Last week was packed with playful workshops hosted by REACT and the Playable City team, and we were alerted to some exciting new projects coming from Anagram and Rik Lander.

This week, we hosted the first REACT Play Sandbox workshop, bringing academics and creatives together to explore new ways of mobilising play for children. The scheme has commissioned 6 brilliant projects. The Young Coaches (a group of fantastically opinionated 7-12 year olds) came along to give advice on the development of the projects, and they hosted an amazing party for the project teams. The two days of activities were a flurry of running, hiding, debate, and doughnuts. Residents Splash & Ripple organised some brilliant games of Lemon Jousting, where players are equipped with two wooden spoons, one for balancing a lemon on and one for knocking other people’s lemons off. As spoons jab and lemons fly off in all directions, the number of players rapidly diminishes, and the game quickly turns into a tense finale between two lemon-cradling spoon-wielders fighting to become champion. This is definitely a game we recommend.

Anagram are currently developing Avian Avenue, a fascinating new project which has recently been commissioned by Stoke on Trent’s creative programme, Appetite. They have been talking to locals about the history of the area; specifically the abandoned terrace houses in old factory communities that now sit empty and boarded up. The pair are collecting stories about what happened inside the houses, and want to retell history in a fantastical way, placing this history into a game context where you play as a bird and fly through walls. The game will be online as well as projected live in location. We’re really looking forward to seeing this one unfold.

A group of students from Taylor's University in Malaysia came to the Studio for a Playable City workshop on Monday with Verity and Jess. They were invited to come up with their own ideas for Playable City projects, and to make a 30 second film and a 3 minute pitch to share their big ideas. They came up with some really brilliant ideas, including ‘Dance and Redeem’ a machine that gives you a discount on bus tickets if you dance, a GoPro slide, where you can record stunts before splashing into a pool, a cinema mini-game that playfully matches up couples before a film screening, and ‘Sands of Time’, a historical engagement project, which will see undead historical figures rise up from coffins which are scattered across a beach.

Rik Lander's latest interactive installation, Watch For Mystery Pays, will be in the Fedden Room in the RWA from 25 - 30 November. The installation is a functioning vintage one armed bandit, which seems to have a small boy trapped inside it. He wants you to leave it and him alone. Will you resist the urge to pull the arm? What will happen if you do? The project was funded with a bursary from the RWA and Centre for Moving Image Research and programmed by Nth Screen’s Tim Kindberg. Make sure to pop in and have a look.

Silas, founder of Reach Robotics and Diego, head of marketing for nu desine are going to the Duke of York’s entrepreneurial event, Pitch@Palace next week. The event invites tech related start-ups to come and pitch their projects at St. James’s Palace. They put the projects to a public vote, and winners can win a trip to the US. Vote for them here.

The Daredevil Project team are looking for a Back-End Developer who is experienced in app and database building, to help them develop their upcoming competitive photo-sharing app. If that is you, get in touch with paul@daredevilproject.com.