Common Ground: Playtest
Connecting young people with heritage sites
A series of playful game-design workshops for teenagers across East Anglia’s heritage sites. Creating interactive adventures that brought local history and nature to life in surprising new ways.
About the project
Developed at Coney with Norfolk & Norwich Festival, we created and delivered a series of creative, playful workshops for 13-18 year-olds across heritage sites in East Anglia over summer 2022. Young people learned about game-design, teamwork and interactive design, to dream up new ways for audiences to explore their local heritage sites.
Over August 2022, we landed in four different heritage sites and worked with dozens of teenagers across the region. Over four week-long workshops, we developed interactive experiences that allowed audiences to explore the heritage and natural sites in unique ways, guided by the interests and creativity of the young people involved.
The sites
In Peckover House (National Trust), we created an immersive smartphone adventure inviting the audience to the 300th birthday of the house.
At Flag Fen Archeology Site, we developed a time-travel immersive experience that transported audiences 3000 years into the past.
At Carlton Marshes (Suffolk Wildlife Trust), we developed ‘The Missing Egg’, an exciting mystery adventure exploring Carlton Marshes rich natural heritage for 6–12-year-olds.
In Kings Lynn (Norfolk Wildlife Trust), we built an audio tour exploring the hidden natural spots of the town, guided by an old fox seeking green corridors. This piece then was developed further with Norfolk Wildlife Trust to become Nature Corridor Protectors, a free family phone adventure to explore local wildlife in King’s Lynn.
Watch the Playtest film
As part of Playtest, local filmmaker Will Fielding was commissioned to create a short film capturing the fun, excitement and learning achieved during the four weeks of the project.
Credits
Common Ground was delivered in partnership with Colchester + Ipswich Museums, Norfolk Wildlife Trust, SHARE Museums East, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, The National Trust and The Prince’s Trust. The three-year funded project began in 2020 and finished in March 2023, supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Co-directors Toby Peach and Rhianna Ilube
Producers Marie Klimis and Nathan Charles
Programmer Suzannah Hurst
Sound Designer Jen Igiri
Community Artists Lil Woods, Jack Scott, Will Karenga and Maddie Exton
Common Ground Team Georgia Jacob, Leona Wilson, Ellen Harling and Lizzie Figura-Drane
Project original developed at Coney