Three Sided Football Arcade is the first videogame adaptation of the namesake sport. It’s a local competitive game for three human players.  Three Sided Football Arcade is the first videogame adaptation of the namesake sport. It’s a local competitive game for three human players – the AIs control the two teammates but there’s no one or two player mode. The team that concedes the least goals wins, the goal scored are accounted only in case of a tie. 3SF was originally released as part of the  Wonderville bundle.

3 twin stick controllers are required. It should work with Playstation, Logitech and Xbox Controllers.

CONTROLS
Left stick to move

When controlling the ball:
A button to shoot (hold down to charge, release to kick)
B button to pass to the AI player

When not controlling the ball:
A button to tackle
B button to switch controlled players

When the goalie has the ball:
A button to pass the ball
B button to switch the player you are passing the ball to

Press 1 to toggle post rendering effects on and off

RULES
The team that concedes the least goals wins, the goal scored are accounted only in case of a tie.
Each game lasts 3 minutes.

HISTORY
The original 3 Sided Football was conceived by Danish Situationist Asger Jorn in 1964. 3SF was meant to explain his concept of Triolectics, a detournement of the Hegelo-Marxist dialectics. Jorn’s Triolectical Materialism was presented in an obscure pamphlet titled “De la méthode triolectique dans ses applications en situlogie générale” and published by the Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism.
The idea of an anarchist football played by three opposing teams in an elegant hexagonal pitch survived the oblivion and was occasionally put into practice by artists and neo-situationists in the ’90s.
Today there are a few clubs and tournaments dedicated to 3SF.

You can play the game here: molleindustria.itch.io/3sf

Arrog is an enigmatic 2D puzzle adventure game that combines hand-drawn art with a striking black-and-white aesthetic, punctuated by subtle color accents. This Peruvian point-and-click game delves into the profound theme of the afterlife, evoking deep emotions and stirring players’ senses through its simple yet engaging puzzle mechanics. Developed by Hermanos Magia and Leap Game Studios, Arrog offers a fresh perspective on death, drawing inspiration from Latin American folklore and traditions. The game has garnered international acclaim, winning the Audience Award at the Independent Games Festival and top honors at Brazil’s Independent Games (BIG) Festival, among other prestigious accolades. A thought-provoking and visually captivating experience, Arrog invites players to explore a unique cultural interpretation of life, death, and what lies beyond.

During the festival you can play a free demo [here]

It’s a mobile game from Argentina where you learn how to prepare the perfect mate.

Upon dying, you arrive at the Mate Heaven, only to discover a peculiar requirement for entry: serving a great mate to God. The problem? You only drink vanilla latte macchiatos.

Created by Diego Azario and Nano Bevacqua, this game pays tribute to one of Argentina’s most cherished traditions. To earn your place in heaven, you must train at the Cebatorio, racing against the clock to master the art of brewing bitter, sweet, and herbal mate—becoming a true Cebador in the process.

You can play the demo version here

The game is in Spanish, but you can watch this video for English instructions on how to play.

As part of this year’s Now Play This and its focus on Folk Games, we’re excited to share Isabell Arver’s doctoral phd thesis that bridges traditional play and digital storytelling from a queer, feminist, and decolonial perspective. Whether through analog rituals or digital counter-fictions, the work highlights how play becomes a space of resistance, memory, and imagination. This is a celebration of games as living cultural practices, ancestral, political, and future-facing.

