Archive for May, 2009
The Sandpit
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009
Created in Feburary 2008. the Sandpit is a monthly pervasive gaming night in London. For designers and game-makers, it’s a curated space to test out new ideas; for players, it’s a regular evening of interesting playful work. It takes place a different location each month, from art galleries to theatres to underground nightclubs.
In Autumn 2009 the Sandpit went on tour to ten cities across the United Kingdom, and this year is teaming up with the London International Festival of Theatre. See our events page for more details.
The Hide&Seek Weekender
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
For information on this year’s Weekender, look here.
The first UK event of its kind in May 2007, the Hide&Seek Weekender is our annual jamboree of social games and playful experiences on London’s South Bank. It used to be a Festival, now it’s a Weekender. There are a number of really good reasons for this, which Alex will tell you if you ask him.
The first Hide&Seek festival ran 11 May to 13 May 2007, at BFI Southbank in London. It was produced in association with Gideon Reeling. Games played included A Small Town Anywhere from Coney & Journey to the End of the Night by SF0.
The 2008 festival ran in London from the 27th to the 29th of June, and encompassed everything from fine artists making location-based work to huge flashmob games within the public spaces of the Southbank Centre. As well as a range of low-tech, high-fun experiences from the Sandpit, artists including Momus, Blast Theory and Jane McGonigal brought things for us to play.
The 2009 Hide&Seek Weekender ran from 31st July to 2nd August at the Southbank Centre, London, and this year we’re heading to the National Theatre, for an event we’re building in collaboration with the London International Festival of Theatre. Check out more details here.
Last Will
Friday, May 1st, 2009
The outcome of a collaboration between Hide&Seek, Punchdrunk, HP Labs and Seeper, Last Will is the working prototype of an ambitious, genre-defying experience, blurring the boundaries between the real and the virtual. A live environment mirrored as an online 3D world. A game where real-world actions have virtual outcomes & where collaboration reveals a troubling story. Hide&Seek joined forces with Punchdrunk, HP Labs and seeper to create a new kind of experience. Part computer game, part installation, Last Will was the operatic evocation of the memories of a dying man. A coin toss determined whether players experienced the home of Captain Thomas R Madigan in its physical or virtual incarnation. Players working in pairs of two had to collaborate in real time, linked by sensors, comms & actuation technology, to unlock the secrets and escape the house. Do as Madigan did and you will understand…
Madigan’s rooms were open in a secret location in Central London from 25 October – 2 November 2008.
Last Will was a working prototype, the result of a three-month collaborative R&D process. Last Will was presented with support from Arts Council England, the Technology Strategy Board and the Jerwood Charitable Trust.