{"title":"Sonic city installation","authors":"Davey Sams","doi":"10.1145/2513002.2513032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513032","url":null,"abstract":"Sonic City is an interactive work that explores themes of man's dislocation with nature and the social tensions inherent in urban living in an imaginative, engaging way. Users interact with a custom-made iPad app to wirelessly play audio loops that, in turn, generate animation loops within the Sonic City. There are 6 touch inputs on the app that correlate to various sound and animation loops, which are projection mapped onto medium scale custom-build surfaces in a unique use of the technology. It's narrative focuses on the tensions that exist on the fringes of this society between the magical/otherworldly elements and the other, regular people.","PeriodicalId":280569,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","volume":"41 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114699315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Death and dying in DayZ","authors":"M. Carter, M. Gibbs, G. Wadley","doi":"10.1145/2513002.2513013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513013","url":null,"abstract":"Avatar death is essentially universal in combat games, and ubiquitous in all other genres; death of a player's materialization in the game space is used to identify the player's failure and temporary removal from play. Yet the possibilities for creating interesting social dynamics and game play experiences through the design and configuration of death mechanics in games remains largely unexplored. In this paper we discuss the first person shooter game DayZ, which has configured death with an extreme level of consequentiality not found in other online first-person-shooters. We examine the affect of this consequentiality on the player experience and attitudes towards death and dying in DayZ. On the basis of our research data, we find that the increased consequentiality of death in DayZ principally affects the game experience by intensifying social interactions, raising a player's perceived level of investment and invoking moral dilemmas.","PeriodicalId":280569,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123127956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Collapsing action; or, games of life and death","authors":"R. Fordyce","doi":"10.1145/2513002.2513017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513017","url":null,"abstract":"Proposing a means to understand videogames in terms of the connections between players' engagement, a videogame's narrative, and the videogame mechanisms for play produces a complex map of relationships. Understanding it in its totality is difficult, but it is possible to identify key points of tension. This paper addresses the tension between the point where play loses its engagements for the player, and examines this problem through the double-sided lens of the principles of life and death. The principles of life and death have a long history in philosophical thought, and this paper contains a projection of some of these concerns from both theological and atheological philosophical thought into the world of gaming and simulation, including a presentation of a methodology for discussing life and death as principles in the context of fiction. Drawing on Marxist social theory, a concept of the 'tendency' finds its purchase, resulting in a number of social and philosophical theories on the conditions under which end-users conclude their game experiences.","PeriodicalId":280569,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123727825","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Living the indie life: mapping creative teams in a 48 hour game jam and playing with data","authors":"T. A. J. Turner, L. Thomas, C. Owen","doi":"10.1145/2513002.2513039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513039","url":null,"abstract":"In contemporary game development circles the 'game making jam' has become an important rite of passage and baptism event, an exploration space and a central indie lifestyle affirmation and community event. Game jams have recently become a focus for design researchers interested in the creative process. In this paper we tell the story of an established local game jam and our various documentation and data collection methods. We present the beginnings of the current project, which seeks to map the creative teams and their process in the space of the challenge, and which aims to enable participants to be more than the objects of the data collection. A perceived issue is that typical documentation approaches are 'about' the event as opposed to 'made by' the participants and are thus both at odds with the spirit of the jam as a phenomenon and do not really access the rich playful potential of participant experience. In the data collection and visualisation projects described here, we focus on using collected data to re-include the participants in telling stories about their experiences of the event as a place-based experience. Our goal is to find a means to encourage production of 'anecdata' - data based on individual story telling that is subjective, malleable, and resists collection via formal mechanisms - and to enable mimesis, or active narrating, on the part of the participants. We present a concept design for data as game based on the logic of early medieval maps and we reflect on how we could enable participation in the data collection itself.","PeriodicalId":280569,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131173944","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Improving lives: using Microsoft Kinect to predict the loss of balance for elderly users under cognitive load","authors":"Y. Pisan, J. G. Marin, Karla Felix Navarro","doi":"10.1145/2513002.2513026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513026","url":null,"abstract":"Among older adults, falling down while doing everyday tasks is the leading cause for injuries, disabilities and can even result in death. Furthermore, even when no injury has occurred the fear of falling can result in loss of confidence and independence. The two major factors in the loss of balance is weakening of the muscles and reduced cognitive skills. While exercise programmes can reduce the risk of falling by 40%, patient compliance with these programmes is low. We present the Microsoft-Kinect based step training program system that we have developed specifically for elderly patients. The program measures physical health and cognitive abilities and incorporates an individualized adaptive program for improvements. The real-time data obtained from the program is similar to clinical evaluations typically conducted by doctors and the game-like exercises result in increased adherence to the exercise regimes","PeriodicalId":280569,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","volume":"24 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123816205","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