Thesis defence:

Abstract: To celebrate two decades of curating art and video games, I embarked on a global tour of 17 countries in the countries from the Souths in June 2019, with a focus on celebrating women’s, queer, feminist, and decolonial practices. My journey has led me to meet and interview nearly 300 artists and game designers, and to organize six exhibitions, which revolve around themes, such as the decolonization of imaginaries, the exploration of political and social counter-fictions through art and video games, techno feminism, immersion in cross-species imaginaries, and the dialogue between ancestral and digital knowledge. Although the video game industry in 2019 was still led by the USA, Europe, and Japan, the video game market has experienced considerable changes over the past four years. Southern regions have become the new strong markets for video games, characterized by their youthful populations and increased online entertainment consumption. This evolution has enabled an independent production sector to reclaim its identity, its narrative, and its representations. It has also given rise to counter-fiction from the margins. Using strategies such as counter-gaming, misidentification (Jose Esteban Munoz), and desculonización (Re Kebra), the new generations occupy digital space to amplify their voice in the ongoing struggles to reclaim bodies and territories. Rather than questioning the under-representation of marginalized voices in digital content, this project proposes a queer, feminist, and decolonial perspective on the geography of art and video games. It presents some 150 games and digital creations that plunge us into alternative universes, narratives, environments, and cosmogonies. These dissident counter-fictions approach the concept of the living from a different point of view, strategically using games and art to raise awareness of the environmental, political, social, and economic challenges associated with the production and consumption of video games. The project advocates educational activism through “green games” to address these pressing issues.

You can download the full thesis [here]

Despelote is a soccer game about people, capturing the everyday life of Quito through the eyes of eight-year-old Julián. Players can dribble, pass, and shoot their ball around the city’s streets and parks, observing how people react and how the atmosphere shifts as Ecuador gets closer to qualifying for the World Cup. The game, co-created by Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena, is a semi-autobiographical reflection on childhood, soccer, and community in Latin America. Featuring authentic Ecuadorian voices, Despelote aims to create an honest and immersive portrayal of the city’s culture.

You can play the free demo here: store.steampowered.com/app/2367820/despelote/

More info here: https://despelote.game/

As part of our collaboration with Cologne Game Lab,  partner and co-curator of Friday’s symposium programme, we’re excited to share the video of Die Näherinnen (The Seamstresses), a student-developed alt.ctrl game that brings history to life through experimental interaction. Cologne Game Lab is one of the most vibrant spaces for critical, creative, and future-facing game design in Europe, and their presence at the festival reflects our shared commitment to fostering creative, thoughtful play.

Die Näherinnen shows another side of our Folk Games curation. This game reflects the intimacy of everyday conversations, the quiet resistance of shared memories, the relations and friendships that arise between a group of working women. It is about the kind of history that isn’t written down, but sewn into fabric, whispered between friends, and passed on through gestures and work. The game works as a reminder that play can be a form of remembrance, care, and connection.

The developers write in their site:

The way we record history is always a reflection of power. So how do we tell history of the powerless? History that has never been written down?

Die Näherinnen is an experimental game about reconstructing unrecorded history.

Play one day in the life of a German seamstress in the late 19th century. Operate a real vintage sewing machine while you talk, argue and sing with your fellow working women. But don’t forget to work!

Even without history books, we still have memories, stories, places, and objects recollecting the past. In this way, history becomes a creative endeavour.

The game generates new stories by combining different narrative modules every playthrough, allowing you to put together your own interpretation of a working class woman’s life. Each game run ends with the display of a digital fabric influenced by your gameplay.

How do the seamstresses leave their mark?

The following video takes the viewer behind-the-scenes and into the game design process of The Seamtress

You can learn more about the game at their website: dienaeherinnengame.com 

The team behind the game: Pia, Lina, Lara, Marni and Tabea.

We are an all-women dev team from Cologne who have joined forces to tell the stories we want to play!

We are also students at the Cologne Game Lab, where Die Näherinnen was first created.

Last year, Now Play This partnered with Playtopia Festival in Cape Town to showcase games as part of their Indie Planet chapter. This year, we’re thrilled to continue the collaboration by sharing a preview of a project-in-progress by Imameleng Masitha, developed for the upcoming Playtopia edition. Deeply connected to our festival theme, the project explores the digitization and archiving of Indigenous games in South Africa—focusing on diketo—and reflects on how these living traditions can be preserved through ethical, community-led, and decolonial approaches. Imameleng has shared an introductory video and abstract to present her ongoing research.

