PORTALS
Play with distance
PREPARATION
WORKSHOP STRUCTURE
MONDAY:
INTRO
Design Principles
PLAY
DEBRIEF
TUESDAY:
DESIGN
Form Group
Build World
Write Game
THURSDAY:
PLAY
DEBRIEF
WEDNESDAY:
FINISH GAME
PORTALS
How can the surrounding environment be incorporated in worldbuilding?
What are rules that enable meaningful dialogue?
How to integrate movement into screen interactions?
How can distant places share one physical game space?
The Stalker talks of a Room, in the Zone where desires can be realised, Sci-Fi- Film by Tarkovsky, 1979
Hybrids of digital and physical play:
Remote Reality
Life - Stream
Video Augmented Role Play Alternative Reality
Live Online Action Mixed Reality Transreality Pervasive
GAMES
& Emergent Gameplay
THE REAL WORLD
THE MAGIC CIRCLE
Social
Spatial
(Temporal)
Expansion
THE GREYZONE
Physical Reality
Self
Imaginary Reality
Alter Ego
Role Play
Social Contract
Game Rules
THIS IS NOT A GAME Aesthetic
PHYSICAL AND IMAGINED
Imagination can change our perceptions of reality on a neural level → Guided Visualization
Blur of Fiction and Fact in Contemporary Media and Politics
“Society of the Spectacle”
Imagining scenario in an emotionally neutral place can change our attitude to place in reality.
Ideokinesis, mental images of archetypal forms from evolutionary past used to improve posture.
Killer: The Game of Assassination first published in 1981 by Steve Jackson and based on science fiction satire La decima vittima directed by Elio Petri
La decima vittima (The Tenth Victim), 1965
Unrealism - Real Game Play
by Omsk Social Club
Running over three different platforms and lasting 56 days the game explores the idea of life online as Paradise without ecology, the ontology of the avatar and the atomization of identity
PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL
Constant Connectivity
& Performativity
Collective identity
‘Global Brain’
(Online) Presence and Absence
Virtual Embodiment
Drone operator inside a control cabin
The spaces are physically connected
Responsibility towards ‘real’, embodied persons.
How does distance contributes to behavior?
Can You See Me Now? by BLAST THEORY, location based game, 2001. Online players compete against performers on the streets who are tracking the player down through Location data.
The Game makes location central to the game play. The physical city is overlaid with a virtual city to explore ideas of absence and presence.
Unified Game space through Rules or Fiction
PLACES → Use as Set/ Change their Meaning in the story/ Integrate in story
→ Use as is (Documentary) - Show Players Environment
SPACE
Temporal Expansion of Play → Ambient Games → Dormant Games
Day and Night time → Play across different time zones
Time limitations in narrative
Imaginative time → Epic or Small (eg. You live only one day)
Mayflies squeeze their whole life into 24 Hour
TIME
→ Breathing Exercises
→ Dance
→ Sports
→ Audio walks
Location Based → Mapping Technology
MOVEMENT
The Fortunate Ones by Ron T Blechner
Skinship/Touching Intelligence by Susan Ploetz
2801 by 0ct0p0s
use Hypnosis and Sensing Exercises to explore our Imagination of an Alien or Artificial Consciousness.
SENSES
TOUCH
SMELL
HEARING
TASTE
Light
Camera
Music
Costume
Visual Effects
SCENOGRAPHY
2801 by 0ct0pos using face distortion
The strongest immersive technology is our imagination.
Technological tools CAN support the immersion but only if they are PART OF THE STORY.
There is a reason why media is used!
Technology as actor/ stage
Play with different technologies/software: Phone, Chat, Videocall, Email, Website, Virtual background, Face filter, Ai generated voice, Voice enhancer, Real time editing...
TECHNOLOGY
OUTSIDERS
→ Avoid / Integrate them in the Gameplay
INSIDERS
→ Reasons to Communicate
Different forms of Interaction
Maybe Non-Verbal
Distributed Knowledge
INTERACTION
Oumuamua (on Phones) Player walks outside gets a call by an extraterrestrial consciousness /meteor which is played by a group lying in a dark room communicating through image messages.
