The Score
- Start the game by uploading a photo(of your own)
- Use Space Only to draw on the photo
- Use the photo as your profile picture(take a screenshot)
Link to download on itch(windows version only): https://rexy77.itch.io/flappy-rainbow
Artist Statement:
One of the class readings that stood out to me was Music of Changes by John Cage, based on the I Ching. I had read the I Ching and am familiar with so-called Chinese fortune-telling: even though the coins you flip (which isn’t the formal I Ching way of fortune-telling) may seem random, it’s correlating as a result of your fortunes for the day, in another word, destined. This is why I used digital as the medium for this project; I limited the player’s control to a single key, which makes randomness values less, but also preserves the possibility of the player’s creative freedom.
I didn’t understand the concept of “score” very well at the beginning of the process and focused on random creations and existing assets. After figuring out a bit, my first score was created.
- Use space to draw with a rainbow trail
- After about 22 seconds, switch to another player
- Combine two players’ rainbow drawings.
The prototype is interesting and receives positive feedback in general, one of them is that it gives the player fuller playability, but it seems that the only player engagement is pressing space, and questioned whether there’s another way for the player to interact with this trail? Another feedback suggested to me that allowing players to go ahead and upload their own photos might be a very good interaction.
Thinking back to the Grapefruit by Yoko Ono from class reading, very interesting book because the whole thing is almost instructing the reader to do absurd things. Inspired by this, I chose to have the players upload their own pictures and eventually use the created image as their profile photo. This retains my original idea of creating something out of randomness and has continued to shift towards a more instruction-leading mini-game. The “flappy bird” is like a paintbrush, limited in direction and strength, not completely under the player’s control, but depending on the player’s intention whether to keep it stable or bouncing. This machine-based limitation I think sets it apart from other analog games in attracting players.