Play Journal: August 19 – 25

This past week was all about Malmöfestivalen (the Malmö Festival), a city festival, where all events are free and basically every person in Malmö is out on the streets. My project organized three days focused on DIY aspects of gaming culture; Cosplay day, Box Wars day, and Videogame Day.

Malmöfestivalen:
Box Wars! [Check out this video to see more]
Moshpit Hero [Jonatan and Mads from Glitchnap came over, ran a live game jam and showed some other games. Moshpit Hero was strange and fun, but could use a bit more… feedback. Hard to know what the hell was going on. Great and ridiculous use of ragdoll physics, though! ]
Johann Sebastian Joust [Nighttime joust on a busy street complete with a player looking like he stepped out of Hotline Miami]
Laza Knitez [I beat two beginners by not moving the controller at all. It wasn’t my fault! Really! They kept running into me!]

The stuff from our Videogame Day was made into a video. Can’t embed it, so check it out here: http://vimeo.com/73377171

Invisible Playground Field Office at Metropolis in Copenhagen (These games will all be available at http://ludocity.org/ eventually)
Locked [reality game playing with the idea of the perfect neighborhood and drug use/pushing]
Butchers vs. Bitches [territory control and hand pushing in one and the same game. Also, opportunity for crossdressing, yea!]
Trying to Formulate One Clear Thought [Yes, that’s the title. I’ll run this game next time I have the opportunity. Great use of other non-players as game elements, while also being fairly non-invasive in terms of interaction with non-players]
The game of Jante [A site-specific game played in a parking garage. The parking spaces served as the primary play space and the sensors that indicate if parking spaces are occupied or not were integrated into the core mechanic. The game featured a traitor mechanic, but no one knew how many traitors there were. I thought I was the only one in my group, but it turned out there were two others as well. So… that’s why they behaved so weird. Go figure.]

Other stuff
Super Hexagon
Danish Clapping [Taught it to someone while waiting around for something at Malmöfestivalen]
Dots [New game mode is entertaining, not as stressful and makes it possible to maintain a game over a longer period of time.]
Little Inferno [Not really playing, just going through it to get to the end. I guess the joke is on me, right?]
Vesper.5 [Still getting there. Think I saw an alien a couple of days ago]

Twilight Imperium [Thoughts beforehand: OMFG this is a huge mistake. This is exactly the sort of boardgame I’m not into. Too much fluff, too long, too much all over the place. I’m going to be stuck in an 8-hour game, knowing within 30 mins that I’ll eventually lose and then have to deal with it like an adult. FML
Thoughts after the game: It’s OK, but it’s not worth it. The payoff is too small and it takes too long to get there. I don’t think the systems interact in a very interesting way and the fights are given a disproportionate amount of focus.]