Joue le jeu : été 2012 à la Gaîté lyrique

The playable exhibition Joue le jeu – Play along showcased games as the broad, rich cultural phenomenon they now are. A vibrant international community of artist-designers is inventing new narrative forms, play styles, and innovative visions which are radically different from more familiar video game stereotypes. We invited visitors to experience the new forms of gaming at the heart of the current golden age of creative game design.

Joue le jeu – Play along celebrated all types of playful interaction : from innovative, cutting edge video games, to mixed digital/physical, social and even board games. From the purely joyful to the radically experimental, from simple games to the most elaborate aesthetic experiences : the Gaité lyrique became an immense playworld.

The Building Is… by Hide&Seek

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The Building wants to play along ! Interact in unexpected ways with familiar architecture as The Building Is… transforms the Gaîté lyrique into a giant game extending throughout every floor. A series of embedded physical-action games allows the building to get to know you. In each game you interact with one of the building’s senses : Listening, Smell, Touch, and Sight. Finally, after forming an impression of you through your actions, the building will tell you what sort of Assistant it wants you to be. Your hard work will be rewarded with a physical memento to take home.
Hide&Seek are a game design studio dedicated to inventing new kinds of play, centred around the belief that play – as a theme, a way of being, and design tool – is integral to understanding how culture will develop in the 21ST century. They founded the UK’s first festival of pervasive games in London in 2007, which is now the Hide&Seek Weekender. Every month they run the Sandpit, a game playtesting event, around the UK. Hide&Seek also create social games and playful experiences for clients in the commercial, public and cultural sectors.