I went to HideAndSeek and I...

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  • contributed to a major building project (as part of City Blocks)
  • as Lady Delphinia Watson, helped select the new Grand Emperor (who turned out to be a joint appointment, and half revolutionary, which will lead to trouble in the future)


(thanks to Dom Camus for this pic)



  • created a semaphore-style code and used it for team communications, beating the oppositition, whose code was much less subtle (in Semaphoria)


  • found the treasure by following clues (in BinoHunt)
  • listened carefully to M, and tracked down and unmasked a spy (winning QNTMFSLC, a twitter-based game)
  • wore a smart jacket and tie to record a news item, and helped my team of tabloid video hacks record a great many other stories, eventually causing both Frank Gaff and Michael Portobello to appear so depraved in the public eye that the election was called off (as part of the Yellow team, scoring the moral victory in Playmakers)
  • was a hedgehog during some Animal Mayhem (briefly!) Michael was a cow and achieved two shiny stars for his efforts, including this "funny face with cat" (thanks to Silke Abele for the acting as paparazzi here)

  • puzzled out 5 live musical performances with the winning Team Random in Rubiks Music - a mind-bending audio experience

(thanks to Nikki Pugh for the pic!)

  • nearly died of exhaustion moving giant balloon structures between bases around the busy SouthBank and avoiding the opposition's inflatables (in Elephant) (thanks to Dan Dixon for the pic)
  • became covered in stickers


All these activities were social games - activities where one has to work with others (probably people you've never met before) to solve puzzles or play a game - and part of the Hide and Seek weekender. Some of them are also pervasive games, because they happen in public spaces, mixing in with people who aren't playing. It was a great weekend and we'll be back next year - and I hope to be able to link to more photos and video from the games as it appears online. The organisers and game conveners did a great job.

We managed to avoid some of the highly active games (the Go Game, the Following, Paparazzi, the Potato Game) and we dropped out at times to wander around the Hayward Gallery or Tate Modern or for a drink, but nonetheless we spent almost the whole weekend walking briskly around, dancing, jogging or even sprinting. The NHS should be prescribing social games to get people off their sofas and outside - although we were glad of a sofa to collapse on at the end!