Go London Social Innovation Competition

We headed to City Hall on Friday to participate in the Go London Social Innovation competition held by NHS and Future Gov. As one of five finalists in the contest we spent the day working with a team of experts in various fields to refine our idea.

The view from the top of City Hall is quite nice and the 9th floor conference room was gorgeous. It's great to see how Boris lives (at one point during the morning there were unsubstantiated rumours that he was making a phone call on the terrace).

Mei Searches for Boris

Amidst all the splendour we had an idea: run a series of Go Games for the public to help encourage physical activity and promote the NHS goals of 30 minutes of activity 5 days a week. With our panel of experts in tech, media, health and interactivity we added on the idea of creating open-ended games that were not location specific so that people could log in to play any time.

I ended up confusing people with my term of 'non location-specific location-based challenges', but the idea was to incorporate the everyday tasks (say, walking to the post office) and educate participants(check out this new leisure centre) whilst they played the game. The missions would be delivered on a mobile phone, the computer or from packs that could be picked up in public places like libraries.

That may sound confusing, but we wrote all of our ideas down...as Mei demonstrates:

Fun tip: demonstrate the legitimacy of ideas with Post It Notes

In the end we had 7 minutes to pitch our idea to a swelling room that included 9 judges. These guys evaluated us dragons-style and asked the tough questions. Luckily, thanks to our fantastic team, we were prepared for everything they threw at us.

Sadly, we didn't win, but there was free booze. Plus the idea the judges selected is phenomenal. In fact, they decided to combine two of the ideas to form a hybrid even more fierce than a liger.

The winning idea is the combined brainchild of Danielle Ramsey's 10,000 steps plan and Ingrid Bergson's Pop-Up Fitness applet. The plan is to encourage teams of people to walk 10,000 steps in the workplace. Participants will be reminded to exercise via a pop-up on their computers that will suggest activities and provide feedback. Danielle and Ingrid will receive support from NHS, M&C Saatchi and a host of other business leaders.

Here we are saying goodbye to our day of big timing at City Hall. Good luck to the everyone who participated!

UPDATE: The official Go London blog has been updated with more info about the day...check it out!

Drop-In Go Game at Brixton Village on Thursday!

We at The Go Game are all about cool urban spaces, fun and playful environments, partnerships with interesting people and organisations, and of course, tasty snacks. With a few of our favourite things in mind (no bright copper kettles or warm woollen mittens unfortunately), we're partnering with Space Makers Agency to put on a Go Game as part of their project at the indoor market at Brixton Village.

This indoor market, also known as the Granville Arcade, is chock full of cool shops and restaurants (selling delicious edibles from cupcakes to coffee to pizza to Filipino fried potato-covered chicken drumsticks...yum!) and art collectives and more. We'll be running a game this Thursday evening (20 May), from about 7pm-10pm. We'll be trying out a new drop-in style of gameplay, where you don't have to be around for an entire 3 hour game but can just come by our booth in the centre of the market and pick up missions and clues. That way you can come have a wander and meet some fun people, but if you want to stop for a snack we totally understand.

You'll be able to take the usual Go Game creative photos and videos, some of which we'll screen in one of the stalls and the rest of which we'll upload to our website. We'll be working with some talented shop owners and students and artists to plan the game, so come check it out!

Here's the info from the Facebook event:

'On Thursday 20 May, from 7 – 10pm, Brixton Village (aka Granville Arcade) will be showcasing some of London’s best interactive escapades and technology-fuelled fun as The Go Game hits the covered market!

As part of the new Late Night Thursday Market programme, Space Makers agency has invited The Go Game to produce one of their creative and innovative adventure games in the Night Market. Small teams will read ‘missions’ on a mobile phone, sending them to discover hidden secrets, seek out new shops, and create their own photos and videos in response to the quirks of this uniquely playful and DIY environment.

