Interactive play sets

A method comprising:

• receiving signals at an active physical play piece from two or more other physical play pieces, the two or more other physical play pieces comprising:
• a first semi-active physical play piece, wherein a semi-active physical play piece comprises a transmitter operative to transmit signals to an active physical play piece, but does not include a distance module operative to generate proximity data describing distances between the semi-active physical play piece and the other of the plurality of physical play pieces, and
• at least one additional physical play piece that is either:
• a second semi-active physical play piece, or
• a passive physical play piece that does not transmit signals;
• generating proximity data in the active physical play piece based at least in part on signals received, the proximity data describing distances between the active physical play piece and the two or more other physical play pieces, as well as one or more distances between the first semi-active physical play piece and the at least one additional physical play piece, into three or more discrete and non-overlapping levels of proximity;
• and
• transmitting the proximity data from the active physical play piece to an interactive entertainment experience running on a computing device,
• wherein the interactive entertainment experience comprises computing-device executable instructions which when executed cause the computing device to receive the proximity data from the active physical play piece and reflect changes in proximity levels between two or more of the physical play pieces in the interactive entertainment experience.

A method comprising:

• receiving proximity data from an active physical play piece at an interactive entertainment experience, the proximity data describing distances between the active physical play piece and two or more other physical play pieces comprising one or more semi-active physical play pieces and one or more passive physical play pieces that do not transmit signals, as well as one or more distances between at least one of the one or more semi-active play pieces and at least one of the one or more passive play pieces, into three or more discrete and non-overlapping levels of proximity, wherein a semi-active physical play piece comprises a transmitter operative to transmit signals to an active physical play piece, but does not include a distance module operative to generate proximity data describing distances between the semi-active physical play piece and the other of the plurality of physical play pieces;
• and
• reflecting the proximity data in the interactive entertainment experience,
• wherein the interactive entertainment experience comprises computing-device executable instructions which when executed cause the computing device to receive the proximity data from the active physical play piece and reflect changes in proximity levels between two or more of the physical play pieces in the interactive entertainment experience.