Play spot!

Visit the Play-Spot hosted by students from London College of Communication (LCC)’s MA Games Design program, where they are showcasing a series of innovative projects. They have been crafting unique experiences centred around the concept of folk games, specifically for this edition of Now Play This. Play a set of board games, digital games and an alternative controller, all reflecting the rich traditions and communal aspects of folk play.

The MA Games Design course at University of the Arts London: LCC  asks students to critically examine the concept of play in relation to their own practice. They produce playable gaming experiences and use games design as a means to test critical ideas from broader culture. Throughout the course students make a portfolio of games including experiential, critical and socially reflective games across both digital and non-digital mediums.

For the projects you will see at Now Play This students were asked to take their fundamental understanding of games and game design practice, and break one of those concepts to see how this impacted the types of games they made. For example, they could explore using novel pipelines or collaborative methods, developing digital assets using physical practices, ignoring tutorials and guidance for the player, experimenting with genre expectations or any other attribute of games they wished to challenge.

These games that have been collected onto the machines using a custom arcade controller and there are tabletop game experiences available to play too.

Students also had an opportunity to collaborate with students from Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Department of Electronic & Produced Music, to create music and sound for the games. Each game has its own bespoke interactive soundtrack created using a variety of electronic and acoustic instrumentation as well as exploring varied interactive music implementation techniques (ex: tempo/gameplay sync, vertical layers, loops & stingers).

Guildhall School of Music and Drama’s Sonaris Ensemble will give a special performance at Play Parlour on Friday night.

Join us to experience firsthand the creativity that emerging designers are bringing to the world of folk games.