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Final playtest for Fresh Air 14

Written by Sayraphim
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playtestPeople! People! Come help us fine tune some of the new games we’ve designed for Fresh Air, 2014. It’s free, it’s fun and it’s the most important part of the game designing process.

We need you!

10-4, Saturday 22 of Feb, 2014

Come along at 10 and meet in the Atrium at Fed Square (usually we start at the big table in Beer Deluxe) and be the first to play(test) our newest, funnest games yet!

If you can make it all day or only for an hour or two, we’d love you to come help us make awesome situations! Email us to let us know you’re coming – rabbithole @ popupplayground.com.au

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Fresh Air, 2013 – some photos!

Written by Sayraphim

Phew! What a big weekend Fresh Air was! We ran 18 large games, a myriad of smaller games, we had 4 Constructive Play events and a number of playful companies came along to run their own games too. We played with hundreds of people and had a blast!

We saved cities from burning, cracked a safe and sold the loot, had pirate raids and uncivil wars, we made trailers for movies that are yet to be made and took tours of Federation Square, Pop Up Playground style. We made offerings to bovine gods, fed oscine families, made Barbies fly and swim, we made super heroes of ordinary people and illuminated lonely corners of Fed Square.

We’re still sorting through photos, but we thought we’d upload some now for your viewing pleasure! These weren’t all the games on offer, just a couple of photos of gameplay and fun.

We’d like to thank and double thank all the people who helped us run the festival – the game runners, volunteers, game designers and other playful peeps who turned up to help as well as the national and international companies how let us run their games and of course, all the awesome people who turned up to play!

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Fresh Air Festival (Concrete Playground article)

Written by Sayraphim

Fresh Air Festival
When: Friday, 8 February – Sunday, 10 February
Where: Federation Square, Cnr Flinders and Swanston Streets, Melbourne VIC 3000
How much: FREE

Whether it’s being part of a crowd rooting for a football team, an audience laughing in unison at a comedian’s jokes, or maybe flashmobbing a train station, there’s something special about communal experience. Pop Up Playground’s Fresh Air Festival is all about bringing strangers together through fun, games, and complicity.

A series of activities will take place around Federation Square this weekend, all based around the theme of interaction and improvisation. Some are as simple as a tent where an artwork that has been left for a lucky stranger — on the condition that they make something for the next person to come along and discover. Then there are enormous, communal games that might have you carrying out secret missions, putting out fires, or even escaping a curse.

Fresh Air Fest is an anarchic, hilarious, and inclusive festival of pervasive games — you’re guaranteed to leave with a new friend.

Original article here: http://melbourne.concreteplayground.com.au/event/102239/fresh-air-festival.htm

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Drawing Room: Generational games (Radio National interview)

Written by Sayraphim

The podcast for our Artistic Director Robert Reid’s interview on Radio National is now online for your listening pleasure. It also features comedian Dave O’Neil talking about the playful (and slighty unsafe) things he used to do in the name of ‘play’ as a child… http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/drawing-room3a-generational-games/4504606

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Fresh Air Schedule

Written by Sayraphim

Fresh Air offers you a range of awesome things to do.

  • There are big games going on all around Fed Square usually starting a new one every hour.
  • There are little games going on the stage of The Edge and you can go down and play them when ever you like.
  • In the foyer of the Edge we have set up a bunch of Constructive Play activities and you can use them to make whatever you like.
  • If you’ve got kids with you we’ve got kids games running down on River Terrace all afternoon.
  • There’s also a couple of ambient games which start at HQ but might take you all over Fed square, that you can do on your own or in groups and go at your own pace.

Schedule:Read More

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Playtest 3 for Fresh Air

Written by Sayraphim

We spent the weekend playtesting the last of the games for Fresh Air, we played so many we thought it was best to split the post into two. So Saturday we took loads of boxes and interesting props to Federation Square to try some games out.

First up was Holy Cow, Sacred Udder by Team Hat (UK) where teams of farm animals attempt to fill their udders with the most sacred liquid to avoid the slaughterhouse.

Next we played Gobstopper Job by Zombie LARP (UK), a great cops and robbers game for two teams of conniving thieves.

Then we trialled out Guardians of Hidden Universes by Universe Creation 101 (AUS) which is a single player experience which encourages you to look at the world in a different way, via a web-based phone app.

Last up before lunch we tested out Feed Your Family, one of our brand new games. Each team of three players need to work together using a giant bird puppet to pick up as many worms as possible and run them back to the nest. Confrontations are fought out with loud squarking and posturing.

During lunch we came up with another game to play through the Book Market that Federation Square hosts every weekend. It’s so new it doesn’t have a name yet, but it proved that quickly developed games can work just as well as those with months of work and prop development.

After lunch we played Movie of You, another of our brand spankin’ new games. Teams are let loose on Fed Square and have to make a 30 second trailer for an upcoming movie via their smart phones. One team even found a knight of old to star in their movie.

Last up we played Blind Trust, a game by a new Melbourne games company Killkenny games. Blindfolded teams have to make their way around the play space lead only by the sound of a leader’s voice. But does the person shouting you instructions have your best interests at heart?

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New Games – Play in the UK documentary launch Jan 29, 7pm

Written by Sayraphim

Last year, Robert and Sayraphim went over to the UK to make a documentary investigating companies over there who make games and playful situations.

We’re launching this documentary, New Games – Play in the UK, on the Big Screen at Federation Square, on the 29th of January at 7pm. It runs approx. 40 mins.

New Games features interviews with Holly Gramazio from Hide and Seek, Gwyn Morfey from Fire Hazard, Vee Uye and Andrew Crofts from Larkin’ About, Kars Alfrink and Tim Bosje from Hubbub, Grant Howett from Zombie LARP, James Wheale from Slingshot, Rosie Fairchild from Splash and Ripple, Tom Bowtell and Annette Mees from Coney, Matt Johnson from Haberdashery Collective, Matthew Robbins and Viviane Schwarz.

It’s a free event, so come down to Fed Square and grab a front row deck chair for the screening!

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