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BREAKUP SQUAD (by Catt Small). 4 minutes.

Breakup Squad is a five-player game. I play as one of a team of three allied friends; we're trying to keep two exes away from each other at a party. The exes, controlled by rival players, are nice people but they're bad for each other. They need to stay apart for their own good. You can push other partygoers in front of them, build barriers of flesh to ensure that they stay separate; as a last-ditch effort you can just get in the way yourself. I'm playing this game at a party, and real-world crowds are around me, barriers of people I had to push through to get my turn: it feels like a good setting.

But after fifteen seconds of playing I realise: wait, no, I'm not a helpful friend at all! I'm one of the exes. And as an ex, I know what's best for me! I'm a grownup! These crowds are my enemies, these on-screen crowds and the real crowd around that wants me to fail. If I'd like to talk to someone at a party, then who are my monstrous friends to try to stop me? And all of a sudden I push my way towards an intensely adorable on-screen figure, my long-lost love, and we meet. Ah, it's so great to catch up! Why haven't we hung out lately? I high-five the real-world stranger who played the other ex: WELL DONE US. "This won't go well", the screen informs me, but it already has.

A couple of silly five-minute games, made in a few hours each...

chatbot's morning after: Chatbot is sad. Chatbot is confused. Chatbot is relying on you to make everything better.

This is a little experimental chatbot game using Elizascript, Terry Cavanagh's neat new build-your-own-chatbot tool.

Popstar Adventure: due to a scheduling mixup that's totally not your fault, your band's biggest concert ever and a really important jewel heist are scheduled to take place on the same night.

This Twine game came out of an afternoon game jam at Amaze in Berlin. We made games themed around "Family" or "Popstar Adventure" (you'll never guess which one I picked). I hadn't taken part in a game jam before, so it was slightly intimidating! But it turns out "game jam" just means "make a game quickly and try not to worry about it too much". I didn't quite finish in the allotted time (had a lot of polishing to do, and some more little story branches to add), but it was fun to try.

1. This is game number one. To play, make up 21 games. Explain the rules to all of them in five minutes.

2. Go round a circle of maybe eight people, taking turns to come up with a moral dilemma. Each time, everyone votes on what they'd do. You want a split as close to 50:50 as you can get, and you get penalty points for missing out - like, if you suggest a dilemma that gets a 6:4 vote, you get two penalty points. Fewest penalty points when you stop playing is the winner.

3. In a carpark, every car is a sleeping monster. If a car sees you, you'll die. Their headlights are eyes.

i.

Bees can distinguish many different colours.
They watch for arrows drawn in violet so deep
That we would call it ultra;
They readily note the polarisation of light.

Why not take advantage of this?
Think of all the possibilities for match-three games
Opened up by such varicoloured jewels.