Conference
Now Play This (at home) festival
Organised by Somerset House
Now Play This festival has packed its digital bags and will be coming to your home for a free weekend of play, creativity and experimentation for all ages to enjoy.
All streamed events can be accessed on the Now Play This website.
Taking place at the same time as the postponed physical festival, the virtual festival embraces the same spirit of experimentation, uniting a creative community of makers to explore playful and participatory ways to bring people together through games and play. Join us for live playful events including streamed talks, creative workshops, performances and interactive tours of popular game worlds.
FRI 03 APR
14.00
Festival Launch!
Welcome address and launch of the Play at Home official selection.
SAT 04 APR
11.00 - 12.30
Live from Animal Crossing by House House in conversation with The White Pube
Eat your weekend brunch alongside art critic baby gods The White Pube as they board a Dodo Airlines flight to Animal Crossing for a chat with the creators of Untitled Goose Game, House House. Streamed event.
14.00 - 16.00
Make, Re-make, Exchange Workshop by Leap Then Look
Join artists Bill Leslie and Lucy Cran (Leap Then Look) to create sculpture, performance and film in an art making game with other families in lockdown over the internet. Families will work together to make art in their homes, exploring objects and materials, exchanging ideas, re-making artworks, creating simple choreographies, playing together to create new experiences of art during isolation. Streamed event.
17.00 - 19.00
Half Life Virtual Field Trip by Robert Yang
Bring your packed lunch and join game designer and artist Robert Yang as he leads a group on a live virtual field trip through Half Life 1 with the help of multiplayer mod ‘Sven Co-op’. Streamed event.
SUN 05 APR
11.00 - 13.00
Video Chat Games Adapted From Improv Comedy by Melissa McGlensey and Doug Wilson
In this online workshop, comedian Melissa McGlensey and game maker Douglas Wilson teach a variety of simple social games for play on video chat. The games have been specially adapted from commonly loved games and warmup exercises from improv comedy. Throughout the workshop, Melissa and Doug will synthesize broader takeaways on playful performance, game design, and adapting games to new contexts.
14.00 - 16.00
Pawns by Alistair Aitcheson
A chess variant played on a giant board with 87 pawns and one king on each side. Created to capture the feeling of futility against overbearing systems, the board is too big for any individual action to have consequence. That is, if the game is played in good faith. Streamed performance.
18.00 - 19.00
Play DUSTNET with the Devs by Neilson Koerner-Safrata
DUSTNET is a multiplayer video game installation that explores the death and afterlife of the virtual spaces we play in. The audience navigates a deconstructed version of the Counter-Strike (2000) map de_dust2 through computer, virtual reality, and augmented reality platforms. Streamed event.
20.00 - 21.30
Photography Tour of No Man’s Sky by Damian Gareth Martin
Join game designer and artist Gareth Damian Martin in No Man’s Sky and see this procedurally generated universe through a different lens in this live photography tour. Streamed event.