Last Wednesday the Larkin’ About & Manchester Histories Festival project kicked off with a meeting of the companies involved and some of Larkin’ About’s special agents.
We introduced ourselves and our ideas, got our heads round what pervasive gaming is really all about then dived into some practical tasks. We explored game mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics by creating some mini-games with only a few minutes to prepare and a handful of props. Thankfully, we’ll have a lot more in the way of time and props to work with on the day.
Trying out some game mechanics
We left the session with some homework: think what game mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics will suit your idea. Mine is the Peterloo Massacre, so on Sunday I took a trip down to the People’s History Museum with PygmyKing (a.k.a cartoonist on the ascendency, Robert Brown) for some inspiration.
Nothing to see here...
I’ve already been researching the topic with the help of The Casualties of Peterloo by Professor Michael Bush but it was good to see some real life examples of the weapons and symbolic items that were used (there definitely won’t be any actual weapons in my game, in case you were going to ask).
Anticlockwise from top left: pike, Cap of Liberty, constable's truncheon, cavalry soldier's sabre
We spent a couple of hours wandering around the exhibits, which cover a good few decades, including more recent political events.
Nah-nah nah-nah nah-nah nah-nah
Take a wander down if you have a lazy afternoon spare – it’s free, after all. You have only yourself and your apathy to blame if you don’t.
