Hudson (9) and Jai Grieve (11) try the game of Kings ahead of the STEAM Carnival at Cannington Showgrounds this weekend.
Ben Smith
Camera IconHudson (9) and Jai Grieve (11) try the game of Kings ahead of the STEAM Carnival at Cannington Showgrounds this weekend. Ben Smith Credit: Supplied/Ben Smith

All systems go for Australian-first STEAM Carnival in Cannnigton

Ben SmithCanning Gazette

THEY may be a long way from home, but the Two-Bit Circus Foundation could not be more excited to bring their flagship event to Australia for the first time.

The internationally renowned, technology-|orientated Steam (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) Carnival will debut in Australia this weekend at Cannington Showgrounds.

For the past three weeks the foundation has set up shop at Perth Artifactory in Osborne Park to build 10 larger-than-life games.

PerthNow Digital Edition.
Your local paper, whenever you want it.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

The LA-based foundation’s director of innovation Justin Finuliar said they wanted children to walk away with the belief they could create similar games.

“We like to be transparent with our games, what goes into them and what technology is available,” he said.

“We have all this awesome technology and there’s no better way to inspire kids than making it fun and accessible.

“Our approach is ‘let’s have fun first, get inspired’ and then from there they naturally want to learn about all these things that went into it and want to make it themselves.”

One such game is Kings, a team game where players hold wands with accelerometers which act as virtual glasses of water.

Players aim to protect a member of their team, appointed ‘king’ by opponents, while attempting not to spill water inside their virtual glasses.

Another popular game is Super Thunder Blocks, a motion detection challenge.

Players use their body to control their character and contort their bodies in different ways to match shapes seen on a screen.

Mr Finuliar said the festival would have a distinctly local feel to it.

“The 10 games are either bought from Los Angeles or we sourced them here from Perth itself with the resources, technology and hardware all here,” he said.