Louisa-project proposal

What do you want to make?

A location-based game, which is active over a longer time frame (weeks up to months). The gameplay will be facilitated by a web game with fictional spaces/chatrooms corresponding to real locations in Rotterdam. Unlocking a physical lock might open up a new area in the web game and vice versa. "A networked narrative, also known as a network narrative or distributed narrative, is a narrative partitioned across a network of interconnected authors, access points, and/or discrete threads. It is not driven by the specificity of details; rather, details emerge through a co-construction of the ultimate story by the various participants or elements." "an interactive scenario that is experienced through multiple channels and adapts to player behavior." Focus on feedback loop between online input and IRL input.

How can I blur the boundaries of the “magic circle” by connecting a digital game to physical puzzles in the real city?

Ways of overlapping game maps with an actual map of the city, as in unlocking parts of a game by going to given coordinates in order to find something in the real world. As possible spaces of real life game play I am picturing are supermarkets, internet cafes, parks, metro stations. etc..

How do you plan to make it?

What is your timetable?

OCT I am planning to start connecting an Arduino with a web server in order to control physical output through interaction on a web game. I am following a workshop series atm to get a kickstart.

NOV I want to run small test games with this set up, starting to form a narrative around the puzzles and their chosen location in the city. 29th NOV making a city game for The Overkill Festival in Enschede

DEC Talk to experts, deepen the subject matter as much as possible. Maybe I can record it as a podcast style audio piece. Interface sketches, research.

JAN 2022 Development Week at TETEM to build locks/containers and play test with audience.

MARCH I want to build some mystery around the game and start creating untraceable manifestations around it (ARG style)

Why do you want to make it?

Personally I am interested in the ways in which virtual worlds pull us in and dissociate us from our physical environments. From a young age I was interested in the meaning of a common reality and now as a maker I am searching for the moments this common reality noticeably crumbles. I am noticing the process of extreme personalisation of content online which is one of the causes reality is crumbling, which I expect to extend further and further into the spaces outside of the screen. For that reason I am to explore the experience of mistaking games for reality and vice versa, along with the feelings and social implications which follow. I would like to encourage players to look closely in order to find hints which would have otherwise blended into the environment smoothly.

Who can help you and how?

Tomo Kihara

Frederik de Bleser

Relation to previous practice

As a maker, my focus lies heavily on tools of interaction and gamification, interlinking digital and physical spaces. I am working with themes around gaming and the effect of new technologies on the player's perception of reality. By analysing gameplay methods and implementing them into RL settings, I am creating scenarios in which the viewer turns into the protagonist of an interactive fictional narrative. More specifically I am intrigued by the mental process of dissociation, methods of ludified surveillance capitalism and personalised virtual echo-chambers social media platforms construct based on user data. Since 2018, I have been experimenting with different event formats, testing game methods with a small live audience. These tests range from escape rooms to immersive theatre and treasure hunts. This project will combine a lot of my findings and deepen this ongoing research, on a technical and theoretical level.

Relation to a larger context