PLAY16 - Creative Gaming Festival

by Kim Reichert

This installation is an excerpt of a game developed for children on the autism spectrum. In its original version it tells the story of a small robot asking the children to collect charge for its battery.

The children need to conquer some quests to bring the charge to the robot. These quests require spatial coordination and close cooperation between two players and allow the children to explore the meaning of personal space. The main concept of the quest requires players to move around the room with a chargeable bubble representing the personal space around them. In the quest presented here, the children must collect so-called lightening-bugs to charge their bubbles. Collection a bug  increases the size of a bubble, thereby the difficulty of moving  around without touching another bubble (which leads to discharge). The game was developed as part of a master thesis in a participative workshops with children between 8 and 14. The version presented here was adapted for public audience and multiple players.