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want to see the festival? let's walk round & I can tweet pictures. welcome *dramatic Jurassic Park impression* to NOW PLAY THIS.Permalink Look on archive.org
♻️ 26 Retweets ❤️ 78 Favorites Mood +3 🙂
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okay, so first off is the ticket desk which is basically a ticket desk & not that interesting. except! look at these nice official vinyls & a nice hand-drawn sign with our nice identityPermalink Look on archive.org
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(also, most of these photos will be from my phone camera which is not that great & I don't have the energy to post-process them. sorry. also, god twitter makes this hard- having to post from the mobile website in order to attach multiple pictures, this software is so bad. ANYWAY)Permalink Look on archive.org
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but also by the ticket area is Desert Golfing! Visitors (and us) (and the person staffing the ticket desk next to it, sometimes) have now completed 2471 holes in 14783 strokes. The landscape has turned blue.Permalink Look on archive.org
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okay, 1473 holes in 14802 strokes...Permalink Look on archive.org
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first room! so, nicely framed through the door as you approach from the ticket desk, here is Zium Garden (this photo, as with all the others that look like they were taken by a professional, by @bencatchpole)Permalink Look on archive.org
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tag yourselfPermalink Look on archive.org
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we also have Flux, by @WeThrowSwitches, debuting at the show. it's a game that basically comes down to reaction times, and @hollygramazio consistently beats me at it.Permalink Look on archive.org
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and the final game in the room is Crip Casino (by @abipalmer_bot), a set of 3 fruit machines that have been nodded (physically modded, with labels & paper & tape) to produce absurdist physiotherapy instructions, medical diagnoses and wellness tips.Permalink Look on archive.org
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also it has been great fun being the person who walks round with huge bunch of keys on a shoelace, opening up the machines and sighing about the coin dispenser in the top hopper getting jammed againPermalink Look on archive.org
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(oh, and I should mention - the machine "999 My Arm Is Missing" is a new commission for the festival)Permalink Look on archive.org
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this room is an introduction to the different ways we've tackled this year's theme, which is community. so: Zium, showing a game dev community inspiring each other, Flux, a game that forms a micro-community while it's being played, and Crip Casino, about the disabled community.Permalink Look on archive.org
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the next room is all about that special feeling of community you get inside a sweaty karaoke room. it’s Malapropic Karaoke by @cmmnwrks!Permalink Look on archive.org
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okay! and across the way we have what we've been calling the cities room, where we go to each of three cities (Melbourne, Shenzen and Norwich) and look at a game from there and its context and inspirations.Permalink Look on archive.org
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for Melbourne we are looking (through a magnifying glass) at @gracebruxner's Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible WizardPermalink Look on archive.org
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(one of these photos was taken by me, can you deduce which one?)Look on archive.org
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we're also showing Short Trip, by Grace's tutor @alexanderperrin. you can play this now! it's at alexanderperrin.com.au/paper/shorttrip/Permalink Look on archive.org
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also if you want to play the first Frog Detective game, the admirably named "Grace Bruxner presents: The Haunted Island : a Frog Detective Game", you can! it is $5 and at this link: fisho.itch.io/Haunted-IslandPermalink Look on archive.org
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And from Shenzhen, we are showing Beat&Nest, made by Yu Tian at this years Global Game Jam. It was an exercise in using the new Unity3D ECS technology to allow tens of thousands of entities to be individually simulated.Permalink Look on archive.org
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Yu Tian works at a studio called Multiverse - we have a specially English localised version of their game League of Wannabes here.Permalink Look on archive.org
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And from Norwich we have a non-digital game, Katie Wickens' in-development tabletop storytelling game MythMash.Permalink Look on archive.org
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Katie originally developed the game as part of her masters at Norwich University of the Arts, and we're showing it in conjunction with Rhythm of the Gods, also originating there. (video in next tweet)Permalink Look on archive.org
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here it isPermalink Look on archive.org
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next room! this room is about games designed for very particular groups of people. your friends. your family. just yourself.Permalink Look on archive.org
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in the middle of the room, we have Brenda Romero's Black Box. this was made in response to an upsetting event in her life. it has been played once, by her, and this is merely the artefact resulting from that game.Permalink Look on archive.org
