Games Connect Asia Pacific 2018 The Walls We've Built Ourselves

As designers we often look to our own medium for inspiration, but perhaps we can look else where for diverse and clever problem solving from other practices. What can VR learn from Spanish theatre makers in Barcelona? Could the problems of design, way finding and narrative structures be tackled with ideas from immersive works of art? What responsibility do we have as designers of agency and how might Boal’s theories of audience engagement help? What do Shakespeare’s cod pieces have to do with character design? In this session we will be looking at how theatre’s long history of immersion, engagement and indeed design might aid the development of the games we love to make. By analysing and researching the hundreds of years of practice we can hope to learn from theatre’s mistakes and pitfalls. Going from ancient Greek to recent immersive developments in Europe and the U.S, we will look at what has made experiences for theatre goers transforming and how we can translate it to a digital medium. Finally the discussion will end on where the boundaries are between the two medium, and see how blurry it can get. What are the avenues that we as creators can hybrid our works to keep experimenting and pushing our medium to new and exciting directions? Let’s find out.