Pervasive Play Salon: This Is A Door

The pervasive play scene has been growing around the world with festivals and events happening more and more providing chances for people to play street games and talk about them. Ever since Tassos Stevens came to Australia last year for my event Transmedia Victoria, things have been hotting up in Melbourne now too. There is a collective called Pop Up Playground that are running a festival this weekend called This Is A Door. A list of local and international games people can play at the festival is on their site.

This Sunday 3.30-5pm, there will also be a Salon, in which a few of us — Paul Callaghan, Alex DesebrockEmilie CollyerDan KoopChristian Leavesley and myself (chaired by Ben McKenzie) — will be chatting about play and performance and game.

You get access to the Salon when you buy a ticket to one of the This Is A Door play sessions. Hope to see you there! 😀

 

Update: Scaredy Cats, Worldbuilding, ARGs & Barcelona

Hello!

Here is an update on some of the things I’ve published and will be doing shortly. 🙂

  • I had a piece about (transmedia) worldbuilding published in MeanLand: Some Things I’ve Learned About Transmedia Worldbuilding – I’d love to hear your experiences!
  • I had an essay published in a book for emerging writers on not taking fear-based advice. My piece opens the book and has had great reviews along with all the amazing essays in the book. It is a great one: The Emerging Writer: An Insider’s Guide to Your Writing’ Journey
  • I’m now in Barcelona to give the opening keynote on ARGs, social experiences, education and PR — rah! — at the BCN Meeting on Social Experiences. I’m also meeting up with the Transmedia Barcelona folk to chat about filmmaking, comics, gaming, and mobile experiences with wonderful experts such as Antoni Roig Telo (who brought me over here!), Jordi SanchezNavarro, Carlos A. Scolari (who has just written a book on transmedia, featuring interviews with Henry Jenkins and myself!), and Montecarlo! Yay! We’re meeting today and will be sharing stuff through the hashtag #transmediabcn
  • I’ve been working on AUTHENTIC IN ALL CAPS, preparing everything for the next playtest. Wohoo! More info about the team and what we’ve been doing soon. Really. :p

Update: Emerging Writers’ Festival, MediaCity & Pervasive Gaming

Hello! Well, I’m back from Sweden. I had a great time. While there I not only jumped over to LA to speak at Transmedia Hollywood, I also flitted over to Finland to give a keynote at MediaCity. It was great catching up with Simon, and hearing more about the audience testing they do there. Good times. 🙂

Shortly after arriving back in Melbourne, I gave a lecture on pervasive gaming (the things I had learned from working on alternate reality games) to the game design students at RMIT. That is great fun. 🙂 (I really should share those lessons online – been meaning to for years).

Anyway, this weekend I’m excited to be a part of the Emerging Writers’ Festival in Melbourne. The “festival for writers” has asked me to be a “Town Hall Writers’ Conference Ambassador”. There are five of us, representing different writing skill sets:

  • Ali Alizadeh (poetry)
  • Christy Dena (digital storytelling)
  • Lawrence Leung (comedy)
  • Emily Maguire (novels)
  • Anita Sethi (journalism)

We have certain duties, which includes giving some talks. On Saturday 10-11am, we’ll be sharing things we wish we knew at the beginning of our “career” on the panel Seven Enviable Lines. On Sunday 12.30pm, a group of us will be talking specifically about digital writing: “Digital writing is about much more than whacking up a blog post every so often. It requires diligence, a consideration of audience and aesthetics. These writers discuss how they create and publish in the online space.” And then on Tuesday, my pre-recorded video on building an online audience will be streamed for the EWF Digital. I’ll be at all the evening functions, and around during the day for Q&As. I look forward to seeing you there and talking about writing! Yay! 🙂