
    • CommentAuthorHolly
    • CommentTimeAug 3rd 2009 edited
     # 6
    I agree with the others that making sure the games can accommodate 200 people will be very challenging. There are a few games on Ludocity that could proooobably scale up that far: The Potato Game, Lumenatio (except it's a pain to score even with 40), Soho Stag Hunt (given enough helium balloons and maybe two or three stags instead of one), maybe Search and Replace (with a longer playing time and a bigger playing space). Plus Journey to the End of the Night has certainly run with several hundred players - but it needs a whole city as playing area, and at least fifteen or so actors.

    Traditional scavenger hunts and capture-the-flag style games tend to take an enormous amount of players easily enough, as do commercial treasure-hunt games. Plus ambient games like Trap Street and City Blocks can take loads of people easily enough, though most players are only engaged for a few minutes each.

    It's a tricky one! From a curatorial point of view I would probably go for having, say, four largeish games at the same time, and running a couple of times each, rather than a few enormous games running one after another - but it's an interesting design challenge, I'll have a think about possible new games.

    There are plenty of games that aren't on Ludocity that can take that many - Noah's Lark, And I Saw or the Go Game, out of things that ran at the Hide&Seek Weekender, for example; and Cruel 2 B Kind or Blast Theory's Day of the Figurines from last year. I'd be happy to talk about these, or the logistics of scheduling or running this sort of event, if that would be useful - my email address is holly@hideandseekfest.co.uk .
    • CommentAuthorHolly
    • CommentTimeAug 3rd 2009 edited
     # 7
    And separate from the specific issue of the Manchester event, it's interesting to think about what sort of games scale well. They mostly seem to have at least one or two of these characteristics:

    1. Distributed widely over space or time (the V&A/wikipedia photographic game over time; Journey to the End of the Night and most big scavenger hunts/treasure trails over space, ARGs and SF0 over both). Games that are widely distributed over time can often be joined by players at any point.

    2. Players are split into largeish teams; those teams tend to split into groups of two or three; overall aim is to either distribute an item or collect up that item (Potato Game, Soho Stag Hunt, Capture the Flag).

    3. Very simple rules - well, this one is a bit of a given, as explaining complicated rules to 200 people wouldn't be very much fun!

    4. The game consists of many smaller missions (Noah's Lark, The Go Game, Ravenchase and all the rest of the commercial treasure hunts, SF0, Journey).

    5. The main emotion the designer wants to conjure up in the player is glee or jubilance - a lot of the stuff from the New Games movement from the 60s, for example. Really simple rules, bright colourful props, no real way to do it "wrong" or desire for strategy.

    Are there any other common characteristics of games that work well with 100+ players?
    • CommentAuthorTricia
    • CommentTimeAug 4th 2009
     # 8
    Great advice guys - Simon let me know a little more about Lemmings - I'm intrigued!

    Holly, thanks for these links. I went to H&S08 and played some of these and am planning on programming Journey as the finale game and Cruel 2B Kind, but I will def check out the other leads. I'll drop you an email in the next few days with my questions but thanks so much for your advice!

    Cheers guys!

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