Best Before Game Testing

August 21, 2009

Volunteer Event

On Friday, August 14th a group of 35 PuSh Festival friends and volunteers converged at the Vancity Culture Lab, the brand new addition to the recently renovated Vancouver East Cultural Centre, to be part of a trail blazing theatre creation.

PuSh has commissioned Rimini Protokoll, one of the most intriguing theatre companies out of Berlin, (you can learn more about them here) to create a brand new show for the 2010 Festival. This show will involve the participation of 200 audience members who will each have a video game controller and the ability to control their own avatar during a fully interactive game that takes place as part of the performance. Audience members will be able to communicate information about themselves like where they were born, what they do in an average day, their food preferences and what colour socks they are wearing.

This is a technological undertaking of epic proportions and PuSh was lucky enough to have a great group of volunteers come out and help with the first round of game and controller testing. Volunteers from all walks of life (including a DJ, an English teacher, a Biology Major and a Production Manager) came together alongside gaming software designer Brady Marks and gaming project coordinator Sean Arden to cycle through different video game environments to test how much input the system could handle, which colour of avatar was easiest to work with and which game environments were the most fun.

PuSh is grateful to all of these volunteers and looks forward to the next steps in the creation of this innovative production. Thanks for all of the invaluable feedback and a fun afternoon!

– Posted by Dani Fecko: Associate Producer of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival

Photos by Jeremy Lim, click here to see more

What did you think about the PuSh game testing experience? Leave your comments here!