RULES
ENABLING STRUCTURES
Preparation: How to get into the game? The player is a guest in your world...be a good host, ‘Accommodate’
Include a small debrief instructions: What happens after play? When/How does the game end/ start?
Conversation tools help the improvisation and can guide / explore new ways of communication
Active listening
Mirroring
Human Machine?
Design for Subversion
Dialogue
Conflict Resolution
Transcultural Data Pact is a game staging a historic trade negotiation between two nations with shared ancestry and clashing beliefs
It explores how personal and collective data practices and devices might shape the attitudes and fortunes of a society.
created by DECAL@Furtherfield, chroma.space and the School of Informatics, Edinburgh as part of the research project Qualified Selves.
Accomplices
Carry Conspirative Attitude Are bound by a common goal
Have an enduring mutual relatedness that carries consequences.
Explore CRITICAL EMPATHY A concept that emphasizes the limitations and complications of empathy from reflexive perspectives. It does not only refer to the process of imaging another person’s point of view or emotional state, but also to an awareness of the limitations and complications of empathy - Todd DeStigter
Which also relates directly to Haraways insights:
If you take anybody seriously, one of the things you learn is not knowing. That’s one thing I learned from Cayenne and my other dogs. Not knowing is a quasi-Buddhist value. And the appreciation of not knowing and letting that be is something you learn in a serious relationship. It’s a kind of letting go. Not knowing and being with each other not knowing.
If you take anybody seriously, one of the things you learn is not knowing. - Donna Haraway
STORY
Seducing
Open Ended
Collective
Worldbuilding
“Yes and…” Whatever the other player suggests, you go along with it and try to add onto what is already being built.
Microscope RPG by Lame Mage Productions. Players use index cards to create the history of a fictional World taking turns in creating scenes, periods or events.
Building a Character
Provide structure → What does the story need? Build a SKELETON.
Leave space for the player to FLESH them out. Provide guiding questions that are relevant to the narrative or your theme.
Generally a character needs: A Story, Memories, Goals, Intentions, Desires, Secrets, Fears, Relationships, Problems, Abilities, Interests…
But it doesn’t need to be a human!
Make it playful. This preparation is part of the Game…
SHADES OF GREY
Avoid Stereotypes. The are easy but not rewarding.
Complex characters with multiple, contradicting
Layered Personalities
→ also a Reason to Role Play
CHALLENGES & CHOICES
Puzzles, Clues, Secrets, Twists Difficult but solvable
Tough Choices → with Repercussions
Reason for Action /Discussion → eg. A has what B wants
Triangles!!!
TRIANGLE OF DESIRE
Desire is triangular: an object, a subject, and a third person toward whom the desire (envy) is directed (Girard, 1965).
AY TRIANGLE
MAYBE
YAY
NAY
CHARACTER AS ALIBI
“We need the excuse of a fiction to stage what we truly are.”
TAKE AWAY
Bleed allows us to take things from the Game into the real world.
Game structure
1 hour total running time
15-25 min SET UP
15-30 min PLAYTIME
5-10 min DEBRIEF
FORM GROUPS
Number of Players = Number of Creators
SMALL GROUPS → Need less time!!!
(Min. 2 >>> Max. 5)
Write a or down to start a group
Others can join you adding their names and their
YAYs/NAYs to the palette.
or start a new group
Consider technical and time
when choosing a group
SPACE
SENSES
MECHANICS
MOVEMENT
INTERACTION
TECHNOLOGY
Also consider:
STORY
THEME
DESIGN
Test
mechanics
Find Theme
Set Design Goals
values
Design rules
that support
Values
+Subversion
Develop
Micro-Game
PLAYTEST
ROOM
Reading manuals
Assuming roles
Setting scene
ROOM
Micro Play
Game
ROOM
Debriefing
game process
narratives
ROOM/
PLENUM
Debriefing
concept
THE MACHINE STOPS 2021
1h PLAY → THE MACHINE STOPS 2021
Divides in pairs. Follow the script together/apart.
Collective debrief