WATCH YOUR BACK take 2 and 3
James Bond themed sandpit #11 at the BFI.....
Much fewer people for the whole event but it meant we got to try the game with fewer players which was valuable. Fewer players and you can reduce the space in which the game is played dramatically. We encouraged really spreading out but with 12 players instead of 40 it meant players were too far and few between.
I think in general less time for each round is better - perhaps 15-20 minutes max, even though players could collect extra stickers if they could find me.
Based on feedback from the last session, I increased the visibility of the body language (e.g. every 5 steps, peer through binoculars). I think maybe this made the whole thing TOO obvious...or maybe whatever happens players aren't really wanting to just sit down for a bit and observe - they really just LOVE running around even though the rules say only walk. There is a real thrill in the chase for all the players - unexpected aspect of the game. Some players who are really good at sticking to the rules get quite frustrated in fact when other players get excited and end up running and trying to avoid being stickered.
Great to watch players develop strategies - a couple of players who recognised themselves as being on the same team worked together to avoid being stickered by standing back to back and even walking along that way! A player also stuck 5 stickers on her fingers in order to improve her ability to attach multiple stickers to someone's back in as short a time as possible.
I still need to work on the game instructions. It takes a while for them to sink in. There must be a clearer way. And I should remember not to announce the scores as I work them out but instead announce them all in one go at the end to increase the suspense.
I was also very happy because a maths teacher who played the game told me she was planning on the playing the game at her school. I wish so much now that I had asked her more about how and why.
Another guy who played the game had also designed a sticker Valentine's game. I hope he doesn't mind my describing it here - it was a game for a party where having spoken to other party goers you stuck a coloured sticker (which represented the colour of the chakra you believed that person to have) oin a little badge on their front (with a flap so the sticker was hidden from few from that person until the end). At the end all the stickers are revealed - and you get to see what colour chakra different people though you had, although the twist at the end is that in fact the stickers you use actually represent your own chakra colour rather than that of the person that you sticker. nice.
Now I am ready to design a new game. Ideas are starting to waft....I found the night before the game I had some kind of food poisoning and felt very sorry for myself. But cutting, and stuffing envelopes with stickers for the game made me happy - I think it was just the idea that I would be running a game that would make people laugh and want to play. It feels nice to know you're going to be able to make other people happy. Very direct, pleasurable feedback.