A group of fun-seekers are using an old hospital in Fort Qu'Appelle as venue for combat play.

Casey Markus and some friends thought the old building would be an ideal setting for a game where teams do battle using Airsoft pellet guns.

"It's a game where you're shooting things at people," Markus explained. "It's way better than a video game. Your heart rate goes way higher, you're outside, you're getting exercise and you're interacting with people."

The old Fort Qu'Appelle Indian Hospital is slated for demolition. It has been empty for nearly a decade.

The games organized by Markus have sold-out the available slots, twice in the past month.

Before the pretend soldiers could get in, they had to do a major clean-up and a ensure some safety features were available.

Markus and his group also did some rearranging of fixtures and furniture to add a surreal sense to the space.

"We're not quite sure what happens in some of the rooms," he said. "There's old bits of machinery left."

Town officials said they are OK with having the space used as a play venue, so long as the neighbours are given advance information about the goings-on and the group has liability insurance.

The old Fort Qu'Appelle Indian Hospital, once a federal heritage site, is slated for demolition. (CBC)

"They're not going to hurt anything inside the facility, that's for sure," Darrell Webster, Fort Qu'Appelle's town administrator, said. "The facility is basically trashed from vandalism in the inside now, and is probably going to be demolished within the next 12 months."

While the old hospital was once a federal heritage site, that designation no longer applies.

The current plan, once the building is torn down, is to develop the property for residential uses.

With files from CBC's Dani Mario