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Small Time Criminals crowdfunding campaign is LIVE!

stc_pozibleThe rumours are true
Pop Up Playground are taking over a two story building to turn it into a brand new real work simulation game
It’s called Small Time Criminals – the master thief experience
but we need your help
We’ve launched a Pozible crowdfunding campaign HERE: http://pozi.be/smalltimecriminals to raise funds to buy materials and technology to to build the props, dress the set, install the trip wires and alarms to make Small Time Criminals the most challenging, detailed and in depth immersive experience possible.
Small Time Criminals is a completely simulated live environment for you to explore in which you break into safes, hack computers and avoid the guard to steal as much as you can before the alarm comes back on line.
We’ve secured the lease on the building with the help of Darebin Active Spaces program and we’ve assembled the finest team of writers, set, prop, costume, game and puzzle designers we’ve ever worked with for a single project.
So now its up to you.
The more support you can offer, the more rewarding the experience will be.
And speaking of rewarding, if you support us on Pozible, you get to choose from a range of terrific rewards.  Everything from early bird tickets to an hour long alternate reality experience for you and your friends.
More details and all the good stuff here: http://pozi.be/smalltimecriminals

Being Claire Hooper

Being-Claire-Hooper-webClaire Hooper can’t be at the comedy festival this year, but she’d still like to be worshipped.

She wants you to look for her face in every shop window, on every street corner, in your reflection in the mirror.

In exchange she’s offering spiritual enlightenment. But only if you make it to the end.

An hour long, city wide, Claire Hooper themed game.
Venue: Statue of Burke and Wills, City Square
Dates: 26 & 27 March, 2, 3, 9, 10, 16 & 17 April
Time: 6.00pm
Tickets: $23.00 full, $19.00 concession or group of 4 or more.
Bookings: eventbrite.com.au/e/being-claire-hooper-tickets-20795087667

The Cloud

Cloud-Poster-5The Cloud is a brand new digitally supported alternate reality game by Pop Up Playground and Tech Assault for VicHealth.

Set in “a minutes from now” future The Cloud is a mystery to solve, hidden all across the city. A community of people who play a game to stay fit and ready for anything. And a conversation about what it means to be human.
Explore the city.
Find the clues.
Decide what happens next.

What is The Cloud
The Cloud is a game that uses the internet, social media, digitally supported street game, online story telling and ubiquitous technology (smart phones, SMS, etc…) to set the players to solving an unfolding mystery.

The story told by the Cloud is a collaborative effort between the players and the writers. Like a role playing game, the writers offer a fictional/simulated situation for the players to react/respond to.

All official direct interactions with the game proceed as if there is no game.

The website, social media presence, on street game runners and in game communications will be themed within the narrative environment of The Cloud.

Part of the fun, is pretending its real.

The story of The Cloud is set within a community of people playing a game on the streets of the city, called The Run. The Run is a digitally supported game of territory acquisition, mental, physical and social challenges played in the CBD.

In teams of three to five, players search for clues, solve puzzles, discover and complete challenges and compete to capture as much territory in the city over a two hour period as possible.

Players are also offered training missions, available at any time via an online portal. These training missions are automatically conducted via Conducttr and purpose built software designed by Tech Assault.

Successful completion of the missions contributes to the collective story telling exercise and adds to players skill sets (metaphorically and literally).

The Missions, The Run and the social story telling game aspects of The Cloud are all designed specifically to encourage increased physical activity, to increase awareness of the personal habits and environments that impact on physical and mental health and encourage mindfulness as a coping strategy, to build self confidence in unfamiliar environments and self reliance in changing situations.

The Cloud, both in the game fiction and in the real world, is designed to make its players faster, stronger and smarter.

How the game works

We’ve set up a Tutorial Mission which lasts approx an hour (depending on how you play).

The Season Pass gets you access to all the other missions. Once you have a Season Pass, throughout the week you’ll get access to all the other missions via the website as they’re released each day. These missions also take as long as the player takes to complete them. The game lasts all week.

