THEY ARE is a party audio-game about temptation

GAME TITLE

THEY ARE

CONCEPTUAL GAME DESCRIPTION

In a world of shades, do you dare to open your eyes? Tiny creatures are trying to exhort

you with right and wrong advices. Will you follow their hints, or listen to your inner voice?

THEY ARE is a party audio-game of intuition and reflexes about yielding or not to

temptations, for 5 to 12 players.

Through audio landscapes and spoken-voice characters the game provides enough sources

to the player to create some enigmatically beautiful imagery and enjoy some sort of arcane

experience. The action is driven by audio cues that come up from the mobile to each

player’s headphones, but the game actually happens in the physical space out of the

devices, and mainly in the players’ minds.

Although each player plays against everyone else, every decision the player takes could

affect himself positively or negatively in the long term, because in THEY ARE fate is

reversible.

THEY ARE, a party audio-game about temptation

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TECHNICAL GAME DESCRIPTION AND MECHANICS THEY ARE Players: Between 5 and 10 players.

Game Duration: between 10 and 20 minutes.

Game Objective All players start with 0 points. The first to reach 20 points wins.

Preparations Each player needs a mobile device with a copy of the game installed, and stereo

headphones.

Players sit around a table, preferably round, in a way that let them have eye-to-eye contact

with everyone else without needing to turn their heads exaggeratedly.

One of the players creates a game session in his device.

The other players, whose devices must be using the same wifi network, connect to the

game session and provide a name or identifier. The player that created the session

confirms the game when everyone has connected, and also inputs - in a virtual round

table- where each player is positioned in the table in relation to the others.

Once this is done, each player puts on her headphones, which are connected to the device,

and the game begins the moment all players have tapped the 'Start' button on their screen

and closed their eyes.

Players must keep their device in their hand until the game ends, and hidden from the

other players, like in their lap or under the table, for example. Players will have their eyes

closed and their headphones on for the most part of the game.

Temptation Stage The game always begins in this stage. To earn points, players have to catch other

participants with their eyes open and react faster than them.

Players can open and close their eyes at any time.

When a player (the hunter) detects another player (the prey) with his eyes open:

- Hunter must quickly tap in his device's screen the name of the person with open eyes.

- Prey will do exactly the same and opposite (tap the hunter's name), because the first to

tap wins, but let's imagine the hunter is faster this time

- The prey has to confirm in his device that he has been caught


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- Hunter receives 3 points. Prey loses 1 point, unless prey has 0 points in which case no

points are subtracted.

Through their headphones, besides the background piped music, each player will hear

random sentences from two distinct voices:

- The little angel: through the left ear, a calm voice recites seemingly safe and wise

advices or rewarding sentences. For example:

- "Wait. Never rush to victory."

- "Player on your left is risking too much. He'll collapse under his own

weight."

- "You are doing really well. Keep the good work."

- The little devil: through the right ear, an unnerving voice spits commands, harsh

criticisms, or teases the player to be more daring. Examples:

- "Now or never! Open your eyes, they are all distracted!"

- "YOU-MUST-WIN!"

- "The player in front of you is so clumsy! I laugh in his face: Ha-Ha!"

- "I'll sit here and watch your pitiful defeat"

The more the game advances, the more frequent the voices will be heard. The two voices

can also start arguing with each other, or even overlap.

The more points a player has, the more annoying, loud and frequent the voices are heard.

Players do never hear the same at the same time. Each player hears different sentences at

different times.

If none of the players taps any name for 20 or more seconds, the game will ask a random

player to open his eyes - and he can obey or not. The other players are told that someone

has been forced to open his eyes.

Punishment Stage In this stage, one of the leading players risks losing his device - and with it, his score.

Randomly every 2-3 minutes, the game chooses randomly one player among the 3 ones

currently leading. The chosen player has to:

- Select on the screen which player will be faster

- Unplug his headphones, leave his device in the center of the table, and tap the screen

At this moment, all the other players are informed that:

- There's a device in the center of the table, owner unknown

- They'll hear a countdown

- When the countdown ends, they must open their eyes and tap in their screens the name

of the deviceless player


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The mobile in the center of the table will 'speak' aloud the name of the faster player.

