EKA Interaction Design students took part of a cooperative games workshop in France

Tanel Kärp (Head of IxDma program) and Jekaterina Suharenko (IxDma graduate 21’; Project Coordinator at EKA) with 8 students from EKA (6 people from Interaction Design MA and 2 from Product design BA) went to France for a week to participate in a workshop that is a part of the project “Digital Tools for Creative Collaboration” funded by Erasmus+. The project is aiming at providing an opportunity to significantly improve teaching quality and possibly create new teaching approaches in the context of art and design. This project is done with the collaboration of three universities: Estonian Academy of the Arts (Estonia), School of Art and Design of Saint-Etienne (France) and University of Design Schwäbisch Gmünd (Germany). This module’s topic is: “Cooperative games — play together”. In connection with the problem of digital tools, the purpose of the workshop is to experiment with collaborative work situations to understand the fundamental principles of a collaborative relationship. The workshop lasted for 5 days. On the first day, there were introductory activities, like a tour through Esadse academy, lectures about games and collaboration, and forming teams. The second day was the start of the group work. Students have started to discuss their initial ideas and test them out. During the third and fourth days, students were busy with developing, testing, and refining their prototypes and identity of the concept as a whole. On the last day of the workshop, the prototypes were showcased at the expo that was specifically dedicated to this workshop. It was a great opportunity to see the concepts in vivid interaction with the students, teachers, and guests. The games themselves will be showcased below.

Aela

Aela is a drawing game. The team has to pick a keyword. Both have to roll the dice. The displayed restriction is the one you have to follow while drawing your keyword. Afterward, the participants have 30 seconds. In that timeframe, the team has to collaborate without talking (just by drawing) to create a drawing that represents the keyword they just picked. When the 30 seconds are over, the other players have to guess the keyword from both drawings. To continue with the game, form a new team and start the next round. Aela can be played by people of all ages and bring out their creativity.

Red Room Blue Room

You play as a designer who always tries to find a new tech to improve your work. For that, you bought a brand new 5D printer… from a shady website… You tried to print your file, BUT it broke your reality in half. You and your friend have to work together to merge reality into one again. When placed into the 5D printer they reveal riddles that give you a code to teleport the objects to the right reality. For some of the riddles, you will have to collaborate with your friend because crucial hints to your riddle are hidden in their room. The goal is to solve all the riddles so your realities can merge again and you can return to your purple room.

Metro

The goal of the game is to finish the metro line and conclude your travels. It is designed for up to four players, each having to complete their colored lines. Our final Prototype consists of 72 unique pieces and the game instructions. During the game, the player starts by taking a piece from the stack or from the metro plan already constructed (not possible for the very first move). One of the four pieces now has to be added to the metro plan. The pieces can only be added if the lines fit all of the surrounding pieces. Moreover, the pieces have to be laid out so that each “empty” space has no more than two different colors ending it The player who has both their starting and ending point of the metro line connected first, wins.

The Cube

The Cube is a cooperative game for 2 people. It is an interactive storytelling game, and also an escape room game. The story begins with one friend who is stuck in a bar and they need to escape, but they have had one too many beers and they don’t know where they are. They call another friend who will try to come help and hopefully save them. If you successfully save them then you will live happily ever after. As previously stated one of the players is in the bar and they see the bar through images that they can switch between. They will have to look around the bar to find out information which they must tell their friend. The other person plays the game on the computer and has choices presented to them and they must communicate to answer all the riddles correctly.

Petanque Collaborativ

The concept of the game is that a group of people have to throw a ball collaboratively. They have to communicate well to coordinate their movement so that the ball flies in the right direction. The aim is to get as close as possible to the “cochonnet”. You repeat this step with the second and third ball. When all balls are thrown, a measure which ball is the closest to the “cochonnet”. The team that has thrown this ball gets three points. And whose ball is the furthest away gets one minus point. After counting the points, collect the balls and start the new round. The team that gets to 9 points first is the winning team.

C’est la vie

The concept of the game is that all participants have to reach the center or the number 0. In order to move forward and reach your goal, there are challenges that needs to be achieved. The challenges have certain restricitions. If successfull, you get closer to the center. Except you’re not the one doing the challenges. It’s everyone participating in the game doing the challenge for you. And you moving to closer to the center depends on how well they succeed in the given challenge. Your success depends on their success. Think of it this way: Life throws you challenges and much restrictions come along. Many of them require your motivation but also the help of others. Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you don’t. But you keep on trying. And that’s life.

Spacimen

It is a a game about surviving, which is why it is a collaborative and competition game. Up to 8 4 participants will have limited time to shape a Spacimen (creature) based on a series of determined parameters of the given natural environment. This parameters are presented in format of statements and a story that allows the player to imagine and interprate the world. After the expo, most of us went to see other parts of the International Biennale in Saint-Etienne. On the next day after the workshop, we traveled to Lyon and stayed there for a day. We have visited several museums, cathedrals and plenty of food places. As a souvenir, we have brought some tan on our faces back to Tallinn.