Three days of citywide games.
Each year Gigantic Mechanic produces the Come Out & Play Festival. The festival brings together game designers from around the world with players eager to play new, innovative games. Come Out & Play features roughly 25 games ranging from citywide scavenger hunts to single-person odysseys. The games seeks to take advantage of public space and bring play and games out into the real-world.
Each year Come Out & Play issues a call for submissions to designers around the world. From all of these submissions, 25 games are selected to be featured at the festival. Gigantic Mechanic works with the designers to help them run their games at the festival, as well as with various partners that help sponsor the enitre event.
In 2006 the Come Out & Play Festival turned New York City into a playground for a weekend, then did the same for the city of Amsterdam in 2007. The festival returned home to NYC in 2008. Each year the festival touches down in a different neighborhood, from Chelsea to Times Square to Brooklyn bringing games to the streets, squares and parks around the area.
Over the years, thousands of players have gathered to play dozens of different games across the city. Players raced through the night in a citywide game of zombie tag. Friends faced off in life-sized Pong using only their ears to "hear" the ball. (Papier-mache) pigeons were pummeled with wiffleball bats. Bicyclists armed with spray chalk and stencils competed to claim and build bike lanes. Strangers worked together to build and race blindly through labyrinths as part of an ancient lost sport. Payphones produced points and Tompkins Square Park became a putt-putt course. 200 people performed stunts to display on the Reuters screen in Times Square. Thousands of onlookers and passersby wondered just what the heck all these people were doing! It has been darn good and fascinating fun.
For more information about the festival visit www.comeoutandplay.org
Images from the 2009 festival
1. Paparazzi , 2. Groove Moove, 3. Jamson , 4. Tims Square HQ, 5. Train Mafia, 6. Outdoor Cham Ball, 7. Hopscotch Highways, 8. Signals on the S, 9. Outdoor Cham Ball, 10. CyptoZoo, 11. Hopscotch Highways, 12. Opening Ceremony, 13. Circle Rules Football, 14. Alien Recon, 15. Neo-Cowgirl Rodeo, 16. Player Party, 17. Great Whale Hunt, 18. Heartbreaker, 19. Pitfall! Live at the Tank, 20. The Tank, 21. Empress Kiki's
©2009, Gigantic Mechanic LLC