If the deviceless player guessed correctly who would be faster, he recovers his device.

If the deviceless player failed his prediction, swaps his mobile with the faster player.

Shuffling Stage At some point every 4-5 minutes, the game asks two or more players to open their eyes

and swap positions in the table.

Sometimes these swaps are meaningful (for example, to put the best two players in front

of each other), and sometimes purely random. The players never know the reasons of the

commanded swaps.

EXTRAS

Community Mods Players could be suggested to send texts describing variations of the game, which

other players can read in-game or through a website.

Possible Format Variations The game could be released in different formats: as a downloadable free app for

mobile devices; or could be developed as an art installation in which the players

are dressed up or wearing some characterization as mask or gloves.


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ABOUT YOCTOBIT

YOCTOBIT is an artistic collective and a research group that pursuits the development of

new modes of gaming, trying to take into account conceptual risk-taking.

The group consists of people with different profiles. Currently core members are Lara

Coteron (PhD in New Media & Game Studies), Nacho Pintos (Computer Science Engineer &

Game Designer) and Felipe Hickmann (Composer & Musician). We aim to develop games

focused on play as performance, rather than just thinking in games as designed systems.

LARA SÁNCHEZ COTERÓN is game designer, independent researcher and cultural

producer at the convergence of Contemporary Artistic & Cultural Practices with Games.

She holds a PhD in New Media and Games Studies from Universidad Complutense de

Madrid (2012). She earned a B.A. in Fine Arts by Basque Country University. She

has curated exhibitions as Playful & Playable, and other cultural activities related with

games as the conferences program “Games as a realm for experimentation and creative

activity”, for Arteleku-Tabakalera.

http://www.laracoteron.com/

NACHO PINTOS is a game designer, has a BA in Computer Science and a post-graduate

in Advanced Videogame Development. During the last 10 years, besides working as an

application developer, he has created and collaborated in projects across different media:

electronic music, short-film scripting, interactive art and contemporary dance.

http://www.frugalgames.com/

FELIPE HICKMANN is a Brazilian composer and performer, currently conducting PhD

research at SARC (Sonic Arts Research Centre), Belfast / UK. He holds a multidisciplinary

background, ranging from contemporary and popular music to film and videogames. His

composition explores the matters of absence and secrecy in networked environments, and

has been performed in venues in Brazil, Germany, Austria, USA and the United Kingdom.

http://www.felipehickmann.com/


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REPRESENTATIVE EXAMPLES OF PREVIOUS WORK

HOMEWARD JOURNEYS (2011, Gameformance)

Homeward Journeys—a mix of graphic adventure and interactive theatre—has been

supported by Medialab-Prado Madrid as part of the Game Design Innovation and New

Technologies in Performing Arts initiatives. In this game the players (an audience of about

15 people) are asked to help a stressed businesswoman get out of the office before time

runs out (15 minutes) by giving her instructions through a shared microphone. Together

with her performance, digital scenography helps the players figure out what are the right

and wrong game inputs to be able to proceed in the game and, along with the actress

reactions, complete it.


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MATA LA REINA (2012, Game-based Dramaturgy)

Mata la Reina—a pun that means Kill the Queen, as well as The Queen Kills—was

commissioned by the Contemporary Arts Centre Matadero and funded by Madrid’s Arts

program. It is a mixture of a collaborative strategy game and a first person action theatre

experience—the latter coming from Live Action Role Playing (LARP). Half of the audience

in Mata la Reina (25 players) actively role play as resistance citizens of a small kingdom,

meanwhile the rest of the audience, witnessing the plot against the queen, is waiting to

join the game.

Players become human tokens on a giant hexagons board (300m2). They must collect a

number of elements that form part of a “puzzle” and solve it in a collaborative way, in

order to overthrow the selfish and obsessed with control queen. This should occur behind

the queen and his droids, they shouldn’t become aware of the hatched plan. The game lasts

about 45 minutes.


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CONTACT DETAILS Site: www.yoctobit.com

Mail: [email protected]

Mail Address:

YOCTOBIT

Sierra de Javalambre 7, 2C

28038-Madrid (SPAIN)

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THEY ARE is a party audio-game about temptation