Every summer on Governor’s Island, the Come Out and Play Festival brings its field day to New York City. It’s a chance for game designers to try out innovative games that can only be played outside, with a lot of people and a lot of space.
This year’s field day showed off 11 games, weird new competitive creations that enthusiasts would be hard pressed to find another chance to play again. The Observer showed up and took photos during four of the most popular events from the day.
This is how the people who make the video games you love spend their summer weekends (sometimes).
A player in “The Floor is Dodgeball” goes mad with power. The game mixes dodgeball with capture the flag, while limiting where players may step. The moment the purple team won this round. A final victory for team yellow, in “The Floor is Dodgeball.” A gatherer’s skilled fencing foils a hunter in “Bad Apples,” from Andrew Lohmann, a resource scouting game mixed with Quidditch. The clash of bubbles! A race begins in ESI Design’s “Tough Bubbler.” That moment when you get stuck upside down inside a giant bubble while running an obstacle course. She’s not going to win this race, but that’s okay. Two ships face off in Oliver Hong’s “Pirate Dodgeball,” a game where teams of sword fighters and bombardiers hang together as a fixed unit to fight on an open field. Games are all about the gear. The swords and cannonballs of “Pirate Dodgeball.”
![See the Crazy Game Fest That Went Down on Governor’s Island [Photos]](https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/07/come-out-and-play-9-e1468114175470.jpg?quality=80&w=970)