“an actor in a complex system controls almost nothing, but influences almost everything”
– Scott Page
Hi! Nathan here. I hope wherever you’re reading this from you’re doing well, and taking care of yourself.
The week before everything collapsed and we all went home for a few months Nikki, Muttley and I spent a day with the 3AI Institute at ANU. We ran a couple of sessions of Best Festival Ever, where one of the groups managed to get a crowdfunded music festival running, only to resort to a scorched earth policy the moment things took a turn for the worse. It was wonderful chatting to the staff and students about the process of making Best Festival Ever, and how the game is impacted by different playstyles.
The last few months has been an interesting time to think about remote interaction – how games can be delivered digitally but still create a meaningful, live experience. Over the last few years we’ve toyed with games that can be self-facilitated, and remote games present an opportunity to pursue that. When a game is run by someone who downloaded it ten minutes beforehand it has to be clear and very difficult to break – we can’t rely on our charm and improvisation skills to smooth out the wrinkles.
So we’ve been playing a bunch of games, and messing around with things like Twine, and David’s been making some lovely little games with Coney in the UK – check them out over here.
We’ve also been talking to some groups about some new commissions– games looking at systems like health research, and the ways that cities can recover from shocks. There’s going to be some big conversations over the next little while and we’re eager to engage.
If you’ve got an idea for a project you’d like to work with us on, or some interesting remote games you think we should play, drop us a line!