Play Parlour: Evening Meet-Up, Full Schedule

Join us for a relaxed evening to connect, catch up, and celebrate the wrap-up of Now Play This.
The event features a lineup of live music performances and micro-talks of ongoing creative projects.
You can also explore our Boardgames and Books Nook from Now Play This’ library, and play-test game prototypes at our partner University’s Play Spots. 

Come share stories, discover new ideas, and toast to the spirit of playful creation!

19:30 – 20:00 New Arrangements by Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Performed by Sonaris Ensemble

New arrangements by Guildhall School of Music and Drama, performed by Sonaris Ensemble:
  • Curney Lin – The Power – Baldur’s Gate 3
  • Ryan Hudson – BB’s Theme – Death Stranding
  • Sohee Baek – Suteki Da Ne – Final Fantasy 10
  • Lauren Eley – The Edge of Dawn – Fire Emblem Three Houses
  • Harry Hamilton – Last Surprise – Persona 5
  • Alex Oliveria Dos Anjos & Eva Donoghue- Good Riddance – Hades
  • Kristian Wills – The Mourning Tree – Everyone’s Gone To The Rapture
  • Americo Martin – Three Hearts As One – Elder Scrolls Online
  • Chaeeun Lee – The Dawn Will Come- Dragon Age: Inquisition
  • Xiaohan Zhou – City of Tears – Hollow Knight
  • Allen Hu – Snake Eater – Metal Gear Solid 3
Sonaris Ensemble are: Amelia Jones – Vocals; Mark Choi – Piano; Lucia La Rezza – Violin; Natalia Wierzbicka – Viola; and Sarah Davison – Cello. The Ensemble is a newly formed video game music quintet made up of professional musicians active in the video game space. Its members have recorded, performed or arranged for a spectrum of franchises and titles, such as Horizon, Alan Wake, Baldur’s Gate, Assassin’s Creed and Hollow Knight.
Most recently, Lucia and Mark performed at the Golden Joystick Awards 2024.
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20:15 – 21:00 Microtalks:

Gerard San Miguel Navarro (The Well’s Blessing)

Gerard San Miguel Navarro will present his ongoing project The Well’s Blessing which is currently being incubated at the Gameplay Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona). After a severe fire and a hurried restoration, the Old Well sanctuary finally reopens its doors. Home to the well whose water has long been linked to a series of superstitions about “starting anew,” the natural park’s reopening draws all kinds of anthropomorphic animals who wish to turn their lives around…or simply take a pleasant stroll through nature, far from their daily worries. The grand opening unexpectedly reunites three teenagers who, despite once being quite close, lost touch after finishing compulsory secondary school. As they get to know each other better and reflect on where their lives are headed, they begin to sense that the sanctuary may have a life of its own

 

Florence Smith Nicholls (Game’s Archeology)

Florence is a PhD researcher in video game archaeology and game AI at Queen Mary University of London. Prior to their doctoral studies, they worked in the archaeology sector for seven years, and they specialise in applying archaeological theory and method to games to preserve contemporary play experiences. They are also a game writer, having worked as a Story Tech at the indie game studio Die Gute Fabrik.

 

 

 

 

Moo Yu (Mythmatch)

Moo Yu will share the progress of Mythmatch, a narrative merge game about finding your people and building community beneath the oppressive demands of the Olympians. It juxtaposes cozy village building with high-intensity minigames to tell a story about power and coming to terms with privilege. Moo is Creative Director at Team Artichoke with the goal of making games with a little heart. He’s been in the industry for over 20 years working on games like LittleBigPlanet, the Ratchet & Clank series, and more recently on indie games like Knights & Bikes and Subsurface Circular. He is a current & founding team member of POC in Play.

 

Riya Mahajan & Ruby Bell (Moody Monsters)

Riya Mahajan & Ruby Bell are designers working with emerging digital technologies to create playful immersive experiences. Thier work focuses on co-creating stories, spaces, and interactions that invite people to see the world from different perspectives. Together, their work has been featured at FRAMELESS, The Saatchi Gallery, and recognised by The Helen Hamlyn Design Awards. Moody Monsters is an immersive digital experience that explores the ways in which children and young people imagine and express emotions. School children co-designed and 3D-scanned handmade characters, and sketched ideas for the world their monsters would inhabit. The project was showcased at FRAMELESS, an immersive arts gallery in Marble Arch, where audiences are taken on a journey to meet the Moody Monsters in a surreal landscape.

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21:15 – 21:45 Music Performance: Los Pat Moritas

 A classic video game with the rich, vibrant rhythms of traditional Latin American music. Featuring a fusion of iconic gaming consoles like Game Boys and Famicoms alongside traditional instruments, this high-energy live show transforms the stage into a joyful celebration of rhythm and gaming culture.
* Special thanks to Aurora Multimedia for their support 
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University Play Spots

MA Games Design, UAL: LCC // Game Pathway, BA Media, UCL // BA Fine Art & MA Computational Arts at UAL:Camberwell College of Arts // Gameplay Lab Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona)

MA Games Design, UAL: London College of  Communication 

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.

 

BA Media, UCL Game Pathway

This year, UCL’s BA Media course joins Now Play This, with students visiting Somerset House to design immersive and expanded experiences inspired by folk games. Using AR/VR technologies, their projects explore new forms of play, blending real-world sites with interactive storytelling. Visit their Play Spot to experience projects made in a collaborative module between the Game Pathway for VR/AR – Making the Media IV – and Now Play This. Each year, the module focuses on a different location or event, using field research, archival materials, and on-site data collection to inform project development.

 

BA Fine Art: Computational Arts & MA Computational Arts, UAL: Camberwell College of Arts
A collaboration between students from BA and MA courses featuring Computational Arts at Camberwell. The two groups have collaborated to create 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. There are four projects available for you to play test.

 

Gameplay Lab Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona)
A short (2-3h~) narrative-driven first-person exploration and puzzle game in which three zoomorphic teenagers go through a maturation process as they wander through the mystical Sanctuary of the Old Well, discovering its history and meeting other curious visitors.