V&A Digital Futures
Tuesday 12 February, 11.00 – 16.00
Digital Studio, Sackler Centre
Firefly is a tagging game that explores temporal memory, and exploits the balance of collaboration and competition. The game is designed to be played in the dark. Players, wearing flashing LED badges, compete to see who can steal the most badges from other players. The winner is the person with the most badges at the end of the round.
The key component of Firefly is that player can only steal a badge when the light is OFF. This is where the exploration of temporal memory comes into play. The players can track each other while their badges are lit up but must find and steal a badge when it goes dark. The challenge is to continue to track players after the light is gone. It is this tracking that is using the same memory skills we have for remembering where we parked our car.
In the Digital Futures session, we demonstrated a tabletop version of the game. It applies the same principles of tracking and memory in a less rambunctious version of the BIG game.The table top version is played with 2 to 3 players. Players have “nets”. All the fireflies start in the center field. Players can take a firefly and put it in their net when the light flashes off. However, players have to be vigilant. Just like in life, a firefly is not permanently captured in a net. When the light goes off again it is up for grabs by any player. Players have to keep track of their and other players fireflies with the goal of being the one with most when time runs out.
We active worked on the current game component as well exploring the next iteration of the game. We began designing a new circuit for the next generation of Badges in Eagle. We reprogrammed badges to explore different timings in game play.
It was great fun and informative at Digital Futures. We had many players of all ages play with us. Many played several rounds of the game. It was quite informative and entertaining to see different strategies. It was an amazing experience.
We are honored to be part of Digital Futures.
