APD Week 2 | Play and Time

In week two Vian and I collaborated on a game project that explored the use of time in interactive media. We altered the rules of connect four and created a system where two players would track and compare data over five days, similarly to how Dear Data(2016) a project we looked at last week worked. The daily results it would influence who was allowed to place tokens. These changes to the rules made time a key component of the game and created a social ritual where we would meet at 8pm each night.

The game was built in Google Sheets and we decided on five questions that we would track each day such as the number of times we checked the time, and how often they occurred. At the predetermined time, a script was run to determine which of the five topics would be compared and chose if the higher or lower number would be the winner. This negated any chance for bias and made the game both fairer and more interesting. To account for any ties, we added a button that would reroll the question and winning condition. The actual game of connect four was also tracked within the spreadsheet.

One of the games we took inspiration from is The Longing (2019) a point and click game where the player is required to wait real world days to progress. This time is logged regardless of if the player has the application open. We also found comparisons to correspondence chess. This is played remotely and does not require participants to play at the same time. ‘In the past, players would use pigeons and postal systems to send their moves to each other.’ (Chess.com n.d., para. 4) making waiting a core part of the experience. Although we chose to meet online at a predetermined time, per the rules of the game it was not necessary to play.

Because the project had such a short lifespan we were unable to complete a full game of connect four, however if we chose to continue it would be possible. It also gave us an opportunity to get to know each other (and ourselves) better. By being aware of our habits and tracking them we found certain patterns and it became a social ritual that I think we both looked forward to each day.

Lupi, G & , Posavec, S, Dear Data, Princeton Architectural Press; Illustrated edition.

The Longing 2019. PC, Nintendo Switch, Linux, macOS[Game]. Studio Seufz, Application Systems Heildelburg.

Chess.com n.d., Correspondence Chess – Chess Terms, Chess.com, viewed 3 August 2021, <https://www.chess.com/terms/correspondence-chess>.

Gameplay

https://youtu.be/PJ5Jvf3byPw