“Word Game” is a role-playing puzzle game purely composed of Chinese characters, as well as a piece of interactive digital artwork. “Make room for words.” makes a room of words and invites visitors to immerse themselves into the world of Word Game.
Visitors are encouraged to literally walk on the map of Word Game, which is presented by projected text. Switching back and forth between “text” and “images”, Viewers are urged to rethink the relationship between abstract text and concrete objects.
In classic RPG games, “Endless maze” is a repetitive scene where the player must choose “up, down, left, right” in a seemingly identical map. The exit is not determined by an absolute direction or a specific location, but depends on a hidden logic of the puzzle.
Based on the endless maze puzzle in “Word Game”, Visitors/Players of “Make room for words.” are being placed in ever-recurring rooms. One should pull a cord to turn on a light first, and then one should choose and physically walk to one door out of four in different directions. The map of the room will transit if it is the right door to the puzzle.
One must observe the text and objects in each room carefully because there are hints and rules hidden in it.
While solving the puzzle, players are forced to abandon the perspective of seeing text as objects in the room, then return to a player’s view of seeing the screen in order to discover larger text composed of text-objects. The larger text points out the exact direction for players to go. Beyond the maze and projection, there is also a platform above the room for players to play as spectators and look down on other players.
Both the “player” in the room and the “spectators” standing aside are able to understand the words in the room from their own distances and perspectives. “Make room for words.” invites the viewer to feel the difference of “in the game” and “out of the game” and switch between “reading the words” mode and “watching the words” mode, which will lead to deeper and much more abundant understanding and imagination about “words” and “games”.
Team9 is a creative studio which mainly focuses on digital content and innovative products. “It is the way we see the world that defines the world we see.” The adventure of Team9 started from “Word Game” and is still going on with various attempts that might knock on a new world’s door.
David Yang is a Taiwanese-American artist working at the intersection of art and technology. He is curious about the unconscious ways people communicate with each other. His works are about creating memorable, meaningful, and joyful experiences through interactions.
