A Chance to Test Pop-Up Urban Play

by Aramiha Harwood, Troy Innocent, Carlo Tolentino & Lucy Buxton

On Sunday 6 April, future play lab participated in the Satay and Reog Festival at Prahran Square in Naarm Melbourne. Run by the Indonesian Diaspora Network Victoria, the festival offers a range of cultural performances, food stalls, and fun activities for attendees – with a focus on Indonesian culture, food, and street games. The event fosters community involvement and is attended by many families and children. Activities include traditional dance, fashion shows, parades, music, and various Indonesian food stalls – including satay, of course!

The future play lab were invited by the City of Stonnington to activate some of the space at the Festival through play and games as part of LP220100066 Play about Place. The opportunity to participate meant that the future play lab would have limits on space and time in which to operate, presenting a chance to test the urban play pop-up’s modularity. The team assembled included a Creative Director (Troy), Creative Producer (Carlo), and three Playful Spaces Officers (PSOs).

Carlo devised a ‘medium size’ version of the future play lab’s pop-up play activations based on Troy’s curation and design for St Kilda Festival during brat summer earlier in the year. This medium size pop-up focuses on mobile and agile elements of games and play.  This medium version was designed to have games and play equipment that are easily transportable, could be set up relatively quickly, and could be packed up just as fast.  Lemon Joust and Sound Square were included in this medium size activation. In addition, an Indonesian student at RMIT helped to implement two other Indonesian games in particular:

One, Two, Three – Wooden Man: a variation of the game Red Light, Green Light, or Statues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statues_(game)

Semut, Orang, Gajah: a variation of the Rock, Paper, Scissors hand game https://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=5079

Testing of this medium version of the urban play pop-up occurred at the festival, focusing on things such as mobility, modularity, and the use of astroturf shapes to create inherently playful spaces.

On the day, Troy explored different activation sites, observing these for 15-20 minutes, then directing relocation of the activation. The initial location was not ideal due to security concerns and was not encouraging for children and families. Over the day, the Play Activation was moved three times. Each location was used for different durations: the first for 40 minutes, the second for about 1 hour, and the third for nearly 2 hours. Lemon Joust was the most played game on the day. The Indonesian games were well-received by attendees familiar with them, inviting them to play.

Of the three locations, each offered a different context:

• site one: chosen by the event organisers for line of sight with the main stage and audience area
• site two: selected by creative director to be more enclosed and secure, and to intersect with foot traffic from nearby Greville St
• site three: selected by creative director after grabbing a satay snack and observing the busiest area for foot traffic adjacent to food trucks and connecting to nearby Prahran Market. This location also included seating and a set of rock steps ideal for musical instruments and equipment.

There were some difficulties on the day. Sometimes the bands that performed at the festival were very loud, which meant that the Play activation music and discussions involved in engaging play-participants were difficult to hear. The outdoor scope of the Festival meant that the play activations were exposed to heavy wind on the day, and rain meant that the event packed up an hour earlier than expected. It was also felt by some of the Play organisers that the Square itself was not an inviting space – the concrete boundaries of Prahran Square closed off passing foot-traffic who may have been interested in what was going on.

General observations from Play organisers and facilitators noted the overall success of the Play activation at the Satay and Reog festival. Overall Click-counter numbers for the day had 275 people who engaged and/or participated in future play lab activities. Children, parents, and even band members – who were performing on the day – participated in games. When it came time to move the Play to another location at the festival, some parents and children actively helped move equipment between locations – indicating a strong desire to continue playing. Perhaps this relocation activity could be turned into a game itself? Something to think about further…

Familiar Indonesian games significantly encouraged engagement from the Indonesian community, as many attendees recognized them from their childhood.

In terms of mobility of the Play activation, and moving to new locations, it was noted that sight lines are very important for visibility and engagement. The second location had poor sight lines as it was behind a tent and a stage – so it was harder to get an audience to come and play. It is thought that visual cues and open spaces can be important for inviting play, creating a welcoming atmosphere.

Reflecting on the roles of the Playful Spaces Officers (PSOs), it was suggested that providing a  clear division of responsibilities could help in engaging more members of the public as potentil play-participants. For example, one PSO could be actively inviting people to play (“hooking them in”) while another could be running the game itself. This could be really useful for PSOs, as it can be hard to maintain attention on one thing, while trying to do another.

It was noted that adults were mostly observers, with some participating alongside their children. This identifies the need to better invite adults to play themselves, not just watch their kids. Opportunities exist to leverage instruments or other engagement tools to encourage active adult participation.

Overall, the Satay and Reog Festival 2025 was an opportunity to try out a medium sized Play activation on site. future play lab organisers have been sufficiently encouraged by this agile and mobile approach to play activations to try this at future events – perhaps making the activations even more ‘pop-up’ in style and approach. Both future play lab organisers and PSO’s were also afforded the opportunity to practice and hone their skills and craft as Play activators – using the opportunity to reflect and build on their knowledge and experience for the future. The future play lab would like to thank the Indonesian Diaspora Network Victoria and the City of Stonnington for this opportunity to be a part of the 2025 Satay and Reog Festival.

Terima kasih!

A Day of Play in Future Libraries

by Aramiha Harwood

In late 2024, on the first day of the Melbourne International Games Week festival, Future Play Lab joined with narrm ngarrgu Library to put on a day of Play in the Library.

https://futureplaylab.io/projects/future-play-library

narrm ngarggu is a new City of Melbourne Library and Family Services Centre which opened in late 2023. narrm ngarrgu (pronounced nahm nar-GUW) means ‘Melbourne Knowledge’ in Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung language.

