It is an interactive game based on the story of survival after a meteorite hit the Earth, for which PUNKT was also given an international award.
PUNKT – Laboratory for creative industry
Laboratory for creative art PUNKT is the Zasavje coworking community. Last autumn at the Startery contest for Middle and Eastern Europe held in Sofia, Bulgaria, where 70 entreprenurial ideas were presented, they won the award with their entrepreneurial idea with social impact under the title Post-Apocalyptic Quest. It is an idea how to bring back life into abandoned buildings and former industrial plants of the Zasavje region through an interactive field game. Within half a year 'Punktovci ', the members of the PUNKT group from Zasavje, have realised their idea, and last weekend the post-Apocalyptic field game through Trbovlje was organized for the first time.
World after the apocalypse
The game is set in the future. "Once Cosmus got tired of human delusions he hurled a meteorite into the Hole. When meteorite hit the Earth surface, as a consequence of the impact all people on Earth were drawn undergroud," Tadeja Bučar, creative leader of PUNKT explained. In the game the valley of Trbovlje was named the Hole.
Imaginatoriums, and planetarians
Only imaginatoriums survived the impact of the meteorite, as the X-graded level of their imagination is high enough to survive. The imaginatoriums, which also act as some kind of guides at the post-Apocalyptic tour, try to increase the level of imagination within the Hole, and thus save the other people from the underground. The participants to the post-Apocalyptic tour called planetarians are coming to their aid. "Those are people with open minds and generous hearts, who came to the Hole to help strengthen the imagination, as the wormholes sucking people below ground are extremely strong, and can be annihilated only by increasing the level of imagination," Bučar explains. The purpose of the tasks the participants have to perform is the same: to strengthen the imagination of the participants.
Field game through abandoned buildings
The Post-Apocalyptic game is the result of cooperation with the project Prazni prostori Zasavja (Zasavje empty buildings) which has been listing the empty buildings in Zasavje, namely dilapidated industrial plants, but also empty and abandoned residential buildings. Some of these are used for the post-Apocalyptic field game; the participants of the game are performing there certain tasks with the purpose of improving their imagination. The purpose of the post-Apocalypse game is to revive the ghost town, and it concentrates on the post-industrial towns of Eastern and Middle Europe. The post-Apocalyptic interactive field game is played by teams of four; it lasts approximately two, or three and a half hours, depending on the chosen version of the game, the long of seven kilometres, or the short one of 2.5 kilometres. Each member of the team is assigned a certain role, but only team work makes it possible for the team to finish the game. Each team consists of a writer whose duty is to write down ideas, a therapist, a water carrier who takes care that all the members of the team are adequately hydrated, and a cosmic.
First responses are outstanding
The test participants who tried themselves in this field game last weekend were thrilled: "It was great, very interesting indeed, a different experience. In the beginning our team got caught into the trap of rational thinking, but then we realized imagination should be applied,” one of the participants explained. The others were already looking forward to another visit to the Hole. "It is always interesting to roam through post-Apocalyptic world. We were thrilled, and perhaps we will attempt the longer version as well," Borut said. The organizers were also pleased with the organisation. "We are very satisfied with the first, test performance of the Post-Apokalypse. The weather held, the organisation was excellent, the response of the planetarians, i.e. participants, is very positive at the moment," Janez Lipec from PUNKT explained.
Attractive also for tourists
This weekend the weather played against them, so on Saturday only the shorter, 2.5 km long tour was organized. On Sunday, June 19, the long 7 km version is planned. They are both organized for test purposes, and thus free of charge. The members of PUNKT hope that by the end of summer the field game would become a regular event, which would be marketable.