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Archive for the ‘Live Games’ Category

FV2017 Workshops

Posted on: by David Hayward No Comments

Here are the details on our workshops and games for 2017. Booking links will go to all ticket holders by email on the evening of Wednesday the 31st of May.

Note: All LARPs are beginner friendly and fairly lightweight, you don’t need previous LARP experience, nor do you need costumes or props.

For some of the arcade building workshops, you’ll need to bring a laptop with the Arduino IDE installed.

All workshops will be called out from the stage before they begin. Get into the main hall around the time they’re due to start, and we’ll point you to the right people and places.

PLEASE NOTE: Some of these things clash with each other. To help you visualise this, here are three screengrabs from Google Calendar:
Thursday.
Friday.
Saturday.

Friday is a particularly complicated day. Please make sure not to book yourself onto clashing things (if our ticketing system had the flexibility to prevent you doing that, we’d set it up).

Feral Vector 2016

Thursday:

Martian Gardens, All day every day
Drop in.
By Jim Thompson: “Martian Gardens is a deeply social game for everyone attending Feral Vector. As pioneers of the new frontier you are tasked with making the barren landscape of Mars fertile again with a range of tailored fauna. No single person has enough resources to make this happen so you must choose your strategy in order to make the deserts bloom. The game will run across the length of Feral Vector and players can be as active or as reflective as they like. You might be a lone outpost of floral beauty or you might collaborate with others and pool your resources to achieve bigger things!”

Cardboard Jam, 13:00 – 17:00
Drop in.
We’ll have a ton of cardboard and sharpies for you to make games, gamelike things, or whatever you want. This is becoming a yearly thing for Feral Vector; previously people have made board games, tiny model stages, tarot decks, and even beautiful objects just for the sake of it.

Makey Makey – Arcade Building workshop, 14:00 – 16:00
Booking required.
Join Alex Johansson and Katy Marshall to explore the depths of cardboard, wires, tinfoil, crocodile clips and Makey Makeys.

Settings for Sitting To, 15:00 – 16:00
Booking required.
Thryn Henderson’s talk will take you on a guided walk with sittings. Note that this is outdoors, so wear shoes suitable for walking on the woods, and be prepared for weather.

Jim Thompson - Deep Green

Friday:

Paper Jam, 12:10 – 15:00
Drop in.
Stuart Lilford will be leading a Paper Jam, with the object of everyone creating a printable game using just one sheet of paper. More details at that link, and people can take part remotely, but we’ll be laying out tables for you with loads of paper and sharpies.

LARP: Deep Green, 13:00 – 15:30
Booking required. Suitable for LARP beginners.
Note that this game is outdoors, so wear stout footwear and be prepared for weather.
Creator Jim Thompson says: “Deep Green is a short larp that pitches players into the task of being responsible for the last ever natural living things. The pressure of the tasks you must complete makes every choice one of delicate balance and compromise, not everyone’s priorities are the same. If this is not difficult enough, outside forces and the pressure of time will challenge your wit and wisdom.”

Alex Roberts: Arcade Workshop – Arduino, 13:00 – 16:00
Booking required.
Working in pairs, Alex Roberts will take you through the steps necessary to turn anything into a keyboard, and from there, an arcade controller. You’ll need to bring a Micro USB cable, a laptop with the Arduino IDE installed, plus this Arduino library downloaded. If you and a friend both book tickets, you’ll be able to share a laptop.

Settings for Sitting To, 15:00 – 16:00
Booking required.
A repeat performance of Thryn Henderson’s talk, which will take you on a guided walk with sittings. Note that this is outdoors, so wear shoes suitable for walking on the woods, and be prepared for weather.

The Wicker Jam, 16:00 – 18:00
Booking required.
The Wicker Jam returns for a second year: Go into the woods, and see what games you can make only from what you find there.

Alt Ctrl Adventure (Arcade Workshop), 16:00 – 18:00
Booking Required.
Jerry Belich teaches the intricacies of making custom arcade controllers with Arduinos. You’ll need to bring a laptop with the Arduino IDE installed.

