:: Come Out & Play 2010 ::

The Come Out and Play Festival is a street games fesitval dedicated to exploring new styles of games and play.

Come Out & Play 2009 in New York

Great Whale Hunt
An all-night puzzle hunt

Start Time: Saturday June 13 at 8 PM
Location: Festival HQ at the The Tank (354 W 45th St. between 8th/9th Aves)
# of players: 100+
Duration: 5 hours
Required: At least 1 internet-enabled phone per team URL: http://whitewhalelabs.org/
Designers: White Whale Labs

The Great Whale Hunt is an all-night puzzle hunt, pitting you and your teammates against the best brainteasers we could come up with. Each team is given the same initial puzzle. working as a group, you solve the puzzle to reveal a clue that leads you to the location of the next challenge. puzzles range from mathematical ("how do i arrange these numbers?") to social ("is that a real homeless man, or a planted agent?"). Each puzzle you solve leads you one step closer to the location of the finish line. Teams compete against one another to reach the finish line first.

The Rules
Players form teams. teams work independently, and are expected to bring certain items such as an internet-enabled phone with them to the start line.

Teams assemble at the start line. each team is given a initial puzzle. puzzles, when solved, yield a location. upon solving a puzzle, the team heads to the indicated location to search for the next puzzle. Each puzzle is tagged with a unique codeword in a format that is easy to identify (ie. bold, caps, underlined, uniform font). Puzzles are tagged to avoid teams interpreting non-puzzles as puzzles. Teams verify that they discover the correct puzzle by submitting a codeword to game control, which then verifies that the submitted word is correct. play continues until a team reaches the final puzzle, which indicates the finish line.

Game control will monitor the progress of each team to ensure that the puzzles don't block all teams.

Teams start with an initial allotment of hints. teams gain additional hints every few hours; the time between additional hints decreases as the game progresses.

The game will be run in two phases. The first phase will take place in the West side of Manhattan, near The Tank. The majority of the game will take place in the second phase, located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Bio: White Whale Labs
Hari likes white whales. Nada has always wanted to be a caballero. Jennye is carbon neutral. Yotam is a ninja turtle in training. Despite our differences, we are all still giant nerds who love puzzles.

Hari played midnight madness with Yotam in 2007, and was sad when it didn't run in 2008. so, he decided to try to bring it back to life. Nada played Shinteki, and wanted to be involved in something similar. Jennye is too clever to not commit it to paper. A team was born.

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