"i can't tell if this game is supposed to be competitive"

No Quarter is over.

In truth, I spent more time with the other artists than I did with their games.

I was touching Different Towers constantly before the show, testing things, tweaking numbers, drawing new sprites.

Several students & faculty & possibly un-NYU-related people were helping others set up their games and helping me play mine for -- honestly -- the first time anyone had played this build. Hours before the show, at the location. "I can't tell if this game is supposed to be competitive" was a phrase I heard uttered and that was... good, I think.

I set up a sign in response to seeing a group of 4 play the game until one of them 'won', when the game had been designed to desynchronize victory and loss so I set up a haphazard cardboard sign that said When you die, please pass your controller to someone else. // You're dead, after all., and that had the desired effect. People stood & watched & came & went. I saw a few people win. I heard of people competing, pushing others to their deaths...

This chaos was good.

By the end of the night I don't think many people really figured out all the mechanical systems of the game but what mattered was they had a good time and understood the basics:

1. The controls and goals were relatively simple, plus the fact that players were dropping in one at a time meant lots of people were actually teaching the next players how to play! This was... I mean, it was useful, but it was also just really nice to see.

2. As one person told me, the options were clear from the start. I'm paraphrasing here, but: "I knew immediately what my options were. I could use my machine, or I could shove people around and prevent them from using their machines, or I could push the screen forward." There were multiple immediately available actions that were easy to pull off, were easily telegraphed.

3. The complex part -- how you & others affected the world and generated the chaos -- was mostly not necessary to understand in order to drop in and feel like you could affect others and be an effective agent for yourself? (See 2.)

That's my basic analysis of my own game and how it went.

EDIT :: I started this post out talking about No Quarter & the other artists and just never followed up on that train of thought??? I guess that's sort of how the whole event went. Lots of distractions, and I'm easily distracted/focused. @_@