Check out the ITP Thesis Archive for a full summary of Dyad!
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DESIGN VALUES, 4/6/20
Experience
Dyad is an AR game where pairs of players simulate being in a relationship and try not to break up while decorating their home with IKEA furniture they drop from the sky. Each player has individual desires of how the home will look, and it’s up to each to communicate, compromise, and make the design work for both of them.
Theme
Navigating the challenges of being an individual in a relationship through communication and play.
IKEA! Because who doesn’t love IKEA
Point of View
The players can see their relationship played out on the canvas of a floor-plan, which itself occupies the physical floor-plan of the players’ shared space.
Challenge
There are two interconnected types of challenge that will be weighted differently based on who is playing: the puzzle of trying to achieve your personal goal by placing the right furniture in the right spaces, and the puzzle of communicating your goals to your partner and compromising when their goals conflict.
Do you try and win yourself or do you try and make the pair win? What about when both or neither is possible?
Decision-making
This is up in the air, because for the previous version, I was going to test different game modes where either the pair would have individual spawn points and no shared interface, or whether they would have to share a spawn point with a split interface (lots of questions surrounding agency, consent, power). Now I think I’m sticking to individual spawn points because each device is the spawn point, so the decisions will be made independently, but in-order to win, those decisions must be made in consideration of your partner’s wishes.
I still want the whimsy-flavored joy that comes from players being able to button-spam a fountain of furniture without penalizing them for that, so that’s a tricky balance to strike.
Skill, Strategy, Chance, and Uncertainty
As far as “In-Game” skills, I want the bar of entry to be as low as possible. Ideally one button (a screen tap), so there doesn’t need to be any complicated tutorial or confusion over which button does what. Most of the strategy then, will have to come from “Out-of-Game” skills, interpersonal strategies/soft skills like being able to know what you want, communicate that, listen to what your partner wants, and devise an outcome (with your partner) that allows for both of you to succeed (under the tension of a ticking time limit).
The uncertainty comes in two layers:
Each player will have a unique “dream home” floor-plan that dictates what furniture they want and where they want it.
They only see their own “dream home” though, so they have no way of knowing their partner’s wants and needs unless that partner can communicate it and they listen.
If I get the time, I really feel strongly about implementing a third layer of uncertainty in the legacy-style player profiles, where players can start a new character in this universe, represented by a IKEA assembly manual that shows their unique wants and needs out of their home and relationships –however, each manual starts completely blank. It’s only through the self-discovery that comes via trying and failing in relationships, that parts of the manual begin to reveal themselves. It’s not impossible for people who know nothing about themselves to be successful, but it’s definitely harder, for themselves and for their partners.
This is also, currently, how the ultimate version of this game would work, “Party Mode”, where you would have a group of players, say 3-8, who have 30-60 minutes to play; they each get assigned a new character with a blank assembly manual, and it’s only by playing randomly assigned rounds with new partners that they learn more about how they individually can succeed. So each round a new pairing of players will play (and all other players can spectate on their devices), but they may not get past very many levels before they break up (lose). Then the first pair of players to understand themselves, understand how to work with their partner, and thus make it all the way past the final stage (the nursing home)– and win.
Context
I hope this game could be played anywhere by anyone, but realistically this game is more geared towards:
People who like games, specifically games like Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Fog of Love, Consentacle, Jackbox Games, Splatoon, Pokemon Go(?)…
People who enjoy the absurdity of running around dropping mountains of IKEA furniture on each other. (and I guess people who can run around at all)
People who like yelling at their friends, but are emotionally conscientious enough to know how to do it in a fun, nice way that doesn’t result in actual IKEA-breakups.
Definitely have to play this at IKEA.
Emotions
I hope this game frustrates people, makes them laugh, inspires them, allows them to reflect on how these systems play out in their real-world relationships, gives them a sandbox to practice healthy communication strategies, and ultimately makes them feel closer and more connected to the people they’re playing with. To bring it all home to my core thesis research — I hope this is an experience that uses physidigital play and brings groups of people together, provides them an obstacle/challenge to overcome together, and together, they leave feeling more powerful, more connected, and more alive.
DECEMBER ‘19 VERSION OF DYÄD BELOW, OUTDATED BUT TOO LAZY TO MAKE A NEW PAGE RIGHT NOW
DYÄD is a puzzle game where a couple must navigate the struggles of being in a relationship while assembling Ikea furniture out of tiny Ikea furniture.
Inspired by games like Consentacle, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, and Nour, DYÄD is a puzzle game where two people, each with their own unique button interface, have to complete the task of building Ikea furniture in a digital environment by strategically spawning tiny versions of Ikea furniture. Each player is assigned a unique printout assembly manual that dictates in an abstract way how and what they want to build with their partner, however it starts almost blank and they must unlock hidden parts of the manual by trying and failing with multiple partners, simulating the process of becoming wiser and better at relationships over time. Though no pairing is the same, through communication, compromise, and playful exploration, the couple can emerge victorious.
Each button interface has multiple LED pushbuttons that change color to indicate different states in-game, and both are connected via TeensyMIDI to Unity. After giving new players their own assembly manual, explaining the game rules (though leaving most interactions/effects to exploration/discovery), and allowing the pair a minute to discuss, the facilitator (me) starts the game in unity.