Two cities urban game | Łódź – Berlin, 31.03.2012
We’ve always wanted to make a game in two cities at the same time. Suddenly, we had the opportunity to organize such a game in Łódź and Berlin. In any case, if we already had to begin creating such a game, we also wanted to immerse ourselves in as well as to get to know these two cities pretty well … physically being on the other side of the Oder river. Therefore, we tried to discover the essence of each city and we based the tasks for the game on these our observations and prevalent features of the two cities. Here there were Berlin sausages, and rickshaws from Łódź, and the Brandenburg Gate, and Łódź factories, and the Berlin Tacheles, as well as the Łódź dialect.
On the practical side, we wanted the teams to work together in Łódź and Berlin. Initially, we thought that all tasks should be performed by both teams simultaneously. It was difficult to test such a solution, but we tried to simulate this situation and came to the conclusion that despite the correctness of the idea, such mechanics will cause a lot of problems for the players – there will always be someone who is waiting for someone else. That is why we decided to sacrifice such simultaneous actions of the intercity teams – so finally the players of one team could interact with any team from another city, which greatly accelerated and facilitated the game. Technically, the cooperation was carried out through five windows – special places where participants could communicate with another team from the other side of the Oder river.
Einblicke is also an excellent example of a game, on the basis of which you can tell the whole history of urban games – logistics, reconnaissance, technical issues. For the game which takes place in two different cities and which was partially prepared by people who did not have experience in organizing such events, the entire organizational side of the game is of significant importance. While during our Łódź local events many things are frequently “solved or sort out by themselves” – an access to interesting places, organizing the tasks by animators, delivery of props or printed materials – for all that we have already found ways that we have only improved since then, yet, organizing such a game from scratch in another city is always a true challenge. Fortunately, after Einblicke we can safely say that all work was worth the efforts.
Sponsors: Fundacja Współpracy Polsko-Niemieckiej, Uniwersystet Łódzki, Miasto Łódź, Hertie-Stiftung
Project coordination (Berlin): Aleksandra Łuczak, Vojislav Radojicić
Project coordination (Łódź): Michał Grelewski
Game design: Vojislav Radojicić, Joanna Ufnalska, Przemysław Bogusławski, Michał Grelewski
Animators:
Łódź:
Jakub Tomczyk, Ola Harbat, Natalia Komorowska, Mateusz Pokora, Aga Adamczewska, Piotr Czaiński, Maria Frankiewicz, Piotr Lipski, Natalia Ufnalska, Zosia Lach, Mateusz Idzikowski, Hubert Kowalski
Berlin:
Johanna, Karoline Kraft, Emilia, Mateusz, Christian, Philipp, Vojislav Radojicić, Diane, Bernd-Kristian, Edyta, Zuzanna Hylla
Graphic design: Jakub Dygas
Video: Efekt Imago
Photos: Widzisz to?
– Vojo, możesz dzisiaj jechać do Berlina?
Z każdą naszą grą wiążą się wspomnienia. Zwykle spośród całej plejady przygód i niespodzianek najbardziej wyraźne jest jeden obraz – w przypadku międzymiastowej gry miejskiej Einblicke jest to obraz Vojislava, którego dzień przed grą wsadzamy w Polskiego Busa z misją ogarnięcia spraw na miejscu. W Berlinie. Cała reszta została w Łodzi, bo ta gra rozgrywała się jednocześnie w dwóch miastach.
(M.Grelewski)
