A playful experience that’s quite like snow

Following on from yesterday’s thoughts, and the stimulating comments, I thought of something - not a game, exactly, but a playful, immersive experience - that embodies some of the snow-like magic that I was talking about. The company who made this are called seeper - H&S collaborated with them at the end of last year on a different project, which I’ll be blogging about soon.

Please watch the following (3 mins 28 secs)

Glastonbury 2008 - Pi Interactive Installation from seeper on Vimeo.

Isn’t that great. So. Ways in which Pi is a bit like snow…

1. There is no barrier to getting started. Well, hardly any. You have to make it past the glamorous flight attendants…

2. It puts the player in touch with a childlike, uninhibited creativity, releasing them from an overactive sense of right and wrong. There is no goal, except to understand, play, and create. You can be as extreme as you like.

3. The technology is accessible to anyone, it’s multipurpose, it’s communal, and it can be combined in unexpected and delightful ways.

4. It generates a sense of community and shared purpose. The way those energy balls get passed around the room, it’s just like snow, because they can be shaped, passed on, returned with interest.

A big shout out to Evan and the seeper team for this magnificent piece of work; it’s truly inspiring, and goes some way to proving that the bold ambition of making a game that is just like snow is, if not achievable, then certainly a fun way to think about good experience design.