ESI Design takes part in Come Out and Play, an organization that creates large and small scale public gaming experiences. Most recently, we created a series of games for Shark Day at the American Museum of Natural History. Check out the quick review of Shark Day in this blog post. This summer we will be doing more with Come Out and Play in early July on Governors Island. The Come Out and Play festival will take place July 18th and 19th.

The City of Denver has launched a street game experience that can make any outdoor gamer jealous. Oh Heck Yeah is an Immersive Street Arcade taking place in downtown Denver. It started early in June and will last through July. Stretching along Champ Street in the city’s theatre district, two city blocks are full of street and custom installations that take spectators into a modern game world.

The games are developed by Denver Based game firms Legwork Studio and Mode Set. Using Kinect devices, the games are controlled by the physical movements of the audience, putting the participants right into the game, and utilize the large LED screens of the theaters themselves. Check out the video above and a series of video game examples here. If you are passing through Denver during the summer, be sure to check out these live, street games. The arcade transforms the urban landscape and reinvests the streets with a sense of play and shared experience. These are important elements in the future of our city spaces.