I just finished running Into the Woods in Bristol at igfest and it went really well. The game mixes street games and social games with a bit of theatricality to hopefully deliver a compelling experience. I envisioned the game as a series of linked fairy-tale games. I had playtested all of the elements of the game at Eyebeam and as The Duel out in COaP SF last fall. But I had never run them all together as a theatrical experience. MCing the game as the character of Robin Goodfellow was an exciting challenge.

I really wanted to deliver all instructions for the game in narrative as the character. In order to do this I had to keep the games simple and focused so that we wouldn’t get bogged down with players asking questions about rules and how to play. Instead I wanted them hurled directly into the game where they had to figure out what to do. For the most part it actually worked in play. Plus the games are short enough and repeated several times, so players have a couple chances to watch and figure out what to do.

Here’s the description of the game:

Into the Woods takes players on a fairy-tale like journey into the darkness of the forest and their base instincts. The event is suite of five short interconnected games that pit a group of Villagers against a pack of Wolves in a contest for control of the forest. Players will find themselves exiled from the village, cast into a whispering forest and blindly dueling one another as they try to shepherd their kind to safety or hunt down intruders to their dominion.

At the beginning of the game players will be assigned roles, which they act out over the course of five games. Some games find players working alone, while others involve the cooperation of the entire village or pack. In the end though, only one player will be crowned king of the forest.

To read the script of the game download the the full script here :Into the Woods Script

Some photos outlining the play of the game:

Before the game, I talk to each of the players and stamp a claw or bone into each player's palm. This is the player's identity.

Little Devils gather players for the start of a round of "The Bell in the Forest"

The Children hunt the Wolf in a round of "The Bell in the Forest"

The circle collapses on the Children chasing the Wolf in a round of "The Bell in the Forest"

The Wolves and the Villagers strategize before a round of "The Whispering Forest"

Player navigate the player trees in the "The Whispering Forest"

Watch a video of a round of The Duel at COaP SF. The Duel is the climactic final game of Into the Woods. It can play like a slow burning terror for the blindfolded shepherd or a fast-paced almost martial arts-like game, depending on the players:

I’ve been thinking what a series of five-second snaphsots might look like. I might give it a try and see if I can figure out the right constraints.

Things were awfully bright and glowing in the old fun mine this week.  I largely spent the week working on levels for our port of LEGO Fever to the iPhone from the PC.

On Wednesday I realized I hadn’t actually done level design in over a year.  That’s kind of a strange realization when you consider game design your profession and level design part and parcel with that notion.  The games I’ve worked on of late have largely been systemic procedural systems.  The design all happened at the global level.

Diving back into actual level design has been great, if very laborious. You really feel like you’re making a game when you’re constantly tweeking variables and checking how they impact the game.  Plus laying out the general level flow for LEGO Fever has given me the chance to explore some ideas about pacing that I’ve lately found of interest.  Namely, I’m trying to switch up the gameplay style and feel every four or five levels. I want the experience of playing to constantly shift and evolve.

None of this is revolutionary, I know, but its nice to have some time to put some ideas into practice. The frustrating thing about professional game development is how rarely you actually get to make new games.

We managed to get in about two hours of The Duel at Come Out & Play SF last weekend before the rain set in and Catherine’s The One started up.  Roughly 30 players ran through the game in that time, each taking on the role of both the Shepherd and the Wolf. Players really seemed to take to the game enjoying both the gameplay and narrative components I was so worried would saddle the game with undeserved weight.

Players cocked their ears to hear the story whispered to each player.  Then at the ringing of the chime dove into the game with abandon.  The game is a lopsided affair: the shepherd is blindfolded and vulnerable.  The wolf, still able to see, can play as the aggressor, though the bells they hold give away their position as they try to grab flags from the shepherd’s waist. The shepherd meanwhile defends himself by trying to grab the wolf with both hands.

Here are the full rules:

In the Woods
Two foes come upon each other in the dead of night.
In the darkness the Shepherd cannot see.
The Wolf sees through the darkness but his sound can give him away.
The duel is quick lasting only two minutes, the beginning and end marked by a chime.
For each flag the Wolf collects from the Shepherd, the Wolf scores one point.
Each time the Shepherd grabs the Wolf with two hands the Shepherd scores two points.
In a tie the Shepherd wins.

The simple point balancing gives the game a nice arc over the two minutes.  The shepherd starts out in a defensive stance, but after the loss of a flag or two must go on the offensive, leading to frantic play.  Conversely a tag by the shepherd forces the wolf into a more aggressive and risky mode.

People seemed to really have fun playing.  And quite excitedly for me, a number reported feeling the sense of fear and dread I wanted the game to engender.  I wanted it to feel like a fairy-tale horror game and I think it did.

The masks and narrative definitely helped push it in this direction.  I don’t know that it’s ready for a gallery, but for me the game and narrative marriage displays promise.  Nick Fortugno and I even discussed how we might create a series of games based around a similar folklore for a gallery like setting.  That could prove interesting.

If you played, many thanks and I’d love to hear your feedback.

But I still think the design challenge is interesting in that it makes me think about what signifiers of significance a game is missing that prevents it from being taken seriously. Does it need a narrative that frames and gives context to the experience of interacting with the mechanics? We can experience the anger or frustration or fear that a game may induce, but to be a piece that would garner critical praise from a crowd devoted to contemporary art, would it also need a frame that tells you how to understand those emotions? Because I can envision a time when a gallery might present an exhibition of physical games, but I have a hard time seeing them including something as abstract and shorn of content as a pure sport.

Galleries like Babycastles (http://www.babycastles.com/) are already beginning to grapple with games in gallery settings, though they have dealt primarily with screen based and therefore contextualized work.

The game I’m running this weekend at Come Out & Play in San Francisco has really been the catalyst for this line of thought.  The game pits a blindfolded player against an aggressor who can see, but is burdened by bells. In play it evokes a sense of horror and dread in the blindfolded player. Its a fun and compelling game even in the abstract, but I was interested in what a little narrative might do to it.  So the players are cast as the wolf and the shepherd. We’ll see this weekend how players react to the layer of story and whether that element should be exhumed from the game.

Pictures and a report to follow after the game runs.

Hangman

Sidewalk games

It’s real world microtransactions: Pennies for a chance to take a swing at a LARPer.

I love the idea that you have to unlock the drawings by watching the movies. An arbitrary goal blocked by an arbitrary constraint. But man, if I don’t suddenly want those drawings if only cause they’re “locked.”

I recently wrote a piece for the casual game website Gamezebo about MyTown and Foursquare and the state of real-world game mechanics.

Being there is playing there: Checking in on the emergence of location-based games

Right now most of these games/services revolve around check-in mechanics. And I can totally see why, check-ins are the atomic unit of location-based data–”I’m here.” With Foursquare you simply raise your hand and state your location. MyTown offers some further gameplay beyond your hand-raising with players collecting rent on properties they’ve visited. They may seem overly simple, but these casual mechanics are what’s required to get the average player used to real-world gaming, easing them into more complex and demanding games.

Read the whole article.