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It's hard work this R&D work

So this weekend as well as the Paper Girl event we managed to get a bit of planning for the playARK event. While I say bit I kind of mean that we went to a toy shop to have a look at toys. There is a really amazing feeling of just playing around.

playARK - Games festival and talks - 30 September - 1 October

Over the next few months we are going to eb talking alot about a new project we are working on which will be taking place at the end of September beginning of October. The event will run at the same time as Cardiff Design Festival and has been kindly supported by CHAPTER Arts Centre. You can read a bit more about it below:

playARK - Games festival and talks
playARK is Cardiff's very own games festival. At the end of September we will be bringing together a mix of games, from Street games to computer games through to board games. (with everything in between). Split between two days the festival will also hold the first series of talks of it's kind in Cardiff, see below for further details:

DAY ONE - TALKS - Friday 30 September - 9:30am-3pm
A ticketed event. Ever thought there are ways of making work and systems more fun and engaging? In this series of talks from world renowned play and gaming experts we will look at how games and play has been used to increase creativity and improve services.
Full details TBC.

DAY TWO - GAMES - Saturday 1 October - 10am-5pm
A fun day for all the family. Join us at CHAPTER to play street games, board games, and computer games. Your chance to relive your childhood and turn your environment into a new playground. Whether it's by using the latest technology or no technology at all. From games that challenge your grey matter to those that are just indulgently fun.
Full details TBC.

GAME PREMIERE - WHITESTALKER - Saturday 1 October - 6-8pm
A Ghostly happening, everyone has a story don't they? Will you free them? You will have to play to find out...


This event would not be possible without the kind support of CHAPTER Arts Centre, and is part of the 2011 Cardiff Design festival.

igfest 2011 - Games season begins

ARCADE ANARCHY - the results

After last years fine weather and once in a lifetime opportunities. This year's street game season has begun in earnest with Bristol based igfest taking place May Bank Holiday. This is the second we have been to but in reality the first proper one (last years being a smaller affair due to them moving and setting up some new ventures), So how was it?

In sheer scale igfest has to be the largest games festival in the UK (of it's type). This is particularly the case with the news that Hide & Seek weekender will not be taking place this year. So we managed to visit on Saturday for a full day of gaming and then we tried our luck at their big headline games 2.8 hours later.

I think for me the issue with every event I have been to within the games festival arena is booking. Due to the very nature of the games which quite often slip time wise it becomes hard to make sure you are able to play a game and not miss your next. This year they had an interesting way of booking up games. You could only book two games at a time, and only 50% of tickets could be booked. The other 50% of the tickets would be allocated within 30 minutes of the game starting.

Compared to our previous experience at Hide & Seek 2010 this seemed to be a slight improvement, but I think there is something that could make it a bit better. The issue is that this in comparison to Hide & Seek is a paid for event and with that comes different expectations. There were a few things firstly why only two games at a time? also why the 50% rule? and if there is a 50% rule you have to enforce it. I was there bang on 30 minutes before one game we wanted to book and the spaces had all gone?? I doubt 6 people had popped up in front of me.

However this did lead to some great unexpected finds. We did manage to go and play a few games that we would not have done otherwise. You can see a list of games we played below. Safe to say for me my favourites for playing were Wiffle Hurling and then for watching it has to be Arcade Anarchy.


All in all we managed to play:
- ARCADE ANARCHY
Great game based on all the arcade classics.

- WIFFLE HURLING
A great fun game, full of humour and nice to get out play sport but one that you have no previous skill of.

- INTERNATIONAL ESPIONAGE
It got better as it went on. I think it has the possibility of being great with a few tweaks (the leader of the team has to be good).

Played for a bit
- MR SMITH
Seemed really fun wish we had time to play it all.

Experienced
- STIMULATOR
Very fun, will never think of honey in the same way.

Watched
- INTO THE WOODS
Would have liked to watch more of it.


Some people dressed up for 2.8 hours, maybe next year.

In the evening we played 2.8 hours as the night drew in and the darkness came. It has to be as I have said many times one of the best games out there. It has a scale and immersiveness that is truly breathtaking and I truly do feel that the both Simon's at Slingshot/igfest have created something EPIC. While it is a basic chase game with a bit of time trial bolted on. It instantly brings you into thinking about the game being real and you are totally set on keeping safe.

