Check out this innovative, fun, interactive coolness in Madrid, Spain. Game over, Man, GAME OVER!

–@teemunny

Cityfireflies is:

  • A multiplayer game designed for the square of Medialab Prado in Madrid.
  • Increased Fiction
  • A vindication of the square and playground

A threat of tens of invasive creatures wants to take the Place des Arts, the task of the players is to end it before the end with all the space available. For this feature with the help of the lights on their mobile phones to which the threats are diluted. Together they constitute a small army of fireflies flying over the city square to fight the invaders.
City Fireflies only works under low ambient light so you have to wait at dusk, the fireflies are nocturnal creatures. It is currently available Monday through Saturday from 7 to 12. Square in Medialab-Prado: Consult the map

Some History

City fireflies was first developed in the Global Game Jam 2011. And it has been expanded and improved this year. We started with the idea of creating an urban game that could be played without installing software on the phone, so we ended up using something that all phones have: A backlight!

Also:

We have given importance to the cooperative game and the interactions that occur between players. For example, to finish the game, and learn to play individually several people are needed and must be developed little strategies.

More:

We wanted to focus more in the user experience for digital urban games. How people who walk around the area next to the Media Lab Prado can be engaged to play without almost no instructions and problems in the 15×10 meters Media facade.

We discarded using active devices that sends information to the screen. Tracking the user with cameras tends to be complicated when lots of users are playing in a reduced space and light condition varies. For these reasons we came out with the idea of using light sources as a controller, so turning on the phone screen works perfectly even with a huge number of players!

The game was made in such a way that it takes almost no time to start playing since the only instruction given is to turn on the phone screen. Rapidly the player can enjoy the game.

During the game several environmental dangers are threatening human life: Buildings, pollution, cars. They are eating all the public space around and our mission is to draw clean spaces with the help of a bright light: A torch or our mobile phone light.

by Uncoded (Victor Diaz and Sergio Galán)

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