Other Games

Ninja Shadow Warrior (Kaho Abe)

There is nothing that a little black vinyl, a vinyl cutter, some wood, a band saw, paint and a closet light hack can’t do!

This cabinet is sort of a bridge between the game and the physical space where it is located. Some questions I asked myself: How can I best communicate the content of the game cabinet to the physical space around it? How can I create a playful environment around the game itself, so that it encourages people to play and entices people to try out the game if they haven’t before?

Some design strategies used for the cabinet are:

  • Playing with the scale of objects to create whimsy (large scale button & throwing stars)
  • Very easy 1 button interface (large start button)
  • Combining 2 seemingly contrasting styles: cute & fierce bunny ninjas in action poses
  • Using ninja theme from the game for the decals — based in arcade cabinets of the 80’s, where there were a lot of action images of the characters of the games on the cabinet
  • Use of fluorescent lighting which makes photos look better by washing out facial details as on many Purikura kiosks — the idea here is that the better the photos look, the more people would want to play (although I guess, some of the poses are too silly for that!)

 

Trente pas entre terre et ciel (Heather Kelley and Oscar Barda)

Trente pas entre terre et ciel is a 19-meter long cooperative/competitive marelle (hopscotch) for groups of two players, that I created with Oscar Barda (Them Games) for Joue le jeu, the extensive show of new games and playable installations at La Gaite Lyrique in Paris, France.

Created specifically to the contours of an existing space, this physical game embodies the exhibition’s call for visitors to “play along” by turning hopscotch into an epic multi-player athletic and social quest. This “mod” of a familiar single-player children’s game challenges visitors to re-imagine what games are and what they communicate.

At various moments, Trente pas asks pairs of players to interact with each other in different ways such as holding hands or alternating their jumps.  The game also prompts players to express themselves verbally, suggesting that a player should “complement your partner” and “encourage the other players.”

Our game orchestrates engagement with the adrenaline and heart-racing of sheer physical activity, as well as humorously off-balance and socially awkward situations

 

 

perfectplum.com/portfolio/trente-pas/

 

The Elephant in The Room | Damien Di Fede (usa)

Composer-programmer Damien Di Fede transforms the Gaîté lyrique’s dedicated, interactive sound capsule into a sentient creature that reacts to visitors and changes its behavior and sound over time as a result of participant’s choices. With sounds synthesized in real time and inspired by David Tudor’s Neural Synthesis recordings, the creature’s behavior feeds back on itself and will never be the same on any two days of its two-month life.

WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/USER/ DAMIENINSPACE/VIDEOS

SOUNDCLOUD.COM/DDF

 

J.S. Joust (Copenhagen Game Collective)

Johann Sebastian Joust is a no-graphics, digitally-enabled playground game designed for motion controllers.

The goal is to be the last player remaining. When the music — J.S. Bach’s ‌Brandenburg Concertos — plays in slow-motion, the controllers are very sensitive to movement. When the music speeds up, the threshold becomes less strict, giving the players a small window to dash at their opponents. If your controller is ever moved beyond the allowable threshold, you’re out! Try to jostle your opponents’ controllers while protecting your own.

J.S. Joust is available on PlayStation 3 & 4 as part of the Sportsfriends compendium. The game is also coming to Mac and Linux December 19 via Steam and the Humble Store.

 

 

http://jsjoust.com/