Facewind
Play@
Do you know what places to play in your community? Do you know of any places where children are welcome? And which ones are both open and safe?
Play@ is a set of real community-based board game & live game, to deliver clarity about play, unlock playable places especially fo children, bridge different players in the community, and finally establish a playground-centred network.
The partners of this project are London Play and Three Corners Adventure Playground. We have completed a round of testing and are now planning the next pilot.
Useful links:
Context
Islington is one of the most densely populated of London's 33 local authority areas, with around 104 people living on each football pitch-sized area of land. According to the Mayor of London, 43% of Islington children are living in poverty, thousands of homes are legally defined as ‘overcrowded’, many of them do not have gardens. So it seems like children & play is limited by the number/size of playable spaces and there is indeed a strong call for more play access in the community.
But in fact, according to the city plan of Islington Council, Islington already has 12 adventure playgrounds, and apart from hundreds of public green places, there are more than 400 undesignated open spaces, such as community playgrounds, and open spaces in residential areas. So what is the real problem?
Problem Definition
We found that the real problem is that people, especially children, are either not aware at all or know very little about other places to play in the community. Most children have their own fixed circle of play, and the boundaries of that circle are mostly home, school, and an adventure playground or two.
It is worth mentioning that adventure playgrounds, such as Three Corners (partner of us), are well-known in the children's network because of their large area, diverse activities, and many challenging facilities, which also makes a considerable number of children as well as their networks not interested in public green spaces and other open spaces in residential areas without such engaging facilities.
'Children are the best players, and the most valuable thing in play is not the facilities and activities, but the exploration full of freedom'. Based on this principle, we define that what is missing is a cognition of the playability of the community, which is not only about 'where', but also 'what', 'when', and 'how'.
We do not aim to force children to jump out of the original play circle, but to know more, unlock more territories, and expand their own play world.
Strategy
Awareness of 'Where'
Provide a clarity about what places are open, playable, and child-friendly.
Awareness of 'What, When & How'
Provide a clarity about the uniquenesses of each playable place, including what facilities are there, who is playing, what will happen, etc,.
We do have a space issue, but most importantly, we have an awareness issue. So...
How do we empower children to master the playability of their community?
A Board Game
We integrated the information we want to pass on to children into a board game, and around "exploring as many and diverse places as possible", we have designed a competitive game mechanism similar to Monopoly.
A game!
A map?
The easiest way to let others know where it is is to point it out on a map. We started with the Three Corners Adventure Playground(the partner that allows us to engage with kids and prototype iterations) and found and marked all playable public areas within a comfortable walking distance. But we found that kids there weren't interested in maps like this, let alone looking at specific places on them, and then we realized we were using the wrong language.
An adventure map!
After the introduction of child-attractive elements, the original monotonous map suddenly became a prop that all adventurers wanted.
After 'Where', we began to think about how to let children know the uniqueness of each place where they can play. Simple labeling and preaching have been proved to be not effective methods, so maybe, using children's language and invisibly teaching through entertainment is the way to win.
Start with Stamina Card
Ideally, four players can start the game. At the beginning, each player will get a stamina card for use in exploring various areas in the game. When the stamina is exhausted, the player stops. When all players exhaust their stamina, the game ends. Then, take turns rolling the dice to move.
Playable Open Space Card
There are two different kinds of plots on the map, the dark one is called the playable open space, and the light one is the adventure playground that is well known to children.
When stepping into these plots, the player can choose whether to explore the area. If a playable public space is explored, one point of stamina is consumed, and the player can obtain two cards exclusive to the area. The upper left corner is the score, and the upper right corner is the element attribute, both of which are crucial to the final victory.
Adventure Playground Card
If the player chooses to explore the adventure playground, three stamina points will be consumed, and the player can get two exclusive cards for this area.
It is worth mentioning that all the facilities and activities on the card come from reality and from the playable space that we researched and sampled.
Element attributes
Both types of plots have their own unique element attributes, and if five or six elements are collected, there will be 8-10 additional points.
Unlucky area
There will also be unexpected surprises on this map, such as 'Devil's Smile', which may burn a player's card, reduce a point of stamina, or even teleport the player back to the origin.
Lucky area
'Angel's Blessing' will bring good luck to players, such as increasing stamina, exchanging cards, setting traps, and more.
Functional card
Among the cards mined from the two types of plots, there will be functional cards that can help players protect themselves from the 'Devil's Smile'.
How to win
At the end, add up the scores in the upper left corner of each card, and then count the additional points of the elements you have collected, which is the final score for each person.
The key to victory is to allocate your stamina points reasonably and explore different areas as much as possible. You can't just stay in the adventure playground, and also you can't just explore those small public spaces.
The goal
By playing this highly realistic board game, the children of Islington, at least those who live near the Three Corners Adventure Playground, can gain a clearer, richer, and more interesting understanding of their community.
We target the age group as 6-12 years old. The reason why we set a small distance range is because we don’t want to convey overloaded information, the children’s community is not so large, and we also consider the safety hazards of children if they really go to the field to explore.
But is that all there is to the service we've designed? Play@ actually contains more things!
A Live Game
&Game Builder
Board games convey information and let children have cognition, and we have designed a live game with a real world view and passport + seal as the core, managed by play organizations and large playgrounds, which can provide children with real and visible play channel.
Our tests in a small community at Islington have had a positive response, and we now hope to expand that design concept to more locations. So Play@ also includes a game-building toolkit that can be used by play organizations, just as we have done, to turn more communities into playgrounds without borders.
To know about the details of this project, including how did we manufature that board game, go here or open this document.
Field participation
Our aim was to create an engaging and enjoyable experience for children in playable spaces. Drawing inspiration from themed playgrounds and games, we recognized the importance of a compelling backstory and worldview to enhance immersion and purpose in play. To achieve this, we integrated a captivating narrative based on the renowned historical tale of the Three Corners adventure playground. Expanding this concept, we crafted a broader community story that encourages children and parents to embark on explorative tasks, fostering a desire for active involvement. This innovative approach effectively transforms the entire community into a dynamic playground.
The game's core mechanics involve obtaining a game manual from Three Corners, detailing the immersive world of the experience. Armed with passports and guided by a map, players venture out to discover designated exploration points, collecting stamps along the way. Upon completing the collection, players return to Three Corners to conclude the narrative and receive well-earned rewards.
A game-driven service
This board game, as well as the Three Corners-centred live game, are just our test products on a small scale, actually, what we really want to deliver is a game builder that can be used by play organisations such as London Play, to improve the playability of different communities.
Finally, introduce Play@: A game-driven service for organizations to unlock playable places, bridge different players in the community, and establish a playground-centred network. It has two parts, a board game builder and a live game builder. The previous one can help turn the community into a board game, and the later one can help create a reality based worldview and turn the community into a live game.
Future
London Play has agreed to continue the project with us and we are applying for government funding to print, distribute and pilot at other adventure playgrounds or the larger community.
Likewise, Three Corners Adventure Playground would like to continue promoting the game, and we are discussing whether we can produce a few copies ourselves and keep them in-house.
Special thanks
We want to thank Andrei, Reece & Danny from Three Corners Adventure Playground, Kerri & Dom from Make-Do Play, a group of playworkers from Markfield, who shared their lived experience and insights with us;
Francesca & Guy from Awesome who provided us with their knowledge; Paul, Jon, Caroline & Chrissy from London Play who with their expertise helped us make sense of it all!
John, Nicolas, Richard and Judah who give us guidance, advice and encouragement along the way.
Finally, we want to hug every child that we met through the whole journey!