Players might encounter a local artist with a secret password, a vintage store proprietor with an intriguing secret, or a Jamaican chef with a delicious surprise! The creatively challenging location-based game all ends with a viewing of the photos and videos taken throughout the evening, where players will get to vote on the most brilliant submissions in a special one-night pop-up presentation room. You’ll make new friends, you’ll laugh, you will have the opportunity to eat at one of ten restaurants serving food from all around the world (bring your own alcohol), you’ll get a firsthand look at the magic and mystery of Brixton Village, and you’ll have a massive amount of fun. '

Come play with us and the rest of the cool folks of Brixton Village. Hope to see you there!

Friday Links - 14 May

We're off today for the finals of the Go London competition, being held at City Hall by the NHS. Woohoo! To keep you occupied in our absence, we suggest you read through these links! Enjoy...

Shameless Self Promotion Department:
There's still lots of Go Game to play at Brighton Fringe [Battle of Brighton]

Flash Game of the Week:
Bloons Tower Defense 4 - Aaaah, please someone make me stop playing this game. I'm seeing monkeys throwing darts in my sleep. N.B. that last sentence will make sense if you play the game.

Friday Links - 7 May

I was off last week for a nice holiday in the country, so I hope you didn't lose too much sleep when the links didn't appear last Friday. Here's a list of what we've been checking out on the interwebs this past week:

Shameless Self-Promotion Department:
If you're in Brighton for Fringe, come play our first game this Sunday [Battle of Brighton]

Flash Game of the Week: Super Mario Crossover - Forget playing as Mario, can you beat SMB as Link or Bill from Gryzor/Contra?

F Off Friday - 23 April

Up and at 'em early this Friday. There's are Go Games afoot (afeet?) all over the place today...maybe you'll see us out and about! If you're stuck inside all day waste some time with another Friday Link Dump:

Shameless Self Promotion:

Coming to Brighton Fringe? Take part in the Battle of Brighton [More Information]

Did you see our April Newsletter? It's pretty [Newsletter]

Flash(-ish) Game of the Week: Hatetris - The ultimate measure of frustration...The classic game of Tetris, but this time the AI conspires to make you lose.

A Big London Melting Pot of Arts/Theatre/Technology/Games

Lots of cool events and projects going on in the interactive games/technology/arts/theatre worlds here in London. It's like fusion cooking - toss in a sprinkling of theatre, add a dash of gaming, mix in some technology, stir in some art installations, and let it simmer in a big interactive stewpot. Here's some stuff we're excited to check out:

On the games and technology side...Dr. Who: The Adventure Games - the BBC's largest interactive project. Only a downloadable online game, but it would be really cool to translate it into something playable in the real world. Hey BBC, call us, kthxbai!

On the theatre and technology combination...Such Tweet Sorrow - Romeo and Juliet in real time on Twitter!

On technology and art intersection...A L I C E at Battersea Arts Centre - a piece about the 'demise of analogue technology' from VHS to 8-bit.

On the art and games collision....Tate Trumps - a 'Who Would Win In A Fight'-style game (you know how much we love those) about artwork in the Tate Modern. Sweet. Soon to come from our friends at Hide & Seek.

To make those of you an ocean or an Icelandic volcano ash cloud away from London even more jealous, here's a video from some recent games shenanigans at the Victoria & Albert Museum from last month's Sandpit. Sadly, neither Chris or I could make it to this one and, but it's always lots of gaming fun and we can't wait for the next one! Video by the awesome Hannah Nicklin.

Playgrounds at the V&A from Hannah Nicklin on Vimeo.

F Off Friday - 16 April

The whole of The Go Game UK is out of the office today, but that's not stopping us from presenting our favourite links we found whilst procrastinating this week. Without further ado:

Shameless Self Promotion:
Come play with us at Brighton Fringe! [Battle of Brighton]
Faffing off with Augmented Reality [Blog]
Mei messes with the Nike Grid game [Blog]

Flash Game of the Week: Flaming Zombooka - Combining physics, zombies, damsels in distress and explosions? Sign us up.