Now Play This 2024 | An Interactive Games Fest
London’s annual experimental games festival is returning this April.
And they’re not rolling the dice.
After all, this is going to be their 10th edition, having started out as a small three-day prototype, and now taking over the stately surroundings of Somerset House for eight days this Spring.
For the duration of Now Play This, the gallery’s New Wing will be home to a dozen or so installations and pop-up games spanning the genres of video gaming, board games and live action role play. And true to the ‘experimental’ aspect of the festival, they’re not just the creations of games designers – artists, poets and activists have contributed to the line-up, which is selected from an open call for submissions.
Crashboard by Emilie Breslavetz. Image courtesy of Now Play This
The theme this year is Liminal: Playing Between Worlds, designed to encourage self-reflection and exploration across borders, generations and languages. Highlights include a build-your-own minigolf course; a chance to shapeshift into animals in an Argentinian river; a murder mystery called Boring Office Party; a collaborative AI symphony crafted from visitors’ astrology charts; and a techno-shamanist experience inspired by West African Vodou.
Any gaming fans who miss it will be inconsolable.
NOTE: Now Play This runs at Somerset House from 6th – 14th April 2023. Tickets cost £9, or £30 for an unlimited festival pass – you can book, and find out more, HERE.
Now Play This | Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA
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