If you buy the Tutorial Mission and then want to keep playing, you can purchase a reduced price Season Pass for you can play the rest of the week’s missions too.

The final day, Sunday the 13th March, will include  the last clues and The Run. The Run takes around two hours and is played across the streets of the Melbourne CBD.

Introductory game $5
Season pass $30

Tickets on sale now: http://www.trybooking.com/KFLI

 

The Cloud trailer by Victor Valdes

Citydash in Brunswick!

City-DashCitydash, by Fire Hazard Games and presented in Melbourne by Pop Up Playground, is an hour-long team game in which players try to locate hidden checkpoints while avoiding guards. Each code you enter from a checkpoint scores points – but get spotted by a guard and you’ll lose some! At the end of the hour, will you walk away with the top score?

Each team needs at least one smartphone, which you use to log into the Citydash web site; it’ll provide you with clues to checkpoint locations and opportunities to score bonus points. Being fast is useful, but caution, stealth and cleverness are just as important – you’ll need teamwork and strong leadership to win!

Bookings through Fire Hazard’s website here: citydash.net/games/tickets

Date: 30th Jan
Times: 4:30 and 6:30pm
Location: Wilson Avenue Public Space, corner of Wilson Ave and Sydney Rd, Brunswick Victoria. Near Jewel station!

Your Turn 6 at the Bella Union

YT_squareOn the third Thursday of each month, Pop Up Playground invites some of the brightest minds in Melbourne to compete in a battle of wits, smarts and silliness – and you’re playing as well!

Test your general knowledge, lateral thinking, communication skills, even your balance and co-ordination against the biggest brains we can find in challenges inspired by board games, classic party games and the imaginations of Pop Up Playground’s game designers.

For our December show, to finish off the year, our guests are:

  • Improvisor, actor and comedian, Amanda Buckley (Yourovision, Hungry Beast, The Gruen Transfer)
  • Writer and public speaker Kate Iselin (The Guardian, Daily Life, Thirty Dates of Tinder)
  • Writer and broadcaster John Richards (Night Terrace, BoxcuttersOutland)
  • Actor (and previous contestant) Kasia Kaczmarek (Wentworth Prison, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, The Doctor Blake Mysteries)

Hosted by our own Games Master, Ben McKenzie, with pedant James Tresise!

Finally – and this month, we do mean finally – it’s Your Turn!

DOORS OPEN 6:30pm

Tix from bellaunion.com.au or at the door.

Venue: Bella Union, Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St, Carlton.

For a taste of the Your Turn action, check out this highlights reel from our fourth show back in October:

Your Turn 5 at the Bella Union

YT_squareOn the third Thursday of each month, Pop Up Playground invites some of the brightest minds in Melbourne to compete in a battle of wits, smarts and silliness – and you’re playing as well!

Test your general knowledge, lateral thinking, communication skills, balance and coordination against the biggest brains we can find in challenges inspired by board games, classic party games and the imaginations of Pop Up Playground’s game designers.

This month, our guests are:

  • Theatre critic, arts writer and raconteur, Richard Watts (RRR’s SmartsArts, ArtsHub)
  • Comedian and ventriloquist, Sarah Jones (Jonestown, Melbourne Magic Festival)
  • Broadcaster, writer, media maker and festival director, Marcus Westbury (Bespoke, ABCTV)

Hosted by Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl, Night Terrace) with pedant James Tresise.

Finally, it’s Your Turn!

DOORS OPEN 6:30pm

Tix from bellaunion.com.au or at the door.

Venue: Bella Union, Trades Hall, 54 Victoria St, Carlton.

Check out highlights from our third show on YouTube, below!

Halloween Citydash

City-Dash-Haloween_big

We’re resurrecting Citydash for one spooky night in and around East Melbourne!

The game rewards caution and stealth as well as speed and cleverness, and requires teamwork and strong leadership to win.

Each team plays with a smartphone logged into the Citydash web app, which provides them with clues about the location of checkpoints hidden around the play area. Your task is to find them while avoiding the guards who are out looking for you – if they spot you, it’ll cost you points!

