Running from 23 January 2017, Australia’s leading Live Games Company, Pop Up Playground proudly brings Melbourne their brand new immersive street adventure – Outside: The Cloud.
Taking place online, and in the physical world, Outside: The Cloud is a thrilling, real-life choose your own adventure where each week sees the release of a new episode consisting of documents and videos that will be hidden online, and passcodes that are concealed in the real world.
Dealing with cyber warfare and the controversial topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the intrigue of Outside: The Cloud stems from early 2016, when a radical environmental activist at a world leading nano-technology company accidentally unleashed an AI onto the internet. Gravely affecting those exposed before it was contained, this untested technology caused its victims to violently hallucinate.
Later that year, two scientists from the same company stole the prototype to destroy it, believing it to be too dangerous for the world. Now, new information has come to light that the company has already been secretly testing their weapon on the general public. Factions within factions, conflicting stories, who can you trust?
Played over two months on the streets of Melbourne, Outside: The Cloud is intellectual and physical play at its very best. This latest creation by Pop Up Playground will have players involved in gripping plot lines that take them all over inner city Melbourne and the CBD. An exercise for the brain and the body, Pop Up Playground works to empower people in a safe space, with challenging and playful games designed for everyone.
“Outside: The Cloud has been designed to make a players’ everyday world an epic one. To involve them in a story bigger than themselves,” says Artistic Director Robert Reid. “It’s a longplay game that makes a tram ride to work an adventure. Makes a Saturday a matter of life or death.”
Running since 2011, Pop Up Playground works with a vast array of professional writers, actors, game designers, set builders, and puzzle makers to produce interactive live entertainment and new sports. They’ve designed games for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Bell Shakespeare, Melbourne University, The State Library of Victoria, White Night Festival, VicHealth and City of Melbourne, have also run programs for Federation Square and the Melbourne Football Club and are the company behind Small Time Criminals, which has taken Melbourne by storm.
Pop Up Playground – Outside: The Cloud
Played throughout inner city Melbourne and the CBD
Dates: 23 January – 26 March 2017
Information and Bookings: www.popupplayground.com.au
Image: Sean Fabri, Jess Gonsalvez, Jack Beeb and Madeline Anderson – photo by Sarah Walker