Ten playful moments at the CounterPlay conference
I had to get up very early in the morning to go to the CounterPlay Conference in Århus. It was the 05.50 train from Copenhagen. Early business. Nevertheless, people were already busy testing games. This was called Skrappe Fingre. Good stuff! Plus I learned some useful things about laser cutters and 3D printers on the way.
The opening keynote was appropriately playful, orchestrated by Thomas Vigild. It had slides with horses pretending to be unicorns in it. Ernst The Sock Eating Puppet loved that so much, he almost exploded with excitement.
During a conference like this, it is absolutely ESSENTIAL to find, elect and celebrate The Geekiest T-shirt.
Here is Mikkel Lodahl, representing Grenå, the city with the biggest selection of gaming educations in Denmark, sporting a hipster-esque retro-style piece with a touch of neon. Ooooh yes. Apart from the t-shirt, he taught the conference goers some useful stuff about storytelling at a Twine workshop.
New combatants kept popping up. Things got deep. If you get this one, you are not just a geek, but also a nerd. +1000 points.
The competition was fierce.
And the winner? You must scroll to see. First, let’s have a look at the floor. Games were on display in the library during the two day conference, ranging from Minecraft adventures to fascinating musical matchboxes. This was a colourful favourite, inducing heated footwork battles:
Girls against boys, exploring the Minecraft adventure “Den mystiske ø”. Two hours later, the girls had won. Said the twitter rumours.
After the talks, games were played at Godsbanen. This was a pretty complicated card game about betrayal, ninja assassinations and tea ceremonies.
Facts: The Counterplay Conference was held in Århus on April 3rd and 4th, arranged by Mathias Poulsen. There were 28 talks about Playful Culture, Playful Learning and Playful Business – and several workshops, e.g. improvisation in theatre games and designing board games.
Oh yes, and the winner! (celebrational close-up):
Christina Majcher 