Archive for August, 2010
Transmedia Training Days
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Hide&Seek have formed a new partnership with The Script Factory, Europe’s premier script development organisation, to launch two brand new workshops this Autumn.
If you read about the amazing Wonderlab and thought it sounded interesting, or if you’re beginning to work in transmedia and want to kick-start your career, then these events are for you. The day-long workshops are devised and run by our very own Alex Fleetwood and Margaret Robertson, and they’re going to be brilliant.
On Wednesday 27 October, there’s an Introduction to Transmedia: a day for directors, producers and other film industry pros looking to understand the increasing opportunities for screen storytelling in a networked world.
And then on Thursday 28 October, it’s time for Stories Without Borders, a practical workshop for writers focusing on how stories can be successfully seeded across different media. The workshop will give writers tools to tackle these arenas and a chance to test them out in an exploratory and supportive environment. If you’re experienced at writing, but new to writing across platforms, this is the workshop for you.
The workshops cost £120 + VAT, or £210 for both. Places can be booked via The Script Factory.
Photograph by ktylerconk: Quill and ink.
Some games you should definitely go to
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
We here at Hide&Seek remember the distant days of yore (“yore” means “around 2007 or so”, right?), when big pervasive game events were so rare that each one was accompanied by comets that flared through the sky. In these newfangled times, however, the fun pretty much never stops. The next few weeks see groups in Birmingham, Bristol and Pittsburgh all running a pile of different games…
BARG, in Birmingham, recently ran Taste the Game, a clearly amazing afternoon of games at the Midlands Arts Centre. They’re back there this Sunday 29 August for Enter the Arena. It’s free, and there’ll be secret aliens, cardboard swords, and pretty much all the fun you could possibly want on a Sunday afternoon.
Also coming up this weekend, the Steel City Games Fest is running in Pittsburgh. It’s from Obscure Games, who won Best New Sport this year at Come Out & Play with their pinball-themed football-baseball hybrid Silverball, and the festival has a really interesting focus on new sports.
And then, on the 17th and 18th of September, it’s Igfest time in Bristol! There’s a folk game theme, and you can expect the full schedule soon, but in the mean time you can grab a ticket to 2.8 Hours Later, their zombie-themed through-the-city chase game. It’s £10, and is pretty much bound to be amazing.
Picture by Kevan Davis, of Igfest 2009.
The Generosity Game
Thursday, August 19th, 2010
I’ve been taking part in a two-day symposium on talent development in Edinburgh. Today I chaired a panel featuring David Jubb (BAC), Nick Sweeting (Improbable), Anthony Roberts (Colchester Arts Centre) and Andy Field (Forest Fringe). The Generosity Game was designed in response to a provocation from Tassos Stevens (I believe he triple dog dared me). I was thinking about ways in which we could get away from the panel format (in itself a cultural institution) to something which addressed the themes of the panel – organisational generosity, strategic altruism and the messy business of developing artists – in a playful, open & constructive way. I’d really like to play it some time, and maybe see it as something that could develop and grow.
THE GENEROSITY GAME
SETTING UP
This is a game for:
- 20 – 40 people who have a vested interest of some kind in good art being made, shown and enjoyed (artists, producers, directors, makers, funders, civil servants, interested parties, philanthropists)
- an artist or group of artists
- a critic
The people are divided loosely along categorical lines, depending on what it is that they most regularly do. These groups are combined into four teams of 5-10 so that there are representatives from each category in each group.
The artist then gives a short presentation to the group about themselves, their work, and their needs.
Each group has to combine the resources at their disposal to make the most generous offer to the artist that they can. They have ten minutes to do so.
RULES
- Resources must be actual resources that each indvidual could deploy in real life – an artist’s time & creative support, a venue’s audience, space or technical team, a philanthropist’s money.
- There must be one resource given by each member of a team, and only one.
- The resources will be deployed to the artist over a year which will play out month by month. All the resources can be given in January, or spread out however the group sees fit.
The group is encouraged to think collaboratively and ingeniously about what combination of resources might best serve the artist over the course of that year.
HOW THE GAME WORKS
The groups take it in turns to present their offer to the artist.
A group presents it’s offer month-by-month through a year of work. The artist is free to ask questions about the resources, and to imagine themselves using them as the year progresses. At the end of the year, the artist has to present a piece of work to the whole group (created along the lines of the Imaginary Theatre workshop run by Tassos Stevens and Andy Field) utilising the resources at their disposal.
The critic then reviews the piece. Stars may be awards if so wished.
The next group then takes its turn and process repeats until all four groups have offered up their generosity, four pieces of imaginary work have been made, and four reviews composed.
There aren’t any winners or losers, it’s not that kind of game.
New Hide&Seek Game: The Normans
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
Have you ever wanted to teach 7- to 11-year-olds about the Battle of Hastings? Or keep a group of children occupied for an hour? How about both at the same time? Well, now’s your chance…
Hide&Seek’s been working on a game for the BBC’s Normans season, as part of their Hands On History series of activity packs. It’s an active playground game for 7 to 11-year-olds, based on the Battle of Hastings. We’ve done an awful lot of running around, playtesting, rules-tweaking, beanbag-throwing, flag-making and rule-writing over the last couple of months, and the game’s now gone live on the BBC website.
If you’re a teacher or a playleader – or know someone who is – do have a look! The pdf gives curriculum suggestions, setup instructions, and all those useful things, and the game itself is really simple and straightforward to run. But even if you’re not a playleader or a teacher – well, in confidence, lots of running around daftly careful playtesting has determined that the game can be awfully good fun for adults as well.
Pocketgame voting live
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
If you made it to the 2010 Weekender, you might have seen the Pocketgame display – dozens of designs for easy-to-play games you can keep in your pocket, entered for the Cadbury pocketgame competition.
A couple of weeks ago, a collection of judges (including me) narrowed the entries down to ten – and these ten are now open for a public vote, here.
For the next stage, two of the ten games are going to be turned into proper physical prototype versions, sent out to thousands of players – and it’s up to YOU YES YOU (well, and any other voters) to choose which two those will be.
The games are up for voting here, and they’re well worth a look. There’s…
- The chalk racetrack fun of Flick Racer – it’s a bit hard to read, but there’s a bigger version here (disclaimer: this one’s from James Wallis, who shares an office with Hide&Seek, and whose chocolate digestives we ate while he was on holiday)
- The straightforward and brightly pretty Choc-a-Block
- The charming balancing game Stackits, where the box is part of the play
- A selection of cunning papercraft-lite penny-flicking sports
- And six more, so do poke around and pick a favourite!
