NORDLICHT BLITZ play
The next level of our RFID Judgement Day play was performed at the Piksel 07 festival in Bergen this November, and as a result of some of the comments on the blog posts below about our Blitz Play Hero III game, I thought I’d aim to provide a little more information about this latest version.
It is a continuation of the development of our RFID play and incorporated aspects of my RFID Soundscape, which I produced whilst in my final year at university, and also a brand new RFID Wunderbäumchen reader. Gordo Savicic, took the original designs for the reader I built for our Plymouth play, and has drastically improved upon them, by simplifying the serial out, replacing the bulky battery for a usb rechargeable mobile phone one, adding multiple blinking lights, and finally managing to shape it into tree form.
Both Gordo and Rene Bauer also developed the DS software, which allows the reader to be connected to the DS and RFID tags scanned. Each tag is assigned a sound and this is accessible through as Nintendo DS, and online Google Map; the result is a street concert built up over three levels of play.
The play
In level 1 players use the DS to “sniff” out open and closed WIFI hotspots and define them as playclouds (areas in the city where RFID tags can be placed). Players chalk the symbol of a DS d-pad knob to indicate that a playcloud has been created, and move on through the city repeating the process until thirst overcomes them, and the need for coffee means a break in the play must occur. The location of the playclouds are stored locally on the DS in a text file that can then be transferred to the server to update the Google map, which overlays the city with black and white polygons to represent their location. These playclouds are then assigned a base sound, used later in the concert, and at this point a player can view the map and begin to create a score of music, or simply use it to locate their nearest open WIFI spot.
Level 2 then commences where players seek out the playclouds and place RFID tags at their location, within the chalk sketched symbol, automatically assigning them a sound through the choice of black or white tag (open or closed), and also the number that is unique to it. Again this stored on the DS and transferred to the server where the map is updated with each tag.
Finally level 3 occurs where the concert begins. Players return to playclouds, reading their own and other player’s tags, upon which the sound is played by the DS; each player becoming a instrument in the orchestra of RFID readers. Throughout the levels players are awarded points for finding clouds, placing tags, and generating music, and thus the Blitz Play Hero III is declared.
