We had two important things this week; our midway review and play test of games in St Catherine's Place. Lots to think about!!

Ideas and Questions from the Midway Review.

  • The direction of the work is centred a lot around the idea of community. How can we create the community, and more importantly how do we connect with the community that’s there?

  • Local kept coming up… local to who? Who is the work for in this community?

  • Keep the work community focused, invite people to play games (flyer / signage / tell people!)

  • Co-creating games with members of the community? We should try this at the play test tomorrow try out faciliating other to make games. We don't have to make the finished thing.
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  • The act of turning hostile spaces/ architecture into the approachable is something that is coming through a lot stronger in the work, and something that can definitely be thought about further in terms of what makes a space hostile (shopping centres, business district, new developments). 

  • We could create symbols - Using these familiar pieces of street furniture (gate around the tree, bench, bollard) could bring up memories of that moment in other places. 

  • Work could make up part of a guidebook. Architecture could be symbols for play areas… perhaps people could be given a guide to what architecture is available in a space and how a game could be made out of it. Collecting logos for playing!

  • Tapping into the human instinct - in terms of mechanics and competitiveness. Using small challenges to appeal to competitiveness. Does this attract people to each other? This could be an important test in tying everything together and achieving best outcomes.

  • Need to leave stuff and see what happens. Do people play with it?

  • Where is the digital and is it needed? Could it be physical games that can be located online?


So with all this in mind we did our Play Test on Friday.....




Some thoughts about each game...

Ballance 

Ballance worked well as group game - people could quickly learn how to play. The levelling up the tree cage worked well. We got feedback that it was best game of the day that enabled participants to work with their team mates. Though we all agreed it be hard to get people to join in if you hadn’t been invited to play.

EtchaSketcha

Using a person to draw the chalk worked well. Ideas for next steps for this game were to have pictures for the people controlling the chalk to copy so you would get range of drawings. This could work as something that you would be able to leave and people could stumble upon and work out how to use.

Free Play

After advice in our Midway Review we wanted to see if we could facilitate participants making their own games with tools that we had brought. This descended into complete mayhem but was fun to do! Next time we definitely need some parameters to centre the games around!

Lots to reflect on - Excited to see what we take forward.