Unfortunately our team didn't do to well with four out of the six getting caught and infected. I was one of them as you can see by the picture below.

ARK in the PARK video

Mini Games Festival - Schedule

A provisional timeframe for the games and a bit of background info, I have copied it all below as well so it is easier to see, looking forward to seeing you on the day.


Human Bingo
Players scramble to snap pictures of each other in this fast-paced game of photo tag.
Times: 11:30am, 12:30pm, 2:30pm
Need to bring: Digital Camera, or mobile phone with camera facility
Designer: Krzysiek “Semp” Bielecki


BULL RUN
Chase a BULL through city streets or a large park, desperately trying to tie dozens of helium balloons to its horns.
Times: 11:30am, 1:30pm, 3:30pm
Need to bring: Yourself
Designers: Minkette, Alex Fleetwood, Holly Gramazio, Tassos Stevens

Holla Lulu
Call out stuff, find people who are calling out the same stuff, and run around a lot.
Times: 12:00pm, 1:30pm, 3:30pm
Need to bring: Yourself
Designers: Duncan Speakman and Simon Johnson

Search and Replace
Grab a set of lettered tiles and head out into the city, to twist the road-signs and headlines to your will.
Times: 11:00am ,12:30pm, 2:00pm, 3:30pm
Need to bring: Digital Camera, or mobile phone with camera facility
Designers: Kevan Davis

Congestion Zone
You are a vehicle stuck inside the congestion zone. You must navigate your way through the zone’s poorly conceived one-way system, being careful to observe the rules of the Highway Code.
Times: Drop in anytime
Need to bring: Yourself
Designer: Simon Katan

Cat and Mouse
Chase game of Cat and Mouse.
Times: 12:30pm, 2:30pm
Need to bring: Yourself
Designer: Brent Michael Drew Morgan www.dextart.co.uk

Funnies
A selection of games to warm those brain cells.
Times: 11:00am, 1:00pm, 3:00pm
Need to bring: Yourself
Designer: Alison John

Things to bring on the day - ARK in the PARK

We have had a few queries about what we should and shouldn't bring during the day:

In general we will supply all the things you need for the event but for some games (Human Bingo, Search and Replace) you need a digital camera or a mobile phone with a camera facility, to play the game.

As well as this in terms of clothing and other stuff:
It is best to wear something comfy and to wear shoes that you can run in easily. Obviously if it is looking like rain you might need to bring a mac and finally pack light, don't bring your whole wardrobe as it is unlikely we will have somewhere put it.

The possibilities for gaming

Just add points? What UX can (and cannot) learn from games

View more presentations from Sebastian Deterding.

Updated leaflet

Games announced for the 2nd October

After last weekends games testing we have been busy gathering feedback. We are happy to confirm the first few games that will take place on the 2nd October.

Game one - Human Bingo
"Collect your numbers from each other moving through the city, full house wins."
Type of game: chasing and running

Number of players: 20-50

Game Duration: 30mins

Game two - Stag Hunt
"You are a group of hunters searching for the illusive Cardiff Stag from mythical scripture, your mission is to tag the stag as many times as possible."
Type of game: sneaking and hunting

Number of players: 20-50

Game Duration: 30mins

Game three - Congestion Zone
Play as teams or as an individual, your chance to experience the road rage world of the motorist.

Type of game: logic

Number of players: 5
Game Duration: 5mins

Game four - Search and Replace
A mixture of Scrabble and storytelling. Work together to create incredible stories from the City of Cardiff.

Type of game: storytelling and treasure hunt

Number of players: 20-50
Game Duration: 20mins

Game five - Holla Lulu
Find your own kind through this city wide communication game. Using only your call sign you search the streets trying to find the rest of your kind. Once you have found them it is up to you to rush to the finishing line.

Type of game: running and shouting

Number of players: 15-40

Game Duration: approx 45mins

As well as these games there will also be a number of board games and other social games allowing for people to come and have a great time while waiting for their game to start. Registration for the games will be from 11am on the saturday but if you want to guarantee your place please email us at info[at]thinkark.co.uk

We hope you can come an join us on the day. HQ will be in Bute Park near the standing stones (Millenium Stadium entrance). We have also made many of these games weather proof so not excuses.

Hope to see you there.

