Video by Tahiat Mahoob/www.tahiatmahboob.com
Our Mission
Come Out & Play promotes new forms of street games and play. We run games, events and festivals that turn city streets into giant playgrounds. We provide a forum for new types of public games and play by bringing together players eager to interact with the world around them and designers producing innovative new games and experiences.
We’re based in New York City, but we have run games all over the world.
We have city-size fun.
City-Wide Games
In 2006 the Come Out & Play Festival turned New York City into a playground for a weekend, then did the same for the city of Amsterdam in 2007. We returned home to NYC in 2008. And 2009. And 2010. Over the years, thousands of players have gathered to play dozens of city-wide games. Players raced through the night in a city-wide game of zombie tag. Friends faced off in life-sized Pong using only their ears to “hear” the ball. (Papier-mache) pigeons were pummeled with wiffleball bats. Bicyclists armed with spray chalk and stencils competed to claim and build bike lanes. Strangers worked together to build and race blindly through labyrinths as part of a ancient lost sport. Payphones produced points, and Tompkins Square Park became a putt-putt course. And it’s all just the beginning.
A Global Community
The Come Out & Play Festival wouldn’t be possible without help from the growing community of people interested in street games. We’d love to have your help in making the festival a success. Tell your friends about us, create and run a game at the festival, volunteer at the festival, sign up to play games, blog about us, ask your company to sponsor us, or start a similar festival in your hometown.
Contact Us
The Organizers
Debra Everett-Lane
For any design project, there’s a story to tell and experience. Debra draws upon her skills as a designer, writer, and educator to bring every story to life. As a designer, she has expertise in creating exhibits, games, spaces, and programs that foster creativity and collaboration, and make people curious about the world around them. And as an educator, she has experience with developing educational content and strategies. She brings these two perspectives together to design experiences for all ages, across multiple platforms, which enable audiences to discover, learn, share, and have fun. Debra is currently Assistant Director of Special Projects in the Exhibition Department at the American Museum of Natural History, where she develops content and visitor experiences for the new Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation (completion expected 2021) and other projects.
Nick Fortugno
Nick Fortugno is an entrepreneur, interactive narrative designer and game designer based in New York City. He is founder and principal of Playmatics (www.playmatics.com), a interactive development company. Playmatics has created a variety of digital and real-world experiences for organizations including Pro Publica, Red Bull, AMC (such as the CableFAX award winning Breaking Bad: The Interrogation), Disney, American Museum of Natural History, the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Red Cross/Red Crescent. For the past ten years, Fortugno has been a designer, writer and project manager on dozens of commercial and serious games, and served as lead designer on the downloadable blockbuster Diner Dash and the award-winning serious game Ayiti: The Cost of Life. Nick is a Lead Artist on the Frankstein A.I. project (featured at the Sundance New Frontier Festival in 2018), and has worked extensively on interactive narrative projects in a variety of formats. Nick is also a co-founder of the Come Out and Play street games festival (www.comeoutandplay.org) hosted in New York City and Amsterdam since 2006, and co-creator of the Big Urban Game for Minneapolis/St. Paul in 2003. Nick has taught game design and interactive narrative design for 15 years at institutions such as Columbia University and the Parsons School of Design, and has participated in the construction of game design and immersive storytelling curriculum. Some of Nick’s writing about interactive narrative can be found in the anthology Well-Played 1.0: Video Game, Value, and Meaning, published by ETC-Press.
Pete Vigeant
Creative Director & Generalist Designer with a focus on solving tough problems, making projects awesome, designing complete experiences, local multiplayer activations, live interactions, large groups, kids and education.
Video Games Designed & Shipped: Trivia Live, Shake It Up!, Ball Pit, Paint Here, Twerps!, Borough Gods, Robot Basketball, Cube Ball, Fruit Tattoo, Bee Racing, Feudal Football, SnB, Hat the Beast, Sticky Floats Parade & Truckin’ Amazing (In addition, Robot Basketball Tournament Edition, Robot Basketball Pro, Cube Ball Pro, Bee Racing Pro & Fruit Tattoo Pro) & others
Live Action Games: Live Action Pocket Monster Snap, Field Frogger, Mine Craft Adventure, The Floor is Dodgeball, Super Ship Sinkers, ROYGBIV, Categories, The Lost Treasure of M.O.W., PacManhattan
Greg Trefry
Greg Trefry has designed everything from 100-person live-action simulations for museums to documentary video games to giant dodgeball battles. He co-founded the game studio Gigantic Mechanic to explore new ways to bring fun and engaging experiences to the world around us through real-world, physical and social play. He co-founded and served as director of Come Out & Play. Greg teaches at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program and NYU Game Center. He wrote the book, Casual Game Design: Designing Play for the Gamer in All of Us. / LinkedIn / @gtrefry