Playful Learning 2026 Programme

Fly in or flock of! Getting lost in playful game design

Lead Author: Sarah Pavey

Additional authors: Vici Daphne Händel, Malcolm Murray, Jen Bright, Joe Macleaod-Iredale, Manisha Mort, Fey Cole

Timetable: Thursday Session 4: 10:00-10:45, Terrace Room

Description:

A chance to get in touch with your inner self or perhaps your inner seagull and unleash your competitiveness interweaved with cunning team play.

At the Playful Learning Conference 2025, a group of delegates wandered Into the Woods of a game jam and emerged with something unexpected: Flock Off! a chaotic, strategic, laugh-out-loud board game about people, seagulls and stolen chips. This session invites delegates to retrace that journey and, crucially, to get lost in play themselves.
This 45-minute session is structured as a playful, participatory workshop where delegates will both experience and unpick a live tabletop game. After a short introduction, we will briefly share the story of Flock Off!’s creation during a Guinness World Record attempt for the shortest organised game jam, and how that spontaneous idea evolved through repeated playtesting, redesign, disagreement, laughter and learning.
Delegates will then learn the rules of Flock Off! (don’t worry shouting “Flock Off!” is mandatory, but rule-learning is light-touch), before diving into a fast-paced round of gameplay. Participants in small groups will be split into teams of People and Seagulls, navigating chance, strategy, cooperation and sabotage. The game mechanics deliberately blur control regardless of team allegiance. Players may be forced to move food, people, or seagulls, creating moments of tension, delight and ethical dilemma.
Following gameplay, we will pause to reflect together. Drawing directly on the lived experience of the game just played. We will explore questions such as:
• What makes something playful rather than simply creative?
• How does uncertainty support adult learning?
• What happens when rules are clear, but outcomes are not?
• How does “getting lost” (Into the Woods) create space for collaboration, risk-taking and insight?
• What advice can you offer to the developers regarding the marketing of the game?
The session closes by inviting delegates to consider how playful game design principles including iteration, constraint, shared laughter and meaningful stakes can transfer into their own learning, teaching and facilitation contexts.
This session is for anyone curious about play as a serious method, games as learning systems, and what can happen when we collectively agree to fly in… or flock off.

References, web links and other resources:

Playful Learning Conference 2025 Joe Macleod-Iredale, “The Shortest Organised Game Jam” session
Flock Off! rules and development materials (designed at PlayLearn25)