Saturday, April 21, 2012

“LOOK AT ME!”

Has there ever been a moment in your life where you have wanted to attract the attention, and/or engage in conversation, a random passerby, however found yourself faltering seconds before you even opened your mouth? Or perhaps walked into a room full of individuals who held the key to your future; yet couldn't bring yourself to make that necessary first step? If you answered 'yes' then fear not. Help is certainly on its way. 
Introducing, From those meddling kids who may or may not have shone lasers in your direction, "Look at me" a game bent on tackling the social unease that comes with being in crowd situations. 

GAME IN-DEPTH: 

"Look at me" is a game that utilises a combination of video conferencing software and high bandwidth smart phones to provide a discrete magic circle that can be used in the public sphere. There is one controller player and two or more competing drone players. The drones receive orders from the controller through earphones connected to their phone, while their phone's transmit video to the controller who is watching from either a computer or a tablet. 

The drones go to a public place and initiate a group video call with the controller, The drone's put their earphones in and hold their phone appearing quite casual, a time period is decided and a countdown starts on the controller's screen and the controller state's "game on". The drones are now under the command of the controller, disobedience to the controller is a forfeiture of the game, should all drones disobey a command, the game continues to the next command. The players are responsible for holding their phone's in a way which confirms their obedience to the command. With 5 seconds left, the controller will say "Free Move" and the drones will perform an action of their choice to draw attention from the public to themselves, they hold their phone in a way that will record the most viewers. When the time is up, the controller takes a screen shot, and counts the faces looking at each drone, the drone with the most viewers win.

ABSTRACT: 

"Look at me" is a game designed to help those uncomfortable with having attention drawn to them develop the courage and the confidence to overcome their discomfort. 

Lacking situations that push people to overcome this discomfort; many never get the opportunity to develop this life skill. 

"Look at me" utilises an overseer to guide the actions of competing players to win the most attention from a non player group within a short time frame. 

With the use of an overseer, players find themselves less inhibited when attention is drawn towards them. 

By providing situations in which social inhibitions are challenged, "Look at me" provides players with relevant experiences to tap into when they are next presented with a scenario that puts them in the spotlight of attention.