Copenhagen Game Collective – an experimental games collective

We’re going to the Maldives – The games

By Patrick on May 3rd, 2013

Read about the background of this trip here.

We got the move controllers water-proofed and were excited to try our underwater idea. We thought of having an underwater minefield of floating move controllers. If you touched one, a chain reaction would start, and you would hear sounds played from above the water.

Ready to get wet

However, as soon as the move controllers were submerged, just a bit, they stopped working. Apparently the Bluetooth signal from the controllers is not strong enough to send through water. The medium is of course tougher than air to propagate in, but we did not think this would be an issue. Apparently it is. There went all under water ideas!

Luckily we made two new findings.

The move controllers float and work while floating
They start working again as soon as they emerge from the water! (As long as they have not been under for more than 5 sec, where the built in hardware disconnect kicks in)

These two findings together we thought was really cool and could be turned around from a bug to a feature. We figured out that we could count for updates in the code, where no there was no activity from the controller. If the duration is longer than a prescribed threshold (for us 0.5 second), then the controller had been submerged.
This got us to think about the games in another way, and even though an under water game would have been beautiful and atmospheric to play, being above water is more fun, since you can communicate and interact more with the other players.
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We’re going to the Maldives – Boat, water and island games

By Patrick on April 25th, 2013

Read about the background of this trip here.

At our third day here we wanted to get to know the local culture more. We wanted to hear some local fairytales and folk stories. That’s why we arranged a get-together with some of the locals at a café on a Malé suburb – Villingili (it’s on another island, and you have to take a ferry to get there, but yes, it’s a “suburb”).

Telling stories to a crowd can be a bit daunting if you’re not used to it. I remembered a classic danish parlour game that my friend Anders Børup taught me. It is a collaborative storytelling game where people take turns at saying a word that is attached to the current sentence and then it goes around in a circle. Anyone can always end the sentence by saying “full stop” instead of a word, which then changes the direction and begins a new sentence. It is best played fast and to a specific rhythm. This forces people to not over-think and makes it more silly and fun.

Here is a sentence we built that I really love. It’s a bit non-sensical and aaaalmost poetic:

“Malé is unpleasantly humid, yes, this will destroy mother earth if we want all the passionfruit all in one mouthful.”

Events other - Folk Games - Games - Maldives - UniMove 0 Comments »

NGIN 2013 Finalists

By Lau on April 24th, 2013

We are happy to announce this years finalists for the Nordic Game Indie Night Showcase. Our jury of Copenhagen Game Collective members, as well as previous finalists have selected eight games representing the breadth and quality of the Nordic Indie Scene:

Badland, By Frogmind [Finland]

Clairvoyance, By Erik Svedang, Johannes Gotlen, Niklas Akerblad and Oscar Rydelious [Sweden]

Flowstorm, By Neat Corporation [Sweden]

The Mission, By Xavier V Lafont, [Denmark]

The Plan, By Krillbite Studio, [Norway]

Rymdkapsel, By Grapefrukt Games, [Sweden]

The Silent Age, By House on Fire [Denmark]

Stikbold, By Team Stikbold, [Denmark]

The eight selected games will be showcased Wednesday May 22nd from 18.00 at Slagthuset, Malmö. The evening is free and open to the public and will features inspirational and experimental speakers and party all night. We will release more information about the program for the evening in the following weeks, stay tuned.

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We’re going to the Maldives – first days

By Patrick on April 18th, 2013

Read about the background of this trip here.

The last couple of days we have been settling in. Getting to know the “island time” and meeting local people and Amani’s family. All very nice people.

I got to play a game with the locals that they claim is the predecessor of the other games in the same variant. The game is called Ohlvalhu Gondi and is a type of Kalaha/Mancala and is played sea shells called cowrie. The cowrie used to be their currency, so playing this game would have an element of gambling involved. The cowrie is also depicted on their really beautiful paper money as a legacy of their history.

Events other - Folk Games - Games - Idiots attack the Top Noodle - Johann Sebastian Joust! - Maldives - Physical game - The Collective 1 Comment »

We’re going to the Maldives – day 0

By Patrick on April 15th, 2013

Yay! We got invited to participate in this cool game design trip to the Maldives.

Amani Naseem of the Collective has invited a group of international game designers to go and design games and make playful events in the capital city of the Maldives, Malé. We will work with key artists, thinkers and organizers in the Maldives and create a playful event in the public spaces of Malé.

Image courtesy of Ida Marie Toft

There are more reasons why we go to the Maldives of all places in the world. Firstly; Amani is from there. She has family there.and knows a lot of the local community. Secondly, Amani was invited to join the Maldivian pavilion for this year’s Venice Biennale and decided to invite designers to do collaborative game design events in the Maldives and in Venice.

