Phone Home

A game for two players whose goal is to navigate an invisible maze to find and reconnect with each other.

The game takes place on a touch-responsive glass wall with no visual indicators. The paths, walls and obstacles of the invisible maze can be explored only by the specific sound and vibration frequency that is triggered when approaching an object or colliding with it by touch.

Phone Home received an honorable mention at AMaze 2017.

Playing the game

Two players are facing each other while being separated by the glass wall. Each player touches their indicated starting position and begins to carefully slide over the glass to feel and hear the environment. The goal is to stay on the path that will lead them to the other player.

On top of navigating with haptic and audio feedback only, players face the challenge of having to be attentive to their partner´s actions since each feedback caused by one player´s collision with an object will automatically be received by the other player as well. This might lead to temporary loss of orientation that can only be resolved by patient communication between the players.

An ambient-like progression sound indicates the players´ approaching to the goal. It starts subtle and with low volume, and becomes more intense with progression. The increasing intensity will put extra pressure on the players to listen closely to the collision queues.

The game was first created as a prototype for the 2017 Global Game Jam at the Cologne Game Lab.

Team

Katharina Tillmanns
Tobias Wolter
Jack Hoefnagel
Carmen Johann
Gilliam Spliethoff

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