Feral Vector 2016

Saturday:

ALT CTRL Surgery and Exhibit, 12:00 – 19:00
Drop in.
We’ll be having a showcase of some of the things people built in our three arcade building workshops – if you make something at one of them and want to show it, you can, but no obligation to! At various points, you’ll also be able to chat to our various ALT CTRL experts Alex Roberts, Jerry Belich, Alex Johansson, Katy Marshall, and James Medd of the Awkward Arcade will be popping by to visit too.

Business Year 2001: A Business Odyssey, 14:00 – 16:00
Booking required. Suitable for LARP beginners.
It’s been thousands of years since the Global Investors left, opening the way for the Green Blight to reclaim everything. Last year’s Business LARP exceeded all expectations. This year, we’re doing Business again, but there have been some… changes. Can you craft a mission statement good enough to summon an Angel Investor from the ashes? A LARP by Adam Dixon, Nate Crowley, and David Hayward.

Feral Vector 2016

Live Games for Feral Vector 2017

Posted on: by David Hayward No Comments

We have a welter of games for you at Feral Vector next week! Places on these will be limited, some workshops and live games will be happening at the same time as each other, and signup links for these as well as workshops will be going out to ticket holders on Friday.

Last year, we ran a LARP about post-apocalyptic business cargo cults, titled Business Year 2000. Competing startups attempted to summon an Angel Investor and drive back the Green Blight. They all failed, together. This financial year, it returns as: Business Year 2001: A Business Odyssey.

Business Year 2000

One of the inspirations for BY2K was the writing of Nate Crowley, who, the very day we ran it last year, announced Big Mike Lunchtime’s Business Training ’95. We’re delighted to say Nate’s been writing BY2K1 with us, and it is going to be very special.

Jim Thompson will be running several games at Feral Vector. The first is Martian Gardens, which will run for the entirety of Feral Vector:

Jim Thompson - Martian Gardens

“A game for everyone! Martian Gardens is a deeply social game for everyone attending Feral Vector. As pioneers of the new frontier you are tasked with making the barren landscape of Mars fertile again with a range of tailored fauna. No single person has enough resources to make this happen so you must choose your strategy in order to make the deserts bloom.

The game will run across the length of Feral Vector and players can be as active or as reflective as they like. You might be a lone outpost of floral beauty or you might collaborate with others and pool your resources to achieve bigger things!

An opportunity to express marvellous acts of beauty across the face of a whole planet.”

The second, a much shorter LARP, is titled Deep Green:

Jim Thompson - Deep Green

“Deep Green is a short larp that pitches players into the task of being responsible for the last ever natural living things. The pressure of the tasks you must complete makes every choice one of delicate balance and compromise, not everyone’s priorities are the same. If this is not difficult enough, outside forces and the pressure of time will challenge your wit and wisdom. All choices have consequences.

The game is suitable for those completely new to larp as well as experienced larpers. No prior preparation is required. Just come along prepared to jump into a role playing game and see how well you can navigate the challenges the situation creates for you.”

Announcing: The Wicker Jam

Posted on: by David Hayward No Comments

Part of doing Feral Vector in Hebden Bridge is access to good outdoor space: it’s right next to Nutclough, with its woods, wildflowers, ponds, footpaths, and remnants of Victorian industrial architecture. Adam Dixon will be running BUSINESS YEAR 2000, a LARP you can find a little more about on the schedule. We want to make even more use of it though, so: The Wicker Jam.

The Wicker Jam

You’ve probably taken part in a game jam, right? What would you make if you didn’t have a computer, could only use things you found, and instead of an office or computer lab, you were all in the woods? Folk games, of course! Jonathan Whiting will be running The Wicker Jam, a single afternoon game jam about folk games made entirely from found things. Think stones, twigs, leaves and flowers.

We massively encourage designers to make site specific games, and we’ll be doing our damndest to document them in some way. Inspiration is great, but please do not actually build a giant wicker person then sacrifice someone in it. As well as not being much fun for that one specific person, we’re pretty sure it would violate several health and safety regulations and the code of conduct. It’s a public space; there are going to be a few people walking their dogs or playing with their kids.

Day tickets are still available, and from this moment on come with a solid gold guarantee that you will not become a human sacrifice.

(I’d like to thank Jonathan for stepping up to run this, and Ste Curran for letting me bounce thoughts back and forth after this name popped into my head a few weeks ago).