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 players 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.

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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 SNCHEZ COTERN 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/

THEY ARE, a party audio-game about temptation by YOCTOBIT.com ...

REPRESENTATIVE EXAMPLES OF PREVIOUS WORK

HOMEWARD JOURNEYS (2011, Gameformance) Homeward Journeysa mix of graphic adventure and interactive theatrehas 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.

THEY ARE, a party audio-game about temptation by YOCTOBIT.com ...

THEY ARE, a party audio-game about temptation by YOCTOBIT.com ...

MATA LA REINA (2012, Game-based Dramaturgy) Mata la Reinaa pun that means Kill the Queen, as well as The Queen Killswas commissioned by the Contemporary Arts Centre Matadero and funded by Madrids Arts program. It is a mixture of a collaborative strategy game and a first person action theatre experiencethe 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 shouldnt become aware of the hatched plan. The game lasts about 45 minutes.

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CONTACT DETAILS
Site: www.yoctobit.com Mail: info@yoctobit.com Mail Address: YOCTOBIT Sierra de Javalambre 7, 2C 28038-Madrid (SPAIN)