Game – Rob Homewood

Between

Physically interactive videogame with sound

A monitor or projected screen display a swirling tunnel moving through a star field. Points of light float towards the player in a patterned movement. The player stands in front of the piece holding a PS Move controller (a small baton illuminated at one end to act as a computer vision tracking beacon) which controls the movement of an eye-like glowing avatar on screen. The player’s goal is to move the avatar in line with the on coming points of light and collect as many of them as possible. As the player collects them, a narrative starts to unfold verbally.

The theme of the piece relates to the concept of reincarnation and thus the narrative follows the story of a character’s life, highlighting a key moment from their experience as a human. At several gameplay thresholds (or levels), the player is confronted by a large rotating geometric shape which they must pass through. If the player has successfully collected enough light, they will pass through the shape into the next level where the process continues. The light is symbolic of forgiveness, harbouring the idea that souls will repeat their journey’s through the earth plane learning lessons and letting go of their pent up karma. Each level is symbolic of a different chakra being represented by the colours, sonic palette, and narrative theme.

If the player fails to collect enough light to pass through any of the seven levels, they are returned to the beginning of the experience but with a different narrative signifying that the soul has gone back to the earth plane, lived another life and is now attempting ascendance again.

We’ve been porting Between over to the Oculus Rift recently (WIP):

Check out the website for more info: http://thegamebetween.com/

Don’t Let Them Die

Interactive video with sound
Don’t Let Them Die is a digital artwork created using game technology and exhibiting an element of emergent gameplay / narrative. A large screen or projection shows a mountainscape viewed from the sky filled with flocking birds swirling around the viewpoint in a seemingly random pattern.

The behaviour of the birds is dictated by Craig Reynold’s ‘Boid’ algorithm, a common method for simulating the effect of flocking in birds and fish. Treating it as a heuristic model, the piece encourages viewers to also interpret the algorithm as a metaphor for how people relate to one another as agents within society.

The piece is not directly interactable however is designed as a game in that it has an explicit goal which is to keep the birds alive. The piece is internet enabled and pulls in live stock data from some of the top performing stocks in the world; if the prices of the stocks suddenly crash, then all the birds slowly curl up and fall from the sky in slowed motion. The message being portrayed by the piece is that the viewers of the piece are tasked to continue contributing to capitalist society, driving the economy forward and keeping the status quo.

Although the message is on the surface pro-capitalist, there are subtle undertones of a human urge to break free from societal and systemic constraints. The birds seem free, flying in which ever direction they choose across a seemingly endless landscape; however, they are almost entirely constrained. The birds exist within a computer simulation, the sky is merely a static backdrop, and their behaviour is completely dictated by an algorithm that they are unaware of.

Grab The Goodies

Interactive videogame with sound

Designed to educate children about the dangers of underage drinking, Grab the Goodies is an object association game where players must differentiate between objects that are healthy, and those which are not. The gameplay is intentionally simplistic and repetitive but is interspersed with trivia sections between levels. These trivia sections are the actual message carrier; they are unskippable and contain questions far too advanced to be understood by the intended 6-9 year age demographic.

The key element of this trivia section is disproportionate large red button that reading “HELP!”. When the button is pressed, a loud and annoying vocal outburst cries “Mom!”, or “Dad!”. On repeated presses, the voice gets louder and increasingly whiny, eliciting the attention of a nearby parent who will hopefully join in and help the child answer the trivia question. The intention is to initiate a dialogue between thee child and parent about the complicated issue of alcohol and its dangers through references already familiar to the child.

Grab the Goodies is available here:

iOS App Store

Android Play Store

More info…

Review of Grab The Goodies from the Android Play Store:

Screen Shot:

Dream Terror

Interactive videogame with sound

Dream Terror is a top down survival shooter where the player is constantly being attacked by hordes of creatures and must survive as long as possible. The game features an array of weaponry and power-ups to help them survive as long as possible. The protagonist in Dream Terror is locked in a series of horrid nightmares. For years, every single time he falls asleep, he has the same recurring nightmare, awakening each time they get him. He is now very tired and is resigned to the nightmares so when he goes to bed each night, he falls asleep reading catalogues of military hardware, arming his war-torn psyche to fend of the horrid monsters for as long as possible… The man just wants to get some sleep.

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