There seems to be a lot of talk of human shaped animals roaming Canon Hill Park at the moment.

Some say they have seen rabbits chasing foxes through the bushes, only to find human footprints when they reach the spot… Whatever the explanation, these creatures are known locally as The Changelings.

Expeditions to discover more about these creatures are being run by Birmingham-based art group a.a.s, exploring concealed routes and hidden dens to trace the secrets of The Changelings.

To take a two-hour trip into the undergrowth, head over to Cannon Hill Park on 28 and 29 August at 10am-12pm and 2-4pm.

Tickets can be bought from mac website for £3.30 and £2.20 concessions.

Play isn’t just for kids! Come and join BARG as they host 2 ridiculously fun summer events at the mac to introduce you to the world of pervasive games.

With any luck you won’t need any more convincing and will just run straight over to register for one/both of these (it’s free).

Register for Sunday 15 August and games such as Bull Hunt, Parse the Parcel, Sonar Goggles and Search and Replace will be yours for the playing.

Register for Sunday 29 August and get MYSTERY! Although Enter The Arena makes me think, for reasons not worth explaining, of Prodige Namor’s ‘Mission‘.

The team, named DarkMatter Designs designed Boro-Toro, a platform puzzle game which uses an innovative control system using Wii technology.

Since leaving University two members of the team now work for RockStar North, the British games company behind the hugely successful Grand Theft Auto games.

Guardian writer and professional grumpy man Charlie Brooker wrote a hilarious and unfortunately accurate article on the British Games industry this week.

…despite being about 10,000 times more successful than the British film and TV industries combined, the British videogames industry continually balances a pathological inferiority complex with a wounded sense of pride. Quite why it still wants validation from these older, fading forms of media is a mystery. It’s like a powerful young warrior disgruntled at being ignored by an elderly and irrelevant dying king.

It’ll probably be in January some time. If you’re interested, or you know of anything going on already, then please say hello in the comments. I’ll put more info up here as and when.

As Fiona at Audiences Central says, it’s a bit of fun “and people like to interact with something, rather than just having a marketing message shoved at them”. So congrats to the Hippodrome for that. I got 55 on my first go, by the way. I might have another crack in a sec.

Here’s a link to the Robin Hood game.

Also via Fiona, here’s a link to the game the RSC have put together for their Don John.

In case you’ve not been following it, it’s an ‘alternate reality game’ (although I prefer their description of ‘a framework for exploring your surroundings’) and is part of the New Generation Arts Festival.

Explaining what The Game involves is a little tricky but its main component is playfulness, which is hopefully enough to get you interested.

There’s still plenty of time to take part though and even a couple of workshops to help you on the way:

• Workshop 1 is at Rooty’s in the Custard Factory tonight (2 June). Drop in any time between 4.30pm and 7pm.
• Workshop 2 will be at BCU’s Dept of Fine Art on Margaret Street (just behind the BM&AG) between 2pm and 4pm on Friday 6 June.

There’ll be a sackful of toys and assorted items/materials for customising your new Luden. You can also get involved in devising the street games that will be played later in the month.

If you’re an existing player then don’t bring your avatar, whatever you do.

If none of this makes the slightest bit of sense then all will be revealed on the Emergent Game website. Well, some will be revealed.

Birmingham invaded by alien soft toys using Twitter. And that’s just the start…

Part of New Generation Arts this year is a game to be played across the city using online tech but also with a hands on arts’n'craft angle. It’s been devised by Nikki Pugh along with a bunch of other souls and having been in the preliminary ideas-bashing stage I have high hopes for this being rather good.

For now, go decide if you want to be a human or a luden, subscribe to the respective feed and await further instructions.