NYC Come Out And Play Festival

Come Out & Play is a three day festival of street games encouraging new types of games and play. This weekend the festival kicks of with a great lineup of games.

There are some promising games available, like Sonic Pong. Take away the screen and track the ball by listening to the ball bounce around.

There is also Cruel 2 B Kind, a game that uses random acts of kindness as the gameplay, designed by the people who brought you I Love Bees. Sounds like a kindness assassination, randomly hit people with compliments and flowers.

Check out the description for Benevolent Attacks:

Benevolent Attacks
At the start of the game, each team is assigned via text message a secret weapon, a secret weakness, and a surrender code.

•Your secret weapon is the act of kindness you perform on suspected targets. Example: Praise your targets’ shoes. If you perform this weapon on the correct target, they will surrender. If you perform this weapon on other players who are not your target, they will say “You are too kind.” If you perform this weapon on non-targets… well, we have no idea what might happen!

•Your secret weakness is the act of kindness that, if performed upon you, kills you. Example: Killed by a birthday serenade. You therefore want to avoid giving other players an opportunity to be kind to you. If you are attacked by a team wielding a weapon that matches your weakness, you must acknowledge the successful assassination and reveal your surrender code. If you are attacked by a team deploying the wrong weapon (not your secret weakness), you are still alive. However, you must tell them “You are too kind” so that they know they have at least successfully identified other players.

•Your surrender code is the single word that you must reveal to all of the players who have assassinated you. When you successfully assassinate other teams, you must demand their surrender code. Successful assassins will text the surrender code to the game system. That’s how the game knows who is dead, who killed them, and who gets the points.

I love the idea of getting killed by a compliment. “Nice wig lady!” Then she keels over and dies. “Lady? I didn’t mean it , I promise.”

The official site for Come Out & Play

Joysiq’s roundup of games for the festival.