Located in the Queen Vic Market precinct of CBD Melbourne, this new library caters to a broad range of clients – young people, families, domestic and international students, tourists and commuters. Not just a library space, narrm ngarrgu is an urban oasis, designed so everyone in our diverse community can explore their interests, learn something new and access integrated family support.

We were interested in the role of libraries as essential social infrastructure connected to place and the role of play in bringing people together to energise and interconnect existing communities, and provide the creative spark for new ones. The opening event included representatives from Bayside and Manningham Council, sparking off conversations on this theme at the start of the day.

With this in mind, narrm ngarrgu brought together the gaming community in Melbourne to explore the potential of play and gaming to connect, explore the future and to share knowledge with each other. Librarians and gamers, designers and playmakers, researchers and enthusiasts, families and communities, were invited to sample and engage with some possibilities for the future of play – and to imagine the library, as a third place, supporting this.

During the day, there were many opportunities to experience different types of play – organised and freeform – throughout the library. Participants were free to diversify their experiences, by moving from place to place, from play to play. There were web-based games available on the public computers, supplied by game design students at RMIT – via Games Kitchen. https://rmitlink.rmit.edu.au/Clubs/Games-Kitchen

LEGO and jigsaw puzzles were left for younger library attendees to use in the multifunction room on level 3, while Boardgames were placed on multifunction tables in the Event space on level 1 for anyone to come and play with.

There were several games in particular which were memorable for their engagement and fun.

The Werewolf social game, a perennial favourite for many gamers, was discovered by a group of librarians. Asked to roleplay themselves as villagers (with a couple of insurgent Werewolves), the group worked together through the complex social dynamics and moral dilemmas of ‘the village’ – while trying to solve the mystery of ‘Who are the Werewolves killing our Villagers?’. The game itself is free, an example of it is available here: https://pegasusshop.de/media/pdf/51/d5/38/4250231716614_gb.pdf

The Adaptation Game asked players to consider their place in climate change and our future communities. Roleplaying themselves or an imagined identity into the near future, players faced  a growing number of climate events and aasociated social and economic ramifications (eg my player had to try and travel across the CBD of Melb when all public transport infrastructure had collapsed in an unprecedented heatwave). One of the particular elements of interest for me was the fact that the game could be tailored to specific councils and local government areas. That is, the spaces, stories and events in-game were specific to particular locations and places eg CBD Melbourne (City of Melbourne), or the Dandenong mountains (Yarra Ranges council).

https://amble.studio/

Games Kitchen RMIT and Swinburne Gamemakers also ran a Game development session during the afternoon.  So many young people came along to enjoy playtesting games and chatting about how to make some of them. This was the biggest success, from the huge number of games, attendees and diversity of imaginative/fun approaches to console and pc gaming design and animation. My Kudos and Congrats to the students from both Universities.

In the evening there were two panels held in the event space. In the first, gamemakers discussed elements of play and gaming in their relative spheres. Letoya from the Indigenous gaming collective GUCK, Leon from Melbourne Megagames, Jason from Amble Studios, and myself, discussed: the state of play in Melbourne in 2024; how the industry is looking for independent game developers; what it is that draws us to gaming, play and gamemaking; and where we think things will be going in the future.

There was some argument over what gaming represents, as an artistic pursuit or as playful distraction – and what this means for the industry and/or sector. It was argued that play can be a useful tool for learning and engagement, through the permission to imagine and to have fun that it entails.

GUCK: https://www.tsumea.com/developer-service/guck

Melbourne Megagames: https://www.melbournemegagames.com/

Jasan Tampake/Amble Studio: https://amble.studio/meet-the-troupe/

Finally, researchers involved with future play lab – Dale Leorke and Danielle Wyatt – joined Lucas Yi to discuss the role of Libraries as the ‘third place’ that could be a supporting hub for play and gaming in most communities and Melbourne in particular. Dale and Danielle discussed their book, The Library as Playground, comparing the approaches to play in libraries around the world, and the spectrum of formal and informal play spaces within these libraries. Lucas provided some perspective on the practicalities of running gaming programs in Melbourne’s libraries, given his own experiences having done so at several suburban libraries. It was agreed that play can be seen in a variety of forms and modes in libraries, and that it can be a useful means of connecting with patrons – many of whom may need the ‘permission/s’ of play to engage with their library and community further.

Overall the day was considered a success. There is talk of planning for another Future Play Library day for 2025, with hopefully further funding from invested bodies.

For me I thought it was encouraging that there were so many diverse groups there on the day – gamers, young and old, librarians, and academics. I did find it disappointing that there was a lack of engagement with each other on a personal level, suggesting the need for more social games – something that was left out of the program due to time and resources. The games, in their respective spaces and respective ludic element, remained separated from one another. The greatest disappointment to me was that, besides the library attendees who were open to trying out most of what was on offer on the day, the gamers and playmakers didn’t do likewise. One of the major reasons for making the Future Play Library day happen was for those of us non-industry playmakers and gamemakers to start engaging with one another and supporting each other. A community of practice. As someone who  designs, playtests and publishes, I recognise the importance of the community to make all of these things happen! This didn’t really happen, as I observed many of the makers and players focus on their own play activities and not really go outside of that. This was represented in the invitation to have a post-event beer, at the brewery next to narrm ngarrgu, given to all attendees and volunteers in the program, but a more structured social event embedded in the day would be more successful as many people had other MIGW commitments to attend.

I’d suggest that this may be something to look at for the future Future Play Library – a greater focus on bringing people together to share knowledge and their love of play/gaming, as a means of making it sustainable and fun.

As my father always said when beginning meetings in Maori:

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata he tangata.

What is the most important thing? It is people, it is people, it is people.

ka kite anō!
seeya later!