TypeError: unbound method start_game() must be called with Controller 
instance as first argument (got nothing instead)

import kivy
kivy.require('1.8.0')

from kivy.app import App
from kivy.uix.widget import Widget
from kivy.clock import Clock
from kivy.properties import BooleanProperty, NumericProperty, ObjectProperty
from kivy.uix.popup import Popup
from kivy.lang import Builder

Builder.load_string('''
<StartPopUp>            
    size_hint: .2, .2
    auto_dismiss: False
    title: 'Welcome'
    Button:
        text: 'Play'
        on_press: root.start_click()
        on_press: root.dismiss()

''')

class StartPopUp(Popup):

    def __init__(self, **kw):
        super(StartPopUp, self).__init__(**kw)

    def start_click(self):
        Controller.start_game()                    

class Controller(Widget):
    playing_label = BooleanProperty(False)          #Intitial phase of game is off

    def __init__(self, **kw):
        super(Controller, self).__init__(**kw)        

    def start_popup(self, dt):    
        sp = StartPopUp()
        sp.open()

    def start_game(self):
        self.playing_label = True
        print self.playing_label   

class MoleHuntApp(App):

    def build(self):
        game = Controller()
        Clock.schedule_once(game.start_popup, 1)
        return game

if __name__ == '__main__':
    MoleHuntApp().run() 

class StartPopUp(Popup):

    def __init__(self, controller, **kw):
        super(StartPopUp, self).__init__(**kw)
        self.controller = controller

    def start_click(self):
        self.controller.start_game()

def start_popup(self, dt):    
    sp = StartPopUp(self)
    sp.open()