Exploring digitization and archiving of Indigenous games, diketo
Imameleng Masitha
Cape Town, South Africa
2025

Indigenous games in South Africa and across the African continent are regarded as intangible
cultural heritage or living heritage. Their classification as such highlights the challenge of
digitizing or archiving them without losing their essence, as these games are deeply rooted in
oral traditions and practical transmission across generations. The games exist under many
names, varying by culture, region, and country, and they reflect the social values, knowledge
systems, and communal practices of African societies. However, the influence of digital
technologies—especially the growing dominance of computer and television games—has
contributed to the decline in the intergenerational transfer of these indigenous practices. As
Sakalaka and Roux et al. (2023: 269) point out, children are increasingly conditioned to view
Western games as “superior” to Indigenous ones, further accelerating the marginalization of
traditional games. Consequently, many indigenous games are nearing obsolescence in African
countries.

Despite these challenges, South Africa recognizes the cultural importance of indigenous games
through institutional support. The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, along with the
Department of Basic Education, plays a key role in promoting and sustaining these games as
part of national heritage. Furthermore, the legislative framework provided by the Protection,
Promotion, Development, and Management of Indigenous Knowledge Act 6 of 2019 supports
the safeguarding of indigenous knowledge systems, including traditional games.
I am excited to be exploring the making of these games through the Playtopia Festival in 2025,
where I will be experimenting with prototypes that reimagine these games without taking away
their significance or erasing their memory. This research acknowledges the critical need to
preserve Indigenous games while exploring ethical and decolonial approaches to their
digitization. It argues that preservation strategies must be community-led, culturally sensitive,
and rooted in the values of the knowledge holders to ensure the continuity and relevance of
Indigenous games in contemporary society.

Learn more about Playtopia [ here ]

Fierce Axolotl is preparing a special live stream from the USA featuring Kind Words 2, a game where players send kind messages to strangers, which aligns perfectly with the theme of “communal meaning-making” that impregnates this year’s festival.

You can join the twitch stream on Saturday 12th April at 7 pm UK / 2pm EST here

Kind Words 2 is a game that fosters kindness and connection among players. In this cozy environment, players can send and receive letters, share recommendations, and participate in various activities that promote positive interactions. The spirit of folk games becomes present in the game through its emphasis on community and shared experiences. Much like traditional folk games that bring people together, this game creates a space for individuals to connect, share, and support one another. The nostalgic feel of the game, combined with its innovative approach to communication, allows players to rewrite the rules of interaction in a digital age, fostering a sense of belonging and mutual care.

Fierce Axolotl (they/them) is a fiercely kind content creator from Mexico, currently living in the US with their spouse and two tabby cats. They showcase a wide variety of indie games on their Twitch channel while creating a caring and supportive community. Fierce also donates all the money they make through their content to Mexican charities and mutual funds. 

To watch previous streams you can check their twitch page: twitch.tv/fierceaxolotl

Hawk and Puma is a minimalist game that pays tribute to Guaman Poma, the indigenous chronicler of the Andes. Through a research-creation process, this game reimagines Guaman’s journey, exploring themes of racism, sovereignty, and religion from decolonial aesthetics and Andean-inspired music.

This project has been developed in collaboration with members of the ÑawpaÑan community in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Cusco, Peru, allowing us to create the final version in English, Spanish, and Quechua, and plan upcoming ludic workshops with community youth as part of the ethical research-creation process.

Content Warning:

This game includes explicit depictions of violence, based on the historical chronicles of Guamán Poma. These depictions are used to highlight the abuses suffered by the indigenous peoples of the region during the colonial period. The content may be disturbing and is presented with the purpose of raising awareness about the history and struggles of these peoples. Viewer discretion is advised while playing.