ARK TEAM

ARK in the PARK testing

A selection of pictures from the weekend of testing. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

Mini Games Festival - UPDATE

In our rush to get the Mini Games Festival out to the masses we realised that the information is not as descriptive as is could be. Or perhaps the most informative. So we felt we should add a bit more meat to the bone.

The festival will be once again FREE of charge like all of our public projects. We will be hosting a number of games that will require running, sneaking, cunning and logic. The games will be city wide and are suitable to 18+, we hope if successful that we will do more in the future that will allow for a broader age range however due to current insurance and other issues we can't afford to step up their yet.

As well as the big games we are hoping to have a few big board games that will be located in the Park near our HQ. These will be for all of the people who fancy hanging around chatting and socialising while waiting for their game to start. We are hoping that there will be loads of people who come on the 2nd October, so there maybe more than one chance to play the same game. However we will only know that on the day.

Hope this has clarified the festival a bit more however if you still have and questions drop us an email or comment below. Thanks again and look forward to seeing you all then.

P.S. If you want to help out or have any games you would like to try out during the festival please let us know.

thinkARK - mini games festival announced

We have finally announced our 1st birthday party arrangements. This year once again we will be holding an event during the Cardiff Design Festival, this year we are going to be producing a mini games festival, from paper, scissor, stone through to city wide treasure hunts. email us for further information info[at]thinkark.co.uk

We also have a new twitter feed @arkinthepark and we will be updating the website with news. Also if you want to help out let us know. We will be doing some game testing on the 4th September if your interested also get in touch.

Finally thank you to Andrew Hong for the illustration we love it.

Spectrum Results night

Last week saw the end of Spectrum the game we had set up as a test for future games. This wednesday was results night, Carwyn from Hoffi won with a staggering 95 points. There were a number of things that would have probably been done a bit differently maybe length of time the game was and their comments about making it less complicated. I think the thing we noticed mostly was that you need to commit alot of time to make it happen for the players to get the best out of it. We will be looking at other games over the next few weeks ready of a mini festival in October so if you are interested in getting involved please let us know.

Conspiracy for Good - event

Last weekend was the final instalment of the pilot of Conspiracy for Good. Made by a team including NOKIA and Heroes creator Tim Kring. Conspiracy for Good was a four episode pervasive game set in the the city of London. The basic story being by joining together we could fight a huge corporation (Blackwell Briggs) which has been guilty of taking advantage of local people from far off countries through their drilling and mining activities.

The forth episode was one of infiltrating the corporation and getting to the mole to give them vital information to bring the corporation down. So what did we think? well firstly the scale of this game was huge and the depth of the story impressive to say the least. As a group who came into the game in the fourth episode we were behind from the beginning and found it hard to get into the game as we would like. After speaking to other people who had been to every episode and those who had maybe come to one or two previously it was reassuring to hear they felt the same. With many saying they had preferred the first two episodes. But this is what I love about games. They are not stationary and they are there to be developed and improved over time. there is a bit more information about the game here and you can see Tim Kring below talking about the game.

IGLAB - workshop

Another weekend another gaming experience. This time we managed to get to IGLAB's games workshop. We went to Bristol to take part in making some games. The workshop started at 10am and then went on until around 5ish. A long day but it flew by and I would recommend the workshop to anyone wanting to get into gaming or even those who have loads of experience to check the workshops out.

We started the day with a game of Sneaks and Blaggers. We used slightly different rules to the original game but it was a really engrossing game and one of those perfect balances of random and familiar.



After this first game we then went on to start designing our own games. There was only a small number of us. so we split up into two groups and both started to create a game. The first one was ours and was like a physical board game. It was pretty dull and not the best but I think there were some interesting ideas that could be developed in the future. We then tried the other groups game which was alot more physical. after lunch we discussed the games and also designed some new games.

Finally we had a pint to end the day. A great day and another massive leap in our learning about gaming.





Simon working through the theory of gaming. Very insightful and easy to understand. Got me thinking about alot of recent work we have been going through in ARK.

What is gaming design?

Following our weekly wednesday club meeting last night on the theme of pervasive gaming and how ARK could use games to influence human behaviour I thought I should do some research as its an area I know very little about. So to kick things off here is a few things I have found so far:

Design with Intent - a great little article here on learning from game design

Playful - Described as 'a day of cross disciplinary frolicking'

Please post any other links below of other projects or games you have heard about and if any gamers out there would like to get involved in the project please get in contact.