Art - Events other - Folk Games - Game Jam - Games - Maldives - Uncategorized Comments Off

ERVAX for 2 nominated for A MAZE!

By sbn on April 8th, 2013

So, our little game / compositional tool ERVAX for 2 has been nominated for the Most Amazing Indie Game of 2013. We are, of course, very honoured and find it a bit daunting to see the quality and scope of the other nominees.

The competition

Before this, I only knew of three of the other nominees. I’ve played (and bought) Dear Esther and was vaguely aware that David Kanaga (of Proteus fame) had been working on some MIDI-hardware controlled project. And I’ve played Space Team once, when I happened to be in a room with enough iDevices.

Art - ERVAX - Events other - Indie Games 2 Comments »

Urban Games Festivals; Puddle Peddler and the Idiot’s game

By Patrick on August 18th, 2012

Last weekend we were at the PlayPublik festival in Berlin, hosted by the amazing Invisible Playground. It was a blast, and we got to showcase a new version of Idiots attack the Top Noodle! We also tried to showcase one of our new creations: The Puddle Peddler. I say “tried” because we just could not get it running. Like with any other technology; when you add layers of complexity, the risk of failure increases. But though we didn’t get to showcase it at this Festival, we are making it ‘sturdier’ for the next. Still, read the concept description; it’s quite an interesting game.

$Viktor playing the Idiot\'s game$
$People playing the Idiot\'s game$

Events other - Folk Games - Games - Idiots attack the Top Noodle - Kinect - Music - Physical game - Travel - UniMove 0 Comments »

NGIN 2012 Finalists

By Lau on May 2nd, 2012

We can finally announce the finalists for this year’s Nordic Game Indie Night Showcase. Our jury of Copenhagen Game Collective members, as well as previous finalists and game critics, researchers, and developers from the Nordic region has settled on eight games representing the breadth and quality of the Nordic Indie Scene:

Amphora, by Moondrop [Norway]
Backworlds, by Juha Kangas, and Anders Ekermo [Sweden]
Back to Bed, by Team 1up [Denmark]
Blind Monk, by Christian Andersen and Toke Odin [Denmark]
Flight of the Fireflies, by Jonathan Hise Kaldma [Sweden]
Neon Zone, by House on Fire [Denmark]
The Swapper, by Facepalm Games [Finland]
LAZA KNITEZ!!, by Team Buttfighters [Denmark, US, Belgium]

Events - Events other - Indie Games - Nordic Game 6 Comments »

Volunteers for our party at Distortion

By sebbe on May 2nd, 2012

Summer is coming, and so is Distortion!

Last year we participated by just showing up and playing games, this year we are taking it up a notch as an official streethost throwing a big party.

At the party we will have all the elements that make up a great party. Cold beers, fun games, great music, happy people, and hopefully you!

A party at Distortion is a big thing and takes a lot of work, therefore we are looking for volunteers that would like to help out. The party will be held on Sønder Boulevard, Vesterbro, Friday June 1st from 5pm to 11pm.

We will have an info meeting for interested on Monday May 7th 6pm-7pm. It will be held at Pilestræde 43, 3rd floor (Art of Crime), Map. If you are not able to show up, please send us an email (volunteer@cphgc.org) if you are interested in helping out anyway.

If you know of anybody that might be interested, please invite them for the info meeting.

What we need help with is:

Detailed planning of the party
Bartenders
Runners
Help for setting up games.
Help for running the games during the night.
Packing up after the event.
If you have your own idea for inclusion

If you have any question, don’t hesitate to contact us on volunteer@cphgc.org.

Copenhagen - Denmark - Events other 0 Comments »

Spilbar 9000 – a talk in Aalborg – and AAAARGH!

By Patrick on March 16th, 2012

While everybody was at the Game Developers Conference in SF, having fun and receiving awards, we were also having fun with a talk about prototypes and experimental games. We were invited by Shareplay to give a talk about our work. The talk was titled “from protoype to production”. Shareplay is a transmedia venture interested in the development of the future media sector. That means they have some capital for thing like this. Which is pretty good for Northern Jutland and the gaming scene there.

The actual location for the talk was in a bar called Viva La Revolution. It was kind of a small and cozy setting, which led the mind towards a small smoke filled underground NYC comedy club. Perfect setting for showing experimental and ridiculous games. And of course, there was beer, which also helps to set the mood. In that sense, it really differentiates itself from the Copenhagen version of the Spilbar, which is more geared toward formal talks and professional networking. The Spillbar 9000 takes another approach and creates a more casual environment that should help the networking. It was even more evident, since, as mentioned, it was during GDC. So they audience was mostly students and less people in the game industry.