Graphic Facilitating for DABBBLEZONE at Hastings Games Fest with Adventures + Wisdom Institute

At the start of this year, I had the pleasure of graphic facilitating at Hastings Games Festival with regular collaborators, Adventures + Wisdom Institute, as part of DABBBLEZONE.

What’s DABBBLEZONE? I hear you ask. Well, it’s a creative pop-up space where young people can try new skills within the world of games and the creative industries. Even better, they can gain hands-on work experience through live, real-world projects.

For this particular DABBBLEZONE, led by young people from local colleges, visitors could dream up their own game characters and concepts, try out a VR headset, test a game before its official release, and hear from Roblox game developers. Plus, some of the activity was even live-streamed onto the Roblox platform! Don’t ask me how - that part boggles the mind!

Live Illustration by Esther Springett

This was my first-ever games convention, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As a graphic facilitator for the day, I encouraged young visitors to get back to basics with analogue making. A table filled with an assortment of junk modelling items and, of course, plasticine invited them to use their hands to bring their own game characters to life. Once their characters were complete, they popped over to my graphic wall for a chat. What was their character’s name? Did it have any superpowers? What kind of world did it exist in? I captured these details on the graphic wall and by the end of the day, we had an incredible collection of crowd-sourced game characters and concepts!

One of my favourites was a time-dilation action game called Monday, all about stretching Sunday to delay Monday. Anyone who’s experienced the Sunday Scaries will relate to this, I’m sure!

I loved facilitating this event using live illustration and helping people share their ideas in such a playful way was a joy.

“Esther’s graphic facilitation was a key component of the DABBBLEZONE event at Hastings Games Fest. Working with young people, Esther supported their expression, capturing the creative energy from the messy table and taking it into another dimension.”

Co-Producers, Tyler and James

I can’t wait for more DABBBLEZONE pop-ups and more opportunities to capture the wild and vibrant imagination of young people!