Combined cooing over Steph Thirion’s games mod workshop and layer tennis over the past few weeks got me thinking about a project I’m looking into running that sits halfway between the two.

Currently lacking in a catchy title, the basic gist is a chain processed game/interactive art. Starting with an original (but basic) games code in Processing- this would then be passed along a chain of X people who would each make X number of changes to the code before passing it onto the next person and so on until it gets to the end and we’re left with some weird mutilated but (potentially) beautiful evolution of interactive art/ game.

Of course there are a lot of variables/ issues I need to work through before moving ahead (such as what happens if the code breaks, how many people to pass it through, what constitutes a change etc…) , and it was great to be able to talk through the idea and issues with some of the guys form FizzPOP on Weds eve who pointed out two main things,

1) Why just send the code through a linear chain, and instead allow it to branch out (e.g. one person passes on the code to two people and so on)- this way if the code breaks it doesn’t matter too much as it will naturally continue along another branch- (such a simple and good idea that I’m hitting myself for not thinking of it)

2) The original code Thirion used for his workshop was  ‘over engineered’ to provide it with the hooks that allowed non coders to adapt and change the game: e.g. you didn’t need to write the code to create multiple balls as it was always there waiting to be adapted’. This point was quite a hard one for me, as it left me with two options,

a) If the code is over engineered, then by doing so I’m potentially enforcing limits on the designs evolution – and also limiting the projects scope.

b) but if I don’t, then how accessible would the code be to those with little to no coding experience (and yes I do want to include these people within the chain).

hmmm well a little pondering on the way home allowed me to justify route a- because in creating any game a designer already enforces the limits of what a player can do- and this could also apply if I considered the processes of adapting the code as a game within itself. But also by spreading out when people with and without coding experience interact with the code then someone with experience might actually add new hooks/ code that we hadn’t even been considered at the beginning and those with no experience can move forward and evolve the code using these.

Does all this make sense? Well it does in my head, which for the time being is what matters. But I’m hoping to do some testing of this over the coming weeks with help from the people at FizzPOP (fingers crossed). But if you have any thoughts, interest then please drop me a line- and if you are s**t hot with Processing and might be able to help code the starting ‘game’ then I’d be super interested in hearing from you.

Cake Orchestra (with additional percussion) from nikkipugh on Vimeo.

Its still early days for me in my move back to Birmingham since starting at Screen WM, so I’m keen to get out and about to see what geeky fun is to be had in the Second city and last night I popped along to fizzPOP in ‘Digital’ Digbeth.

FizzPOP in its own words is “a group of people with a wide range of skills and interests, bound by a common interest in tinkering with stuff to make something new. It’s a hackerspace.” this intro combined with videos (see above) of cake orchestras, knowledge of soldering and ‘Arduino’ (which I need to get my head around if I am ever actually going to build myself a Meggy Jr) was more than enough to get me along yesterday eve.

Although I have NOOOO techy or DIY skills I was warmly welcomed and in no time was soldering and data bending c/o the guys there. So anyone else interested in tinkering and hacking with tech in the midlands area should definitely get down to the next meet up in 2 weeks and I most certainly will.

Although logic dictates I should be writing about the launch of Lynch’s Interview Project today, I’m not. Instead I’m going to write about an old Game Mod workshop created by Steph Thirion (the guy behind the stylish, abstract and addictive Eliss)  for the Elisava Design School in Barcelona that consumed 2 hours of my time (a good 2 hours) last night

For the workshop Thirion provided design creatives (with little to no coding/ game dev experience) a basic game code and asked them to tweak, play and break it into something new. In the video above you can see the diverse outcomes from the workshop. In a way this reminded me a bit of Layer Tennis, having a defined starting point but then firing this between people and watching it evolve. Which got me wondering as to whether there was anywhere online like layer tennis yet based on bending game code?

Although I’m only a casual gamer I’ve been trying to learn the basics of game developement as a creative outlet. Whilst in my initial forays I’ve been focussing on standard goal orientated games this workshop really helped open my head up by forcing me to work backwards. Whilst tweaking the code I was given the freedom to stop thinking about the rules/ motivation of a game in terms of an end user, and instead explore the design and interaction as a designer, something I hope I’ll remember to carry into future game developments.

If you’re interested in playing around with the Game Mod workshop then Thirion’s site provides the required gamesource code and a link to download the Processing platform and a few helpful tips to get you started.