A Weekend of Play - Hide & Seek

I have always loved games ever since I was little and I think to some degree we all do. There is something that draws us to 'play' that is mysteriously undefinable - the thrill and excitement of being part of something that has it's own set of rules and boundaries, a shared knowledge and experience that draws players together coupled with the joyful element of risk. You can win all or lose all in a multitude of board games or graze knees and hands on tarmac playgrounds and yet despite the risks we all continue to play on.

And play on we did at Hide & Seek's Weekender held at the National Theatre on London's South Bank. Since 2007 Hide & Seek have been enticing people of all ages (but mainly adults) with their annual weekender event of social games and playful experiences where you can expect 'paranoia, glee, new connections and fun'. Armed with our programme of events for Saturday we headed for the booking desk and put our names down for a mixture of games (which we'd eagerly chosen the night before over a magnum ice cream) Unfortunately we could only book two main games for the day to allow fair capacity throughout the day but there were many other 'drop in' games you could take part in or be a wiley spectator.

Here are two of my highlights from the day:

International Playtime; 45 minutes of fun run around games......it was at this point I realised that I was wearing the most inappropriate footwear for the day but to my delight I was not the only one! This game slot was quite an interesting one for me as most of the games were ones I have played or facilitated within a theatrical context so I was completely in my comfort zone but what made it fun and interesting for me was watching other people's reactions and interactions with the game and the other participants. Within 45mins a group of complete strangers are immediately connected in a way that would only ever happen through play and not real life.

Time Trails - The second game we played was one of my favourites of the day. The game required participants to download an app on the iphone called Place Whispers which plotted various whispers around the South Bank. Basically a hi-tec treasure hunt with a wonderful twist. In addition we had a paper map that plotted the original route of the Festival of Britain. I absolutely loved this game - I've been to the South Bank quite a few times and have always stuck to the main path and never really ventured beyond but this game took us to some beautiful hidden places which felt like we had suddenly stepped back in time.

At the beginning of the day I really didn't know what to expect, in some ways I was expecting something new but realised fundamentally all games are seeded from a handful of what I would describe as traditional games that are made different by space, time, rules and ultimately the participants. I think games and play are so important and have an eternally vital role, they are uniquely social, they bring people together often making new and surprising connections. I really enjoyed the Hide & Seek experience and I think the ethos of the weekend is shared by Ark Lab. So let's see if we can play!

And at the end of a very long, hot but fun day there was still a little time to shop......... ;-)

Hide & Seek - weekender 2010

This weekend was hot and rushed, but I had a fascinating day at Hide & Seek's weekender. I believe this is the fourth year in a row that they have held the event and although the output is different, the idea of bringing a diverse group of people together to create something is very in keeping with ThinkARK and ARK LAB. In many ways ThinkARK is The Sandpit and ARK LAB is Hide & Seek. As we work more and more through projects I think for me that the way ARK LAB is structured is very similar to a Theatre type set up. With the theatre putting on productions that are helped through involving a wide range of people that work to put on an event.

Beyond these similarities we visited the event to look at what is going on in the world of gaming in the UK at the moment. There was a lot of different games available on saturday, so we were excited to get onto as many as possible. I guess that was the only disappointment of the day that we were informed we could only book two games during the day. Yet others seem to be able to book more?

Beyond this however there were a number of smaller games that you could drop into at any time so we still had loads to do. So starting off with 'International playtime' by The Fun Fed, which was a collection of various type clown and acting games. They were fun and I managed to get quite sweaty running around in the mid day sun (what's that quote about sun and englishmen???). Next I wanted a more 'designed' game if you like so we got our map for the 'Time*Trials' By Michael Dales and Sophie Sampson. We were encouraged to download an App called placewhisper for our iPhone and go on a fact finding mission around London. The more you explore the more places you find and the more points you get.

Suffering in the heat try to chase virtual information in the Time*Trials game.

I thought this was a really interesting way of looking at a city and places I would not have gone to before were revealed. We were happy to learn we even earned a sticker due to us scoring a staggering 180 points. Next off the bat was The Zemblan Ambassador Will Make a Brief Statement By Ben Henley which was a bit like a mixture of Mock the Week and call my bluff. Very enjoyable 3o minutes.

So to sum up, great day, very hot, think we could definitely use gaming techniques within ARK to bring new audiences and break down barriers through play.