Clues will be Halloween themed, there will be extra points awarded for costumes (20 points per costumed player, 100 points for a costumed team) and we have convinced several of the scary clowns from The Curse to stalk the streets hunting Citydash players.

It might be at night, but don’t worry, we got you covered – we’re provide torches. Because there’s nothing that drives the terrifying dark away like a $2 LED torch…

And of course, there will be prizes of Halloween candy for the winning teams. So go on, sign up. You know you wanna!

 

Where: Powlett Reserve, Corner of Albert and Powlett Streets
When: 6:30pm. We’ll be finished (and debriefing in a pub!) by 8pm.
Dress: Encouraged (but not mandatory) – remember we’ll give bonus points for halloween costumes!
Who: You! Teams are 2-5 players, but several teams can stick together if you like.
How much: $25, in advance only
Tickets: http://citydash.net/mh

Trailer for our Melbourne Fringe season of Citydash:

Your Turn 4 at the Bella Union

YT_square

On the third THURSDAY of each month, Pop Up Playground invites some of the brightest minds in Melbourne to compete in a battle of wits, smarts and silliness – and you’re playing as well!

Test your general knowledge, lateral thinking, communication skills, balance and coordination against the biggest brains we can find in challenges inspired by board games, classic party games and the imaginations of Pop Up Playground’s game designers.

Guests for October 15 include:

* Astrophysicist and science communicator, KATIE MACK!
* Sparkle-puppy comedian, Lisa-Skye​

Hosted by Benjamin McKenzie with Pedant James Tresise

Finally, it’s Your Turn!

DOORS OPEN 6:30pm

Tix $15 at the door or from https://www.bellaunion.com.au/ticketing/4428

 

Episode two is up!

Citydash at Melbourne Fringe

city dash 2
Citydash

Run for it!

Citydash, by Fire Hazard Games and presented in Melbourne by Pop Up Playground, is an hour-long team game in which players try to locate hidden codes while hiding from guards. Finding the codes scores points, but being spotted by a guard stops your team from being able to use some of the codes. The game rewards caution and stealth as well as speed and cleverness, and requires teamwork and strong leadership to win.

Each team plays with a smartphone logged into the Citydash web site, which provides them with clues about the location of the codes. The codes are printed on small stickers which are hidden in difficult to find places: under benches, on the backs of signs etc.

When the time is up, players are gathered back at the starting point and the winning teams are announced, with smaller prizes for teams with particular achievements like being caught most often, finding the most difficult codes and the like.

Saturday 19th SeptNorth Melbourne Town Hall 4:30pm and 7pm

Saturday 26th SeptBirrarung Marr, next to Federation Square in the CBD 4:30pm and 7pm

Saturday 3rd OctoberLibrary at The Dock, Docklands 4:30pm and 7pm

Tickets: $25

Bookings: Melbourne Fringe Website

Your Turn 3 at the Bella Union

PUP6 On the third Wednesday of each month, Pop Up Playground invites some of the brightest minds in Melbourne to compete in a battle of wits, smarts and silliness – and you’re playing as well!

Test your general knowledge, lateral thinking, communication skills, balance and coordination against the biggest brains we can find in challenges inspired by board games, classic party games and the imaginations of Pop Up Playground‘s game designers.

Here’s the line-up for August!

* Theatre critic and arts writer, Anne-Marie Peard
* Uniting Church Minister and creator of the Church of the Latter Day Geek, the Rev Dr Avril Hannah-Jones
* Comedian, musician and one-third of Tripod, Scott Edgar
* And a final guest to be released soon…

Hosted by Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl, Night Terrace) with pedant James Tresise.

Finally, it’s Your Turn!

DOORS OPEN @ 6.30PM

Tickets are $15 on the door or at: https://www.bellaunion.com.au/ticketing/show_929/

Check out last month’s Your Turn, which resulted in the audience (Mighty Zest 2.0) winning over our two guest teams -Damian Callinan and Andrew Hiskens (Team Cold Front) and Marcus Westbury and Claire Sullivan (Team Raincoat Killers)