Play Spot!

A collaboration between students from BA and MA courses featuring Computational Arts at Camberwell. The two groups have together created interactive projects that explore folk games through collective worldbuilding.

Folk games, with their adaptability and communal nature, have long been spaces for play, fictioning, and co-creation. In this spirit, students have developed games that extend beyond traditional formats, embracing speculative and participatory practices through interactive fiction, role-play, and emergent storytelling. Their works invite players to co-create imagined worlds, engaging in the performative act of worldmaking and echoing folk games as evolving social and cultural artifacts.

By foregrounding collective agency, these projects propose new forms of engagement, encouraging participants to question, transform, and learn from the spaces they inhabit.

The following four projects are available for you to play test at Now Play This:

Hector’s Story –  Samara Fullerton, Syntyche Mukendi, Maham Khurram  & Shamsia Goodsell

Hector’s Story is an interactive game and installation piece that explores the themes of emotional health and the importance of feeling. The main character is a 20th century, 16-year-old boy who faces many difficulties in his small town’s school resulting in him accidentley wishing his emotions away in an enchanted forest. These emotions have now manifested as creatures that hide in the forest. Will you help Hector find them?

 Rave Confusion – Haoru Li, Mina Yilmaz, Josephine Webb, Shannon Prior

A third-person, 2D pixel game navigating the chaos of a rave scene. The plot revolves around a lost character searching for someone (or something) while the rave becomes increasingly distorted and confusing. This durational game explores the promise of rave culture, and the challenges of intimacy and connection that get lost on the dance floor.

Content guidance: This VR experience is not suitable for children under the age of 16.

Congruent Haven – Valentina Hu, Matylda Biela, Zhannet Podobed, Lotto Chan

Congruent Haven is a 2.5D side-scrolling game exploring the tension between dystopian and ethereal ideals in the context of the Anthropocene. Gameplay revolves around the interplay between the character and their environment, shaping the avatar’s physical evolution through interaction. Themes of free will and freedom emerge within a framework of symbiosis, as players reconnect with the world to awaken their inner child.

Veil – Miro Alleyne-McCarthy, Timothy Clements, Kim Van de Stadt, Rickyah Blake

Veil is a strategic two-player card game centered around themes of power and free will. This immersive experience combines role-playing and world-building elements, making it ideal for players with a vivid imagination. Throughout a series of events, players will shape the fate of the world, navigating complex choices and consequences.