Thursday, June 21, 2012

Games at the Show - Aurora

Welcome to our Games at the Show feature in which we will be talking to the creators of some of the games being shown at the End of Year Show. Today we have Aurora, created by Samuel Barker and Shan Blackwood, with sound by Sam Conran.


What's your game called and what is it about?


Aurora is a romantic experiential game for two people. The particpants must coordinate to generate and ignite solar winds to compose a unique aurora.


What inspired you while designing it?


Auroras have been admired by humans for centuries for their ethereal, romantic qualities, so naturally we did not want to create a game that causes conflict, but one which encourages communication and produces an audio-visual display that affects the mood of the participants. 


Sam Conran's mysterious sound design allows the participants to create a unique aural composition. Games with dynamic soundtracks, like flOw and Osmos, laid the foundations for the audio but Sam pushed for more interaction. His sound design allows Aurora to be played as an instrument, not just as a game.


Is there any cool, unexpected stuff you can do in the game?


Some participants feel uncomfortable sharing a controller with another person, but this sparks conversations we never expected to hear after playing a computer game. There are a number of 'tricks' that can be used to quickly generate solar winds which were unplanned but not removed because they can look particularly spectacular.

Sell it to me in one sentence.

Get lost in the most ancient wonder of the atmosphere as you compose your own unique aurora.

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