Live Events

On April 4th and 5th join us for a weekend of live playful events from virtual field trips, improv comedy game design classes to in conversations brought to you live from Animal Crossing. Participation in live events is ticketed, but if you miss out then we’ll be steaming these here for you to watch at home.

Fri 3rd April - 2:00pm

Festival Launch!

by Now Play This

Welcome address and launch of the Play at Home official selection.

Watch the opening address

Sat 4th April - 11:00am

Live from Animal Crossing

by House House in conversation with The White Pube

The first live event of Now Play This at Home followed art critic baby gods The White Pube as they boarded a Dodo Airlines flight to Animal Crossing for a chat with the creators of Untitled Goose Game, House House.

Watch the full stream

Sat 4th April - 2:00pm

Make, Re-make, Exchange Workshop

by Leap Then Look

Artists Bill Leslie and Lucy Cran (Leap Then Look) led groups through creating sculpture, performance and film in an art-making game with other families in lockdown over the internet. Families worked together to make art in their homes, exploring objects and materials, exchanging ideas, re-making artworks, creating simple choreographies, playing together to create new experiences of art during isolation.

See highlights here

Sat 4th April - 5:00pm

Half Life Virtual Field Trip

by Robert Yang

Game designer and artist Robert Yang led a group on a live virtual field trip through the Black Mesa facility from Half Life 1 with the help of multiplayer mod ‘Sven Co-op’, and discussed the creation of the seminal first-person puzzler and its digital architecture.

Watch the full stream

Sun 5th April - 11:00am

Video Chat Games Adapted From Improv Comedy

by Melissa McGlensey and Doug Wilson

In this online workshop, comedian Melissa McGlensey and game maker Douglas Wilson taught a variety of simple social games for play on video chat. The games were specially adapted from commonly loved games and warmup exercises from improv comedy. Throughout the workshop, Melissa and Doug synthesised broader takeaways on playful performance, game design, and adapting games to new contexts.

See highlights here

Sun 5th April - 2:00pm

Twitch plays “Pawns”

by Alistair Aitcheson

A game of Chess played on a 44-by-44 grid, with 87 pawns and 1 king on each side. Beyond that the rules are the same as standard Chess. The audience typed their moves into Twitch chat and the chessmaster put them into action. From tradition movesets to world-building narrative construction, this was a game of chess not to be missed.

Watch the full stream

Sun 5th April - 6:00pm

Play DUSTNET with the Devs

by Neilson Koerner-Safrata

DUSTNET is a multiplayer video game installation that explores the death and afterlife of the virtual spaces we play in. The audience navigates a deconstructed version of the Counter-Strike (2000) map de_dust2 through computer, virtual reality, and augmented reality platforms. Guest director, Marie Foulston, discussed the creation of DUSTNET with Neilson and Milan Koerner-Safrata, and the significance of archiving digital spaces.

Watch the full stream

Sun 5th April - 8:00pm

Photography Tour of No Man’s Sky

by Gareth Damian Martin

A group of budding digital photographers joined game designer and artist Gareth Damian Martin in No Man’s Sky to capture this procedurally generated universe through a different lens in a live photography tour.
Watch the full stream here

Play at Home Official Selection

On Friday April 3rd we’ll be launching the Now Play This ‘Play at Home’ official selection, a collection of recommended games, films and works that were due to feature as part of our 2020 IRL (in real life) festival, but are now offered here for you to enjoy in your own time. Each work reflects this year’s festival theme of ‘breaking point’ which celebrates playful creators who break, subvert or remix the rules of the games they make and play.