You can play the game here

Laidaxai and the Black Tree is a 2D action-adventure game inspired by the Argentinean Chaco, based on a magical dream world.
Laidaxai is a child of the Qom community who begins a shamanic journey to save her people from a mysterious illness. Through this spiritual journey, based on the ancestral tale of the Nawe Epaq (Black Tree), the game celebrates women as bearers of memory, strength and healing within their community.

With no violence or enemies to destroy, the player connects with the flora, fauna native to the littoral, and ancestral spirits that inhabit this often forgotten universe. 

This game was created in collaboration with members of the Qom community of Chaco.

You can play the game [ here ]

An interactive poem about a walk through the city of Narrm (Melbourne, Australia), and how the scenery, architecture, and everyday objects remind us of the Hong Kong and Turkish street games our parents used to play. A tiny tribute to the folk games passed down through generations and the stories behind them.

A tiny tribute to the folk games passed down through generations and the stories behind them.

Games featured:

✌️ Stairs Game (猜樓梯)
🪨 Five Stones (Beş Taş)
🐤 Eagle Catches the Chicks (麻鷹捉雞仔)
🫏 Long Donkey (Uzun Eşek)
🪢 Chinese Jump Rope (跳橡筋繩)
🥜 Walnut Game (Ceviz Oyunu)

You can play the game [here]

About its creators:

Helen Kwok:

Helen Kwok (she/her) is a Hong Kong-born multimedia artist and designer who creates participatory installations, experimental games, and public art activations. Her creative practice often involves blending the digital and physical, crafting experiences that playfully extend beyond the screen. Based in Narrm (Melbourne, Australia), she has showcased her work across Australia and around the world, including at IndieCade, A MAZE., Now Play This, The Overkill, and Freeplay Independent Games Festival.

Chad Toprak:

Chad Toprak (he/him) is an award-winning experimental game designer, independent curator, and a Turkish Muslim immigrant based in Narrm (Melbourne, Australia). He makes playful installations, public art, alternative controllers, and experimental games. A champion of game-making as arts practice, Chad is a former Artistic Director of Freeplay and ½ of the Hovergarden collective. Since 2023, he has been serving as Games Investment Manager at Screen Australia, funding and supporting Australian independent games.

Mythmatch is a narrative merge game about finding your people and building community beneath the oppressive demands of the Olympians. It juxtaposes cozy village building with high-intensity minigames to tell a story about power and coming to terms with privilege.  The game follows Artemis as she navigates a society where mortals struggle under the weight of divine influence and in doing so it reinterprets Greek mythology, transforming it into a deeply human narrative about finding belonging and pushing back against oppressive systems.

Folk games often reflect communal storytelling and shared cultural memory. Mythmatch embraces this by reshaping well-known myths to highlight contemporary struggles with privilege and power. By allowing players to build a diverse, self-sustaining community in the face of systemic challenges, the game captures the spirit of folk storytelling: collective resilience, adaptation, and the power of reinterpreting the past to make sense of the present.

Moo Yu, the creative director at Team Artichoke, will be doing a microtalk on Friday evening meetup. Tickets are available here 

You can play the free demo here 

Roombattle is a chaotic and stylized battle game designed for all ages, where players control vacuum cleaners equipped with balloons and sharp objects. The goal? Be the last player standing with a balloon! Alongside the intense battles, Roombattle offers a variety of mini-games, creating a dynamic, unpredictable experience. Compete across different rooms, personalize your vacuum cleaner, and prepare for victory in this fast-paced, fun-filled experience with up to 6 friends.

Roombattle blends humor, celebration, and innovative mechanics, tapping into the tradition of playful childhood battles and digital battle royales. This game is a perfect example of how contemporary games reinterpret and subvert traditional play, transforming the experience into a party game that invites rule-making and strategic fun. Join the action and try the demo on Steam – it’s time to clean up with your friends!

Download demo here

The Tale of the Fox and the Crane is an art game installation that blends ancestral knowledge, origin stories, and the present—an approach central to artist Laura’s work. Inspired by the Japanese folk legend Kitsune no Yomeiri, the game reinterprets the mystical connection between nature’s signs and human storytelling.