J. Garner, Gavin Wood, S. Pijnappel, Martin Murer, F. Mueller
{"title":"Combining moving bodies with digital elements: design space between players and screens","authors":"J. Garner, Gavin Wood, S. Pijnappel, Martin Murer, F. Mueller","doi":"10.1145/2513002.2513014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513014","url":null,"abstract":"In playground games, an important part of engagement occurs in the physical space where people focus on each other's movements. In contrast, digital games often focus on engagement via a screen. By combining digital elements with playground ideas we identify new design opportunities where players are given freedom to play face-to-face. During a Game Jam workshop, we explore this design space by looking at innovative ways that digital technology can respond to movement. We find by removing the disparity between player movement and its digital representation, players can concentrate on each other and enjoy closer interaction. Through the exploration of digital elements and playground ideas, we suggest designers of movement-based games should consider the design space between the player and the screen using interactive technology to create engaging social digital play experiences.","PeriodicalId":280569,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","volume":"199 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124451837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Matthew Martin, J. Gavin, Daniel Cermak-Sassenrath, Charles Walker, Ben Kenobi
{"title":"Shadow showdown: twister in a digital space","authors":"Matthew Martin, J. Gavin, Daniel Cermak-Sassenrath, Charles Walker, Ben Kenobi","doi":"10.1145/2513002.2513027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513027","url":null,"abstract":"Shadow Showdown is a playful installation utilising whole-body interaction. The Kinect-based game challenges and attempts to overcome several boundaries: bodily proximity in a public place; the distinction between physical and digital play; and the separation of physical and digital spaces.","PeriodicalId":280569,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","volume":"26 3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128603006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stasis and entropy in Australian videogames classification discourse","authors":"Daniel Golding","doi":"10.1145/2513002.2513041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513041","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the discourse surrounding the classification and regulation of videogames in Australia, with particular focus on the exclusion, and subsequent introduction of an R18+ rating over the twenty-year period between 1993-2013. This article argues that this period was characterised by a remarkable entropy and stasis within classification discourse, and that the introduction of the R18+ rating was eventually achieved by pro-R18+ advocates reaffirming the perceived validity and power of the core discourse. Thus, the history of videogame classification in Australia---with or without an R18+ rating---is the history of protection of children from inappropriate content, and mistrust of an interactive media form; these arguments underpin both the exclusion of an R18+ in the early 1990s and the inclusion of an R18+ in 2012. Finally, though a close analytical exploration of the history of videogame classification in Australia, this article argues that public discourse on classification has been subject to cynical media manipulation from almost all parties involved, which has resulted in a discursive entropy that has been largely disconnected with any understanding of how videogame culture and play is enacted in an everyday sense.","PeriodicalId":280569,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127211875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Greuter, C. McCrea, F. Mueller, L. Hjorth, Deborah Richards
{"title":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","authors":"S. Greuter, C. McCrea, F. Mueller, L. Hjorth, Deborah Richards","doi":"10.1145/2513002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002","url":null,"abstract":"In its 9th year, the cross-disciplinary Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment 2013 (IE2013) turned its attention to \"Matters of Life and Death\" and embraced some of the recent changes in games discourses both inside and outside the academy. In a field concerned with entertainment, seriousness has hovered on the edges of discussion and helped us interpret technologies of leisure. Since IE began, Australasian and international scholars have converged around recurring themes and continued the conversations which have shaped the study of games. Combinations of the serious, the academic and the practical are what sets IE apart as a truly cross-disciplinary conference. With that in mind, we turn to 'matters of life and death' to challenge our disciplinary languages and to move the conversations forward.","PeriodicalId":280569,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131266666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Context, detail, and conversation: using painting strategies with 3D computer animation software","authors":"G. Moore, S. Greuter, C. Barker","doi":"10.1145/2513002.2513011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513011","url":null,"abstract":"3D modelling and animation software presents artists with unique creative opportunities and limitations that are dependent on design decisions implicit in the software's architecture, interface and workflow. This paper presents preliminary outcomes of a research project which explores these opportunities and limitations in order to develop new ways of working with the software that result in new visual styles of 3D animation. Strategies of production commonly used by 3D animators are significantly different to the strategies used by figurative painters. Painters often refer to their creative process as a type of collaboration or a \"conversation\" between themselves and the medium (paint). In contrast to this approach, for 3D animators the making process is often regarded as a necessary set of steps that lead to a predefined outcome. This research project examines the process of painting and uses a practice based research methodology to develop approaches to 3D animation that engage the animator in qualities of practice equivalent to those commonly experienced by a painter. The paper highlights some fundamental philosophical and strategic limitations encountered by 3D animators and discusses a series of short experimental 3D animations that aim to overcome these limitations.","PeriodicalId":280569,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2013-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130078200","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}