A distant rumble
If the experience of playing a game is intended, for the most part, to be joyful, then consider that the experience of attempting to create a game – from scratch – involves much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Planning and brain-bashing for the Larkin' About and Library Theatre Company commission continues. How to estimate a duration and end point, to avoid fatigue or boredom? If I don’t want one winner and many losers, how do I gently console those who don’t complete the requirements, whilst still celebrating those who do? Are themes of memory, loss, mourning and the silent cry of purgatorial souls suitable material for a playful treatment involving balloons? What of unknown latex allergies? Ai-ai-ai. Still, the initial shape is done. The play test awaits. My craft box has a few more items I am unlikely ever to use again, but on the plus side I have some lovely Ladybird books purchased as ‘research’. Here is an image from a bison hunt, which may have something to do with the work in progress. Oh, and I have a name for it at last.
Prairieland.
Larkin’ About & Library Theatre
Today I received news of a brilliant early Christmas present. I've been selected following an open call for proposals to collaborate with local pervasive gaming collective Larkin' About in partnership with The Library Theatre Company to create my own dollop of in-situ, explorative silliness as part of Manchester Histories Festival 2012. The festival will see an exciting day of pervasive gaming around the mosaic hallways, vaulted chambers and Gothic cubbyholes of Manchester Town Hall on Saturday 3rd March.
I submitted two ideas, both of which they liked although I must now choose one to take forward, responding to a couple of obscure but fascinating lesser-known subjects relating to the city's past, as I wanted to avoid the usual suspects (industrialisation, sport, Engels, votes for women, the Baby computer etc. no disrespect to any of these areas intended!) The process will include a game mechanics workshop, one-to-one mentoring, play-testing and of course the delivery itself.
It's going to be a wonderful start to 2012!
Tales of Two Cities
With an OCD fury not seen since the woman in the Shake 'n Vac advert ground her Valium and mixed it with a glug of Bacardi, I've been plugging the cracks in this site and pasting up former production duties with a vengeance. My personal favourites A Wall is a Screen now have a page to themselves, as do the rapidly expanding MegaPhone team - flying the flag for those of us who see no reason why computer games should progress beyond the Atari era. Once upon a festival, The Light Surgeons conjured up a storm in a Gothic salon and The Royal Opera House treat us to no fewer than twelve outdoor relays in the past five years.
Playful
A stimulating day of discussion at Playful 09 provided a buffet of brain-food related to the title topic with plenty to tuck in to. I was captivated by Robin Burkinshaw's experiment introducing a homeless family to The Sims 3 with the sparse yet addictive tale of Alice and Kev. But it seemed unnecessary that Matt Locke interviewing Robin should give away the ultimate spoiler by revealing the ending! I've since read through from the beginning and wish that I'd been able to complete the journey for myself.
© 2009 Robin Burkinshaw
It's one of the best stories I've read in months, a triumph in micro-narrative featuring some truly beautiful game photography that in a single frame trounces any amount of machinima I've seen to date. Other highlights were Russell Davies on the urge to pretend and build bubble worlds plus James Bridle's admirably pointless construction of a lo-fi computer with the sole purpose of calculating all possible outcomes in Noughts & Crosses using matchboxes and dried beans.
Partner in public interference Chris O'Shea did a fine job of presenting Hand From Above which continues to gather momentum... 228,000 views on Vimeo and rising!
Tickled pink
And so the curtain falls after five days, 15 x 1 hour slots and - as an approximate guess - some 5,000 open-jawed observers for Chris O'Shea's public space sensation. Inspired by Land of the Giants, a massive hand chased and tickled shoppers who jostled and whooped to attract the attention of the unknown (actually automated) operator. As one delighted lady of advanced years remarked, "I haven't had a man's hand all over me like that in years!"
It was especially gratifying that it should reach so many people who would never otherwise be aware of the AND Festival of which this was part, especially the elderly, families, children and those of foreign origin who were able to engage without any language barriers; humour being universal.
Saturday saw a six-hour stretch and double bill with the second appearance of Hungry Hungry Eat Head following this Summer's debut at the Big Screen Edinburgh. Creators Joel Gethin-Lewis and Jody Hudson-Powell had added some new animated elements, resulting in pulsing alien brains, panting tongues and blinking eyes to enhance the experience. Everyone loved clutching and waving the cardboard markers, freed from the snobbish associations of pocket hardware and somehow more magical for it. "How do you do it?" was the often repeated question, and being present in the space we were able to explain the method for different levels of comprehension.
It's great to be able to lift the lid to those of all ages on what can seem out utterly baffling, especially via face-to-face so it remains conversational in tone. It's this aspect in a sense that offers true interactivity, while repeat insistence even when told otherwise that the hand is controlled by a living, breathing person (with some playfully accusing total strangers - "Is it you? Have you got the remote in your pocket?"), offers a fascinating insight to human psychology in attributing human characteristics... in this case, of a benign bum-tickling reincarnation of Benny Hill!
Weapon of Mass Hypnosis
Hungry Hungry Eat Head
Despite standing beneath God's own shower nozzle for two days straight, the skies cleared and the sun appeared for a perfect three-hour stretch to allow us a (mostly) dry premiere of Hungry Hungry Eat Head at the Edinburgh screen. Despite competing with 1,200 other events in the biggest cultural festival on Earth, we attracted some 500 participants from passing footfall alone. As only four persons could take part at any time due to a compromise between marker size and camera position, which dictated how many we could fit in the screen frame at any one time, we hit an average of 40 'players' every 15 minutes.
Hungry Hungry Eat Head
I say players, but one unexpected effect of the mesmerising soundtrack from Sound & Sons was that many just stood hypnotized, transported to a beatific state of retro TV bliss, rocking on the spot - staring - pacified and oddly becalmed by the sight of furry cuboid with fangs in place of their own fair mug. This was a beta version pending further development prior to the next appearance as part of the AND Festival at the Big Screen Liverpool on Saturday 26th September, which will be fully pimped out with further enhancements (responsive animated features overlaid upon the public video feed). Not one person queried the purpose of what we doing. If they had, I would have asked them: when was the last time you just played for play sake?
Joel Gethin Lewis and Jody Hudson-Powell
Once again, as I witnessed during the delivery of Glastonbury Village Screen, the self-imposed barrier between adults stepping into the same lungspace as children reared it's boggle eyed, Daily Mail-mache head. At one point, a group of a dozen young adults took turns stepping up one at a time as there were children upfront, until one of those present said "For Chrissakes, they're only kids, they're not gonna bite!" So effective is the exclusion zone around a child-not-your-own, that a sign reading Beware of Unaccompanied Minor would be more effective on a garden gate than the traditional canine threat.
Favourite moment - the American lady who ran down from the penthouse suite of the adjacent Sheraton Hotel with her daughter to join in after spotting us through the window, then asked if we were bringing it to New York. If you have the sofa ma'm, we have the passports! Again, credit due to Joel and Jody (and the absent Luke). You bring shame upon we mortals.