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(a difficult curatorial thing is that by this point, people definitely expect to interact with all the things they can. and this game has already been played, it's done)Permalink Look on archive.org
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and two card games, Crimes Against Animosity by Damien Bonafont (to help his family talk about politics) and the Back Alleys of Heritage Street by Dipyaman Kar (for and with residents of Chitpur, Kolkata)Permalink Look on archive.org
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here’s a small child graffitiing all over @thomasbowker’s Draw. (he also worked on Frog Detective). this was (until we showed it) a private online space for his friends to draw in and over each other.Permalink Look on archive.org
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“I made this game as a present for my friend who likes sharks” (Sharkburst, by Princess Games)Permalink Look on archive.org
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a collection of cards that have been modified or created by players, for their own groups of friends (I made one of these, shhh)Permalink Look on archive.org
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and a station where you can write up games that you’ve personally played with the wrong rulesPermalink Look on archive.org
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(“wrong”)Permalink Look on archive.org
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one weird trick for good exhibitions : put trees in themPermalink Look on archive.org
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through the trees is Endless Forest, by Tale of Tales. thank you to all the players who have danced with us through the show.Permalink Look on archive.org
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(it has been lovely to see small kids get really entranced by this game)Permalink Look on archive.org
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(you can play online and come meet our deer for the last four hours of the festival, if you like. free download here: tale-of-tales.com/TheEndlessForest/)Permalink Look on archive.org
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next room! this one is full of games that reflect some particular community out in the worldPermalink Look on archive.org
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we have boardgames (Lost and Found: Order in the Court, about Jewish law, Safe Journi, about travelling within Nigeria, and Dream Phone, about boys)Permalink Look on archive.org
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(side note before we move on: it was great to meet @nibcardgames when he was over last weekend)Permalink Look on archive.org
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we have @zoyander's series of Interactive Portraits : Trans People in Japan, rendering interviews within PICO-8 and on tiny handmade consoles within custom cushions. also you can play them online if you're not serious zoyander.cc/iportraits.htmlPermalink Look on archive.org
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we have a table of narrative games on ipads, including @WritNelson's Mazurka: A Ghost in Italy xalaviermakeswords.itch.io/mazurka-a-ghost-in-italyPermalink Look on archive.org
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the BAFTA-winning (and, more significantly, the game that entranced my dad so much he visited he played the whole thing, causing him to not really see the second half of the exhibition) Florence florencegame.com/Permalink Look on archive.org
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and a new commission by @morayati, Lies and Cigars. go back and try to uncover what happened at the party at the end of the world katherinestasaph.itch.io/liesandcigarsPermalink Look on archive.org
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and finally we have @Aquma and @mollysoda's Wrong Box, revisiting the ruins of AIM, MySpace and Neopets mollysoda.itch.io/wrong-boxPermalink Look on archive.org
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very pleased with the sticker, poster, and old tower PC situation we’ve got going on for thisPermalink Look on archive.org
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onwards! down what we have been forcing ourselves to stop calling “the toilet corridor”Permalink Look on archive.org
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where you are now greeted by a gigantic print (compiled by @ragzouken) of all the avatars from (almost) all the Bitsy games. can you find yours?Permalink Look on archive.org
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and now into the River Rooms. washing through this space is the sounds of children playing, both in real life and from the film we're showing, @Assemblestudio's The Voice of Children assemblestudio.co.uk/projects/the-voice-of-childrenPermalink Look on archive.org
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here's some pictures of it being shown in the space, so you can properly appreciate my projector keystoning skillsPermalink Look on archive.org
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(I used a spirit level and a ruler, applied to a square drawn in Paint, to get it perfect before we painted the wall for Endless Forest)Permalink Look on archive.org
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another new commission! @deer_ful made us a game about constructing emoji ("it didn't really occur to me that people wouldn't just put in three eyes every time")Permalink Look on archive.org
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@alt254's Octopad, which is a NES controller dissolved into 8 controllers each with only a single button. single player games are suddenly exercises in cooperation. we've been running Tetris on it.Permalink Look on archive.org
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Daniel Shapley's Drink Like A Pirate, a game of slamming down tankards in time to a sea shantyPermalink Look on archive.org