In this version, we are sharing the web version of the game, which, while lacking the immersive installation experience, still preserves the beauty of the story. Played with a Kinect sensor in its original form, the game immerses players in a vast projection where they shape a love story between a fox and a crane. Through exploration and interaction with nature, players nurture the bond between these symbolic beings, echoing the way folklore ties the natural world to human relationships.

Originally commissioned by Game On, El arte en juego in 2015 (Argentina) the game continues the tradition of folk play by transforming myth into a living, interactive experience.

You can play the game here: lildeer.itch.io/the-tale-of-the-fox-and-the-crane

The Well’s Blessing is a short narrative-driven first-person exploration and puzzle game in which three animal-like teenagers embark on a journey of self-discovery as they wander the mystical Sanctuary of the Old Well, uncovering its history and meeting other curious visitors.

Building on environmental and enactive storytelling, The Well’s Blessing explores the contemporary tensions between tradition and modernity through a lighthearted yet introspective coming-of-age story. By externalizing the protagonists’ inner discovery through an open-ended exploration experience, players are encouraged to get lost, carve their own path, and find meaning in the environment around them.

This game is currently being developed by BIG STRETCH, a newly formed indie studio/art collective composed of a diverse team of young queer artists, composers, writers, and developers, primarily based in Barcelona. Originally conceived as Gerard San Miguel’s Final Degree Project in Audiovisual Communication at Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona), The Well’s Blessing is supported by ARSENAL’s “GAMEPLAY” university incubation program for alternative videogames.

Stay tuned for the free demo that will be reales on the team’s itch.io page when the festival begins. Learn more about the game and stay up to date with their blog: https://big-stretch.itch.io/the-wells-blessing

Tic Tac Toe Thing reimagines the classic game of tic-tac-toe by introducing a new strategic layer: the ability to cancel an opponent’s move—except for the most recent one. This simple yet powerful twist transforms a familiar folk game into a dynamic battle of wits, where adaptation and counterplay are as crucial as making a winning line. The game’s materiality also shifts from the traditional paper grid to an interactive LED-based interface, blending tactile engagement with digital aesthetics.

Presented as part of this year’s festival theme on folk games, Tic Tac Toe Thing embodies the spirit of appropriation and reinvention. It takes a universally recognized pastime and reworks its core mechanics, demonstrating how folk games can evolve through new rules and new mediums. By shifting tic-tac-toe into an interactive, light-based experience, the piece highlights the playful tension between tradition and innovation, inviting players to engage with an old game in a fresh, unexpected way.

We share here a video by its creator Shuang Cai hoping to inspire new reinventions of the game.

Falmouth University is joining Now Play This online with two game prototypes developed by Bethany Collinge and Mateo San Miguel Cabrera

As part of the MA Game Design, students take GAM712, a rapid prototyping module where they develop three prototypes over seven weeks, each based on a different theme. Bethany Collinge ’s project was created around the theme of metaphor, incorporating folk games as an optional design constraint. The resulting prototype explores the expressive potential of folk-inspired mechanics in a digital context.

Meanwhile, in GAM713 Experimental Game Design focuses on serious and artistic games. Mateo San Miguel Cabrera, an international student from Peru, developed a narrative-based puzzle game aimed at teaching and preserving the Quechua language. While not a folk game in the traditional sense, Matteo’s project aligns with the festival’s themes by engaging with cultural preservation, oral traditions, and the role of play in safeguarding intangible heritage.

Both prototypes are experimental works in progress, reflecting the students’ engagement with folk games and game design as a means of cultural expression. Their inclusion in the festival highlights the evolving relationship between folk traditions and contemporary game development.

