From May 1 to May 17 2009, Kokoromi teamed up with Concordia University’s TAG (Technoculture Art and Games) research group at the Montreal Biennale art show to share indie and experimental games with the gallery-going masses. On May 1 we presented superHYPERCUBE at the opening night of the Biennale. Thanks to everyone who came out to play!
On May 14 we hosted a showcase at École Bourget of 8-bit music and projections by Montreal chiptune artists Noia, and Taxi Nouveau. Live Game Sounds offered visitors to the Biennale a magical ambiance of lo-fi pixels, noises, and waves.
On May 15 and 16 2009, visitors to the Porous Lab witnessed indie game making in action. Live Game Code: Love Letters was a project by Heather and Cindy to design and create some very personal games in an open studio. Game making is mysterious to most people, and challenging to do if you’re not (yet) a software engineer. We wanted to show the whole process – its realities and absurdities – to people who may never have seen game development, and at the same time, teach ourselves to make the games that we want to make, without reliance on a large team.
With the help of sexy lab assistants we documented and analyzed our game-making and learning process in action. We tracked the design (for instance, features implemented vs. dropped,) the code base itself (such as numbers of variables), as well as our real-world activities (…blood alcohol level?) . Visitors to the gallery could suggest data points for the lab assistants — identifiable by their lab coats and clip boards — to start tracking and add to our blackboard.
Listen to Heather and Cindy talk about Live Game Code: Love Letters on Zeke’s Alternate Art Interview on CKUT.
