IndieCade 2013's Night Games are inventive, goofy fun
IndieCade isn't just a huge celebration of independent game development, it's also a street festival designed to appeal to all types of people, not just those who enjoy traditional video games. Enter Night Games, a special IndieCade event featuring lots of big, physical games designed to be played in the dark. That includes everything from the rhythmic, Kinect-powered Soundodger Live to The Hearst Collection, a life-sized recreation of a museum art heist, complete with laser security grid.
Head past the break for a video rundown of our favorite Night Games, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the entire IndieCade festival.
Soundodger Live
Using Kinect and a projector, Soundodger Live turns the rhythm-centric web game into a full-body experience. Players dodge (presumably evil) rectangles, triangles and circles that are generated by the music. The circular avatar stays at a point between the player's feet, requiring some fancy footwork to clear the trickier sections of a song. Meanwhile, raising your arm slows down the song and the enemies, giving you a little breathing room.
Watch the whole video to see bonus footage of the coolest kid in the world.
Edgar Rice Soirée
Named after the man who gave us Tarzan, Edgar Rice Soirée is played exclusively with a dangling set of PlayStation Move controllers (a jungle, if you will). Each of the game's four players must always be holding a Move controller of his or her color. Over time, the controllers begin to change color, forcing players to "swing" to other controllers of the correct hue. Fail to hold onto two controllers of your color for too long – or foolishly let got of both controllers entirely – and you're out.
The Hearst Collection
Have you ever watched one of those heist movies where a master criminal has to navigate a complex maze of lasers in order to steal some priceless artifact from a museum? The Hearst Collection is a real-life recreation of that exact fantasy. Players have to crawl through a tricky series of lasers and grab a painting, then they have to make it through the rest of the maze without tripping an alarm or letting the painting touch the ground.
Unfortunately, the fog machine used to make the lasers visible to the naked eye wasn't working very well, which made the game even more difficult. The man seen in this video failed immediately after acquiring the painting.
Propinquity
Propinquity, which means "nearness," is a game about being very, very close to another human being. Two players where proximity sensing "patches." The object is to get your hands as close to the other players patches as possible without touching them. Simultaneously, you have to prevent the other player from doing the same to you.
Dark Room Sex Game
Dark Room Sex Game returned to IndieCade this year, having won the Fun / Compelling Award back in 2008. The game is played solely with PlayStation Move controllers (an upgrade from the original version's Wii Remotes), and the goal is for two players to ... you should probably just watch the video. Warning: The audio is not safe for work. The team behind Dark Room Sex Game is now working on Spin the Bottle for Wii U.