Both modules are directed by Dr. Jeff Howard, an Associate Professor of Games and Occulture at Falmouth University, specializing in the intersection of games, occultism, and esoteric traditions. A scholar and practitioner, he has written extensively on game design, including Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives and Game Magic: A Designer’s Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice. His work explores play as a transformative experience, making him a key voice in discussions about folk games, mythology, and ritual in game design.

About the games:

WOLF AND SHEEP (AND TROLL!) 

Wolf and Sheep (and Troll!) is a metaphor for online abuse and bullying that incorporates the classic tag folk game, Wolf and Sheep into a fun arcade-like experience combining the mechanics of Vampire Survivors and Defender. While the game itself is fun to play, the player increasingly realises that if they escalate the online war of ideas, things only get worse for everyone!

About the game design process

The game was built in a four-week period for a module that came with the constraints of metaphor and folk game.  In researching folk games, I came across the Nordic tag game ‘Wolf and Sheep’ where the wolf tags a number of sheep and has them join their side. The Nordic roots made me think of trolls and so the metaphorical idea was suddenly clear to me.

I first made a world occupied by children who have fun lives playing football, dancing, playing hide and seek and going to school and home. Into this, I added a player who could tag them and take them back to their camp, where over time, they become grey and appear aggressive. They are definitely not having fun now!

In the second phase, I added trolls, who have a similar objective. The trolls make classic online troll insults and attempt to bully the player out of the game whilst also recruiting children to their cause. The player can challenge the trolls initially by firing questions at them and later through power ups by giving them the cold shoulder, surrounding them in ‘warm fuzzies’ or fending them off with a defensive attitude!

Ultimately, the only way to win the game is to defeat trolls and never take anyone back to your camp during a level! Most players don’t do this and have fun but end up making a chaotic world that is far from the idyllic starting point.

Bethany Collinge

I am a 29 year old British Fine Artist who has been working on games since 2021. I am passionate about making experiences that are both fun and meaningful. Most of my games feature my hand-drawn art style and I’m always seeking innovative ways to combine this with different game genres and styles.

You can play the game here: https://gx.games/games/d8r1n6/wolf-and-sheep-and-troll-/

PALLQA SIMI 

Pallqa Simi is a short, text-based experience set at the start of the Spanish conquest of Perú. You (a Spanish scout) venture into the Andes to find Domingo de Tovar, a previous scout who hasn’t returned from an expedition. Shortly into your journey, you meet a Chasqui, a messenger from the Inca empire, and with his help you learn the basics of the  Quechua language.

About the game design process
By using context clues, deductive reasoning, and conjecture, players must interpret and learn Quechua to the best of their abilities to navigate the peculiar circumstances their character finds themselves in and rescue Domingo.

The idea for Pallqa Simi came from a mix between my interest in language decipherment games like Chants of Sennaar and my Peruvian background. While I never had much direct exposure to Peruvian cultures or history (apart from school), I always knew that one day I wanted to make a game to explore and learn more about them and give players a glimpse into them, hopefully piquing their interest.

I really enjoyed working on the game despite the tremendous amount of effort that it took to understand the basics of a new language enough to be able to teach it to others through gameplay in a limited timeframe. I am confident in the authenticity of the representation of Quechua in Pallqa Simi, but I have to make clear that I did not have access to primary sources for translations and that the game should not be treated as a primary source for language learning.

The goal of the project isn’t to teach Quechua, but rather to raise awareness of the language and its native roots, help preserve Quechua through the medium of video games, and to attempt a natlang-based approach at language decipherment games, which could inspire future games in the genre to use natlangs, with the purpose of making language learning more ‘fun’ or simply allowing different avenues for language learning in general, through video games, in this case.

Mateo San Miguel Cabrera
I’m a 23 year old Peruvian game designer, and I’ve been making games for as long as I can remember. I love making (and playing!) all kinds of games, but particularly ones that inspire curiosity, creativity, make you think and pay attention. With experience in music and programming, I try to give my all to each project and use my skills to make it the best it can be

Staty tunned for the link to play the game

Falmouth University Games Academy