And there it is, and that’s what’ll happen and when. We can’t bloomin’ wait. We’ve also made a nice Google calendar programme here. Take note!

On Sunday afternoon somebody bought two tickets for Playful ‘09. They were the last two tickets. Well done that man. Achievement Un-flipping-locked!

So we’re all set for the big day on Friday. The newspaper is nearly ready to go to print, the stickers are on the way, Rex has his Over-head Projector to draw on…all that’s left to do is lock-down the details so that there’s no panic in the car on the way south on Thursday afternoon. Cripes.

But, hang on, there’s a couple of e-mails waiting for me this morning. Seems there’s a few folks a bit gutted about missing out on tickets…and Conway Hall does have a balcony…and these people have asked really nicely.

We don’t like saying “No”, so we’re making some more tickets available. But only a few ya hear. And you have to sit on the balcony. Ok? Deal. Go here for the very very very last few tickets.

For the past umpteen months we’ve had a slot in the programme reserved for Media Molecule – one of our favourite companies in the games industry. Their game ‘Little Big Planet’ came out the week of last year’s Playful, and since then we’ve watched them build and build on the most love-able game-world around.

The other day we got an e-mail letting us know who from the company would be popping along to talk to the ever-growing mass of Playful people. Safe to say, we’re chuffed over the moon to play host to Media Molecule Artistic Director, Kareem Ettouney:

Kareem’s passion for the possibilities of user generated levels and all the other wonders Little Big Planet offers is really inspiring. Check this interview in Edge. We’re not exactly sure yet what Kareem’s going to talk about but frankly we don’t care – whether it’s developing an art style for LBP, the way they go about creating sticker packs, or his new book. He’ll be on early in the day as he’s got to bop off to the Golden Joystick awards where he’s also speaking…and probably presenting as well as receiving awards.

Grand.

It’s boggling my mind…it really is. The brilliance of the stuff that this year’s line-up have been making just boggles my mind. Closing the day will be a talk from designer/artists/maker Chris O’Shea. As well as writing Pixelsumo and co-creating This Happened (a conference/event shindig we just wish we could get tickets for everytime a new Happening is announced), Chris recently did this bit of majesty in Liverpool:

Hand from Above from Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.

Unsuspecting pedestrians walking into the path of the Big Screen camera “will be tickled, stretched, flicked or removed entirely in real-time by a giant deity.” Makes me think of a gritty paving and rain-soaked northern England version of Black & White, with a bit of Benny Hill thrown in.

Chris is going to be talking at Playful about “creating installations full of charm, joy & wonder, including police lights, chickens, giant hands, air guitar, xray torches, spinning mirrors and music boxes.”

Woohah!

We’ve been fit to bursting with this little secret since early last week…but were sworn to silence until this morning, Thursday 22nd October 2009 year of our lordly conference.

We’re proud to add two new faces to this year’s line-up – Alfie Dennen and Paula Le Dieu. Their project Bus Tops has just been chosen as the winning entrant in the London arc of the Artists Taking The Lead fund (an Arts Council and London Olympics public art project). Basically, they’ve got the go-ahead to create a London-wide networked canvas of LED displays on the roofs of bus shelters that anyone can create art and games for.

Speaking to Alfie on the phone last week, he was almost inaudibly giddy, and told me about lots of frankly crazy and brilliant applications they have in mind, one of which is Borough Pong.

So, unless I’m mistaken, we’ve canned an Exclusive in this pair. Unless we’ve gone mad Playful ‘09 will be their first public speaking engagement since the annoucenent…apart from, probably, the news…the one show…this morning…but they don’t count.

Thanks to everyone who has e-mailed us about volunteering to help at Playful ‘09. We’ll be getting back to everyone by, we hope, tomorrow at the latest. We’ve got a list of fine folks, and we’ll be putting their names into a giant hypothetical hat over a cup of builder’s in our warm office, and picking out a few or more. We’ll be in touch.

In other news, we can’t quite contain ourselves with excitement now that we’ve decided what to do for the physical ‘programme’ at Playful ‘09. We’re chuffed to the rafters to be working with Newspaper Club, who will not only be sorting out the print and delivery, but have also come on board as a sponsor or, as we prefer to put it, Supporting Chums (check the sidebar for our other chums).

So this year, as well as getting a free lunch, as much tea as you can humanly drink (responsibly), you get a newspaper with pages and words and pictures and crosswords and everything. We can’t wait to get our fingers all inked up on the morning of Friday 30th October…already the though of cutting the wire reminds of paper-round days wearing long-johns at six in the morning.

Brill.

P.S. This week the folks that bring you Playful have been to see Up and Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee, and recommend that everyone should see both of ‘em. One of them made us cry with laughter, the other one just made us cry (three times).

This morning we’re tipping our hats in the direction of VW’s The Fun Theory project. If it’s not already obvious, we like things…normal boring things like making tea or walking through a door…we like it when these things become fun. Become something you can PLAY or play WITH. So a Monday morning hats off for this and these:

It’s getting pretty darn close now. So close that we’re getting down to all the little details…(see our last post regarding graphing the amount of tea needed). It’s these little details that make the day happen the way it’s supposed to happen. I mean, setting up a projector and making sure all the speakers are on time doesn’t sound like a lot, but speaking from experience it usually takes up THE ENTIRE DAY.

The thing is, there are many many more little details that need sorting out. For example, I would not want to be within a mile of Conway Hall if there wasn’t enough water for tea during the morning break. So we’re putting the word out for volunteers…

If you fancy helping us out on Friday 30th October, manning registrations and other important jobs, then get in touch. You get a free pass to the whole day in return, and you’ll get plenty of time to see some of the amazing line-up.

We’ve got a bit of a thing for graphs. Nothing weird…we don’t think. Anyhow, we’re chuffed to the rafters to have graphic designer and graph wrangler Nicholas ‘Feltron‘ Felton flying in from NYC to join us at Playful ‘09.

Today we started graphing things to do with Playful ‘09 using Nicholas’ site Daytum. In the image about you can see represented some of the most important things for the day – Balloons, Tea, Speakers, and Attendees. We’ll be adding more as we think of them in the coming weeks…

Hey!

At the end of last week we had a competition – first to guess who the smiling bearded lower-half of a face in the Eat Your Games logo belonged to would win one of the ever-dwindling supply of tickets to Playful ‘09. Well, we can now announce that the face belongs to Simon Oliver, from Hand Circus (makers of the fine Rolando games). Here he is in full-face glory:

Beautiful. And congratulations to Henry Cooke, who goes home tonight with a free ticket to Playful ‘09, where he’ll be able to see Simon Oliver talking about developing the Rolando games, and much more besides. Today our speakers page got a MASSIVE overhaul and now includes the beaming faces of Leila Johnston, Roo Reynolds, Alice Taylor, Kate Lindemann, Duncan Gough, Russell Davies, James Bridle and more, with more to come. Crikey.

If you haven’t already done so, book your ticket now as Playful ‘09 is filling up (and our ads are about to go up on The Guardian) – get yrself to http://playful09.eventbrite.com. Forthwith!