The Play Definition Generator

The Play Definition Generator is a digital plaything designed to provoke discussion around the complexities of defining play.

Developed as part of the methodology for the Wellcome Trust-funded project "Medicine without Doctors: Reimagining Care and Voice through Play", the PDG pokes fun at academic taxonomies by allowing users to create their own, unique, personal definitions of play from a database of academic theory and randomised words.

Play with the PDG here.

The Play Definition Generator also became a live interactive performance piece at the Playful Learning Conference 2026. If you're interested in playing live, click contact above. 

ChatGPT and Claude were used to assist with coding the PDG, but the databases themselves are written in HTML and do not use LLMs.