Games

Bradley Newman's MFA thesis project, Communio, is a 3 person cooperative game / art installation designed to combine the socially transformative power of play, and the perceptual manipulative powers of immersive media, to intensify a communal experience between participants.

The gameplay experience provided by Communio is similar to Pong or Breakout... players try to use their paddles to fire small balls from an outer ring into the protected center. This gameplay is reminiscent of the classic arcade games of the past, transported into a radically different game environment.

The installation consists of a 5.5’ diameter planetarium dome, upon which interactive graphics are projected. Participants lie down beneath the dome and look upwards at the screen... this setup creates a comfortable but unfamiliar play environment for Communio. Participants are also asked to wear LED bracelets on each wrist, which are position tracked by a camera. By waving their hands and working together participants are able to manipulate the graphics in order to cooperatively win this action/puzzle game.

For a more robust description of this project, please download Bradley Newman's thesis paper by clicking here.