Playful Paths: A MAGPIE campus adventure

Discover the hidden corners of the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus with Playful Paths, an alternate reality game (ARG) that blends exploration, creativity, and game research. Designed as mobile-friendly experience, where players are invited to create a small pixel-art vignette to download and share online, this interactive game introduces players to the world of design and development through the lens of MAGPIE’s work.

What to expect:

Playful Paths requires a smart phone or tablet, and takes place across five locations in and around the Parkville campus. Part of the game is contingent on the Science Gallery’s opening hours, which is Wednesday to Saturday, 11.00am-5.00pm.

The Melbourne Academic Games, Play and Interactive Entertainment (MAGPIE) initiative supports interdisciplinary research, teaching, leadership and industry engagement in the field of game studies, including game design, play processes, player communities, narrative design, and creative technology industry cultures.

About the Creative Team

Cuauhtemoc Moreno
Cuauhtemoc Moreno is a Creative Developer with 15+ years of experience making digital projects ranging from medical games, to multiplayer web apps, Virtual Reality (VR) and physical installations.

Cassandra Barkman
Dr Cassandra Barkman is a lecturer in Media and Communications and deputy director of MAGPIE. Her research interests are interdisciplinary, stretching across media studies, screen studies, game studies and narratology and she has published on narrative complexity, videogames, pedagogy, metalepsis, fandoms, digital storytelling, interfaces, creepypastas and more.

Jacqueline Moran
Dr Jacqueline Moran is an early career researcher specialising in narrative and phenomenology in digital games. She holds a PhD (Swinburne University of Technology, 2021) and BA Honours (First Class, Swinburne University of Technology, 2015).

Mahli-Ann Butt
Dr Mahli-Ann Butt is a Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne. She is a feminist ethnographer researching questions of diversity in the cultures and industries of video games and co-director of MAGPIE.

Nellie Seale
Nellie Seale is director and cofounder, Melbourne Megagames and doing a PhD in Computing and Information Systems at the University of Melbourne about how museums are using games.


Being Human 2025
This project was produced in collaboration with the 2025 Being Human Festival. Founded in the UK as the only national festival of the humanities, Being Human is now a global celebration dedicated to demonstrating the breadth, diversity and vitality of the humanities.

View the full Being Human program here

Enquiries

Please send your enquiries to arts-engage@unimelb.edu.au