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and let's post lots of photos of @Sabrina_Shirazi's AFFIXPermalink Look on archive.org
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this is the best game about piloting a giant mech I have ever playedPermalink Look on archive.org
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(this is a room about the communities that can be formed as you play a particular game. working together or apart, or just stuck together into a giant mass through foam shapes and velcro)Permalink Look on archive.org
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and at the end of the main exhibition, we have three different bits about creating yourself, as a visitor to the festival. it's nice to make things,y'know? it's nice to experience that community of play, of making, for yourself.Permalink Look on archive.org
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So: Glyphsprache, a joint commission with @AMazeFest (a good idea, and also our own small way of building a bridge across a border) by @HarryGiles and @Bleeptrack.Permalink Look on archive.org
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draw glyphs to add them to a shared lexicon (on the left hand side), then build poems of those glyphs (on the right hand side)Permalink Look on archive.org
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and sok-stories, which I have posted about before. also a new commission! here's some cute photos of it:Permalink Look on archive.org
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you can make a simple game with sketchy drawings, and rules about combining different objects, and then post them and then they can be played by visitors to the rest of the festival!Permalink Look on archive.org
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(I am actually tweeting this from Endless Forest, where we have just been turned into a bird!! what!)Permalink Look on archive.org
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okay, anyway, here is the game about making a cup of tea I made in sok-stories mainly before the festival started @v21/1117159593128419329?s=19Permalink Look on archive.org
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and here's my thread about the inflation micro-genre that has developed within sok-stories @v21/1116295197409841152?s=19Permalink Look on archive.org
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and finally (kinda finally, this is the end of the main exhibition) we have the zine area. both reading...Permalink Look on archive.org
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...and making...Permalink Look on archive.org
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which has culminated in the official Now Play This zine, put together (as was the rest of the zine area), by @netgal_emi (pictured. also a process shot shown on her phone)Permalink Look on archive.org
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and we're done! okay, not quite: heading outside, we have @Robin_B's Giant Wobble Garden. it sounds like a stony mechanical beachPermalink Look on archive.org
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and then further along the River Terrace, another new commission for this year, @kristiminchin's Making Faces. hidden within the configuration of colourful shapes, there is a face. can you find it?Permalink Look on archive.org
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and up into Seamen’s Hall, where we have a few extra things available to the whole Somerset House communityPermalink Look on archive.org
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here’s Kypros Kyprianou’s No Change being demonstrated by @jericawebberPermalink Look on archive.org
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and here is cursors.io. it’s an online game of cooperation. it is hard to complete.Permalink Look on archive.org
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and now a short diversion to the board games lounge, which is so full today that it has spilled out to a nearby cafePermalink Look on archive.org
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here’s @hollygramazio’s tasting menu (produced, if you can’t tell, in the zine area on site)Permalink Look on archive.org
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amongst which I’m especially going to call out the specially curated selection of three games: Probationary: The Game of Life on Licence (by Hwa Young Jung)Permalink Look on archive.org
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, Phrasell (by and here demoed by @stuffByBez)Permalink Look on archive.org
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and Propaganda (by Sindi Breshani)Permalink Look on archive.org
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and then heading out into the courtyard... last but definitely not least, it's our final commission, Transit Meditation by @helveticaPermalink Look on archive.org
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this is a unicursal, "church" labyrinth. one path, passing in and going out. nothing to do but carry your flag. it *is* a meditation.Permalink Look on archive.org
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okay! and that's the festival! oh, and also all the workshops, the conference, all the other things and people and events that have floated around it. if you want more detail on any of these games, may I direct you to our shiny website: nowplaythis.net/2019-festival/Permalink Look on archive.org
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oh god, I knew I was forgetting something. one more commission! this one taking place across the site. it’s Kevan Davis and @vivschwarz’s trail, Escape from Somerset House.Permalink Look on archive.org
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it’s structured like a Metroidvania, with rules placed on your movement and treasures to collect as you move through the building and complete puzzles embedded within the fabric of the site. don’t look at this picture too closely if you don’t want spoilers.Permalink Look on archive.org
