Yesterday, Rob and Sayraphim ran a Games and Theatre workshop at Freeplay 2012. In it, we looked at where games and theatre collide. We looked at pervasive and social games, some of our main interests, and playful engagements. We took along one of our favourite playful engagements to do while we chatted, The Cabinet of Dr Madazpants. Some really interesting experiences were shared and some awesome little guys made during our hour and a half.

After we finished the workshop (and an extra coffee), we also hung out in Experimedia, demonstrating Hide and Seek‘s Boardgame Remix Kit, mashing together different board games into brand new games. We were so inspired we tried a couple of our own with Dan Donahoo, amongst many other things the man behind the lovely Lego Poetry. So we present to you the first working pictures of Lost: Reward a new game using the Monopoly board and the human figures from Cluedo. This, I’m afraid, is a shot of the moment we lost, the dog catcher and the puppy just landed in the pound.

 

We also created I’m Sure You’re Wondering Why I Called You All Here Tonight, a silent mash up of Cludeo and Scrabble in which you’re being blackmailed and need to communicate to your partner what’s going on using clues via the scrabble letters.

 

It’s a really interesting exercise, grab a board game or two that you’ve really familier with and try to see it anew. What are the individual pieces? What are their properties and narratives? What other games and stories could you make with the parts laid out in front of you? Try it next time there’s nothing on television, we can highly recommend it!