Busy Weeks, Boiler Suits, and Big Hands

It's a busy week here at the Go Game UK office! We're running a promotional game tomorrow that will have teams sneaking and snooping through the narrow streets of London's Chinatown. We're excited to break out the orange jumpsuits and show off some Go Game magic!



But even though we'll be getting some orange jumpsuit action tomorrow night, we've decided recently that the full body boiler suits are not enjoying nearly enough time out and about. Which is why we'll be wearing them to what looks to be an absolutely fabulous event, an all-day conference on Friday called Playful: A Day of Cross Disciplinary Frolicking. What better way to frolic than in orange from head to toe?

Playful promises to be full of entertaining shenanigans, fantastic ideas, creative people, fascinating technologies, and all sorts of excitement. We know the speakers are going to be good because, first of all, the lineup features none other than our friends Alfie and Paula of Bus.Tops fame! In case you haven't heard of this amazing project, it was the winning submission for the Artists Take The Lead project for the London 2012 Olympics and the corresponding Cultural Olympiad. It's going to be a series of digital canvases of LED screens on top of Bus (S)Tops that lets the public submit art, graphics, messages, and games. Imagine hopping on the bus in the East End, climbing up to the top deck, and settling in for a ride across town. As you travel around the city, you spot all these unexpected little visual treats invisible to the passersby below - maybe it's a secret message or a cool design or even an interactive display that connects back to an interesting website built by someone from the other side of the world. Even better, maybe it's giving coded missions for a Go Game-style treasure hunt!

We feel pretty special because we got to meet with Alfie, Paula and some other visionary minds back in the planning process, and so we were beyond psyched to hear that the project won funding! Yay! We make games! We're the public! Woohoo! And Alfie wants to work with us too! He said so in print (okay, in print online) so we're going to hold him to it:) And of course it's just exciting on its own merits - we here at the London office are big fans of double decker buses (why don't they have them everywhere - seriously, why?) and surprising urban quirks and public art and basically everything that Bus.Tops stands for. Can't wait to hear Alfie and Paula talk tomorrow!

We're expecting to be wowed by all the other fantastic speakers at Playful too. Even just reading their bios wowed me a bit. And the following video, made by one of the speakers Chris O'Shea, wowed me a lot. Wowzerama. Wowielicious.

I think it's going to be that kind of day...


Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.