Hogmanay preview: The New Year Games

In the middle of the maze is a Minotaur, eyeing us like a hawk. A choir starts singing and a polyphonic spree of voices and sounds resonates around the vast, vaulted space. What am I supposed to do?

I whisper to the stranger in front of me. “Get a ribbon off the Minotaur without her seeing you move,” she hisses back, lips barely moving. “See him there?” She points to a bespectacled player at the front of our line, psyching himself up in the manner of Rocky. “He’s already got four ribbons.” We gaze admiringly at the champion in our midst.

Now it’s my turn. I get within a few feet before the Minotaur whips round and catches me wobbling. She points a finger, and I’m out. I slink off feeling disappointed, elated and a bit giggly.

It’s a pretty weird way to spend a Wednesday night in Edinburgh. First, I’m in St Giles, mother church of Presbyterianism. Second, I’m playing a game. Third, I’m a grown-up. Yes, we’re talking a real game in a real cathedral in a real city, with real people, winners and losers, and even teams (the Uppies and the Doonies, named after the traditional ba’ game played in Kirkwall, Jedburgh and other Scottish towns). There are elements of Grandmother’s Footsteps and What’s the Time, Mr Wolf?, but also Greek myth, performance art, site-specific theatre, experimental music, and some plain, old-fashioned larks.

Tonight is just a playtest, with red tape standing in for the walls of the maze and 20 curious testers, mostly students, who found out about it on Facebook or through more old-fashioned word of mouth. But on the first day of 2012, Resonate the Labyrinth will be one of four games installed in major venues across Edinburgh.

The New Year Games, financed to the tune of £250,000 by the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund, are part of the Hogmanay celebrations bringing 80,000 people to the city. For a few irreverent hours on the afternoon after the night before, Edinburgh’s Old Town will be transformed into a playground, complete with giant Jenga, Danish clapping games, a twist on the fairground coconut shy, and much, much more.

“Edinburgh is a fantastic place to play,” says Alex Fleetwood, founder and director of London arts collective Hide&Seek who, in collaboration with Unique Events and various Scottish artists, are behind The New Year Games. They were last here in August when they brought Hinterland, “a game that turns into a poem”, to Forest Fringe. “This city has the architecture, the presence, the atmosphere, and then there’s the fact that it literally has levels, like a game. All first-time visitors to Edinburgh are playing a game when they stand on George IV Bridge and wonder how they’re going to get down to the Cowgate.”

Hide&Seek have put on festival weekenders at the BFI, played Pass the Impossibly Large Parcel with thousands at the V&A, and installed a giant sandpit on the South Bank. But they have never taken over an entire city. “This is the biggest thing we’ve done in terms of scale,” continues Fleetwood. “For the four years that Hide&Seek has been in existence, we’ve been building up to something like this.”

It’s quite an operation. In the Grassmarket, two huge totems will be erected: an eagle, representing the Uppies, and a stag for the Doonies. People who show up on the day will be asked to decide which team to join based on where they live (I’m a doonie, no question). The idea is that anyone – even people like me who run a mile from anything purporting to be a game – can take part or watch.

At Dance Base, a version of hopscotch designed by Glasgow-based artist Brian Hartley will take over the building. At the Hub, people will be encouraged to throw things at the Edinburgh band FOUND, not to shut them up but to get them playing. And at the National Museum of Scotland, a large-scale Cat and Mouse-style game designed by artist Spotov will take over the newly revamped atrium. “It’s a tactical game,” says Chris Pheasey, live events producer at Hide&Seek, over the choir who are now singing about Greek winds. “There are obstacles, the players can’t see, and they’re told what to do by a guide via radio. Oh, and there are people chasing them – it’s kind of hard to explain.”

This is often the Hide&Seek response. No one, for example, can agree on the purpose of playing. Or, indeed, what exactly Hide&Seek are about. This lot are as quirky as you would want a “pervasive games” collective to be. They say things like “I’m a big fan of making people stand on benches” and tell me their office supply order includes items like “50,000 ping pong balls, 50 pairs of safety goggles, and a crossbow”.

“Everyone would have a different answer to what we’re about,” confirms Holly Gramazio, lead games designer and the one who likes to put people on benches. “I’m interested in what happens when you combine game design with other cultural forms. And what happens when you commission artists to make games. Cities and play go together in all sorts of ways. Playing in a city gives you ownership of it.”

The first game she played was the epic, Blade Runner-ish Journey To The End Of The Night, regularly played in New York and San Francisco and brought to the UK by Fleetwood in 2007. “It took place all over London,” she recalls. “It’s a chase game, there are checkpoints across the city and people with red armbands are chasing you. Like, really chasing you. If they catch you, you become a chaser. It was amazing. There are still parts of London that feel like an arena of combat for me.”

For Fleetwood, gaming is in our DNA, whether it’s going on Twitter or rolling a cheese down a hill. “Adults can and should play games together,” he says. “If you go back to the Victorians, parlour games were one of the main forms of entertainment. It’s always been a part of human culture to play. People want to come together and be convivial. Playing games can be a sophisticated cultural experience alongside going to a museum or seeing a film. And every new cultural format goes on a journey from being regarded as populist to becoming an accepted vehicle for artistic expression. Film was the poor cousin to the fine arts in the first part of the last century; it only gradually won acceptance. I think we’re on the same journey with games.”

Back in St Giles, East Lothian-based composer Pippa Murphy, who devised Resonate the Labyrinth, listens to feedback from the playtesters. Do they think the music should be more intense so the Minotaur moves faster? Should it be faster? There are nods of agreement. Some tweaks are made, the music starts up and we shuffle back into position for another go.

“This is completely new territory for us,” says Pete Irvine, artistic director of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay (and an Uppie) who has just shown up to see how the playtests are going. “We don’t know if hundreds or tens of thousands will show up on the day. These four live games are basically artistic commissions in incredible venues that will only happen once, for a few hours. We’re going into the year of the Olympics and that’s how we came up with this idea. These aren’t games that are sporty or cerebral or extreme. But they are games.”

So why should people get out of their beds on New Year’s Day to snatch a ribbon off a Minotaur or win a coconut? Irvine laughs. “Because it’s fun,” is his reply. “It’s the perfect start to a New Year. And it’s never been done before. Come and play, do something different, and be part of another first for Edinburgh.” v

The New Year Games are at various venues across Edinburgh, from 2pm on 1 January www.thenewyeargames.com