Stack a Snack
Stack a Snack is a multimedia game where players can make bizarre and whimsical cakes by mixing unexpected ingredients. What happens when you mix green grass, red lava, grey concrete, and brown worms together? Each cake generated in Stack a Snack is unique to the ingredients chosen. Players get to take home their digital cake creations by scanning the QR code at the end of the game. Created in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) for their Up, Down and All Around: Daniel Emma for Kids exhibition in the Children’s Gallery from 2 June 2023 – 8 October 2023. Over 57,000 cakes were made during the course of the exhibition. Game Development Team: Chad Toprak (Game Design), Helen Kwok (Animation) & Hsin Yang Ho (Programming)
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Swarming Instagram Filter
The Swarming Instagram Filter is a series of Instagram filters created for National Gallery of Victoria‘s Melbourne Now 2023 exhibition. Created in collaboration with artist James Lemon for his Swarming exhibit, participants can use the filter to: Be a Bee – transform themselves into a bee amidst the explosion of fluorescent colours in the space Be with the Bees – immerse themselves in a swarm of colourful animated bees The filter was accessible via QR codes in the Swarming exhibit, located on the third floor of The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square from 24 March 2023 – 20 August 2023. Team: Chad Toprak (Design & Programming) & Helen Kwok (Animation)
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Make a Creature
Make a Creature is a multimedia game inspired by artist Remedios Varo, the Surrealists, and the game Exquisite Corpse – a drawing game that invited players to create strange creatures from different objects and body parts. In Make a Creature, players get to create their own creature by taking a photo of their face and augmenting it with a random objects for heads, bodies and legs. They can then scan the QR code to take their creation home. Created in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) for their Making Art exhibition in the Children’s Gallery from 10 June 2022 – 9 October 2022, Make a Creature was also installed at Chadstone Shopping Centre for a month. Nearly 60,000 creatures were made during the course of the exhibition. Game Development Team: Chad Toprak (Game Design), Helen Kwok (Animation) & Hsin Yang Ho (Programming)
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Musical Monoliths
Musical Monoliths is an interactive installation consisting of four musical pillars, each a distinct musical instrument. Players can create a harmonious musical symphony together simply by waving their hands or moving their bodies in front of the monoliths. Commissioned by City of Melbourne especially for narrm ngarrgu | Melbourne Knowledge Week 2022, the installation was presented at the Keith Murdoch Gallery at the State Library of Victoria. Across the week-long festival, nearly 3,500 participants played the installation. Collaborators: Chad Toprak Fabrication: Swinburne University’s School of Design and Architecture
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A Walk in the Bush
Created in collaboration with the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre, A Walk in the Bush is a videogame based on the artworks of Ms N Yunupiŋu, and inspired by the land and sea of North-East Arnhem Land. Children are introduced to the six seasons of the Country as they walk in the bush, spot hidden animals, collect bush food, and listen to stories. A rich learning and visual experience, the game concludes under the stars. Presented as part of The Gecko and the Mermaid exhibition in the Children’s Gallery at NGV from 17 December 2021 – 25 April 2022. Game Development Team: Chad Toprak (Game Design), Helen Kwok (Animation) & Hsin Yang Ho (Programming)
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PaintMixer 3000
Made in 24 hours for an online game jam, PaintMixer 3000 is a 2-player alternative controller game where each player has to mix red, green, and blue colours to match a randomly generated base colour. Inspired by the infamous TikTok paint-mixing videos, PaintMixer 3000 is not just about accuracy, but also having fun when players are way off the mark. Not only do players have to match colours from memory, but also do it blind – the paint buckets are “hidden” while players are mixing colours, and only revealed in a final hilarious showdown. Who will match their paint bucket closest to the target colour? PaintMixer 3000 was first showcased as part of the Talking Heads #09 – 藝術 X 遊戲 Art X Arthouse Games and Playful Media event run by Cultural Masseur from Hong Kong and A MAZE. from Berlin. Created in collaboration with Chad Toprak for the A MAZE. @ Home – Alt.Ctrl Online Game Jam 2021.
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Postcard Memento
Postcard Memento is an AR(G) game about uncovering memories from a lost postcard. The year is 2030. You find a postcard dated from 2020, hand-made from one lover to another. Using your special ‘memory camera’, you scan the lost postcard to reveal its embedded memories. One final puzzle remains: where is the “secret location” that the lovers were going to meet? Inspired by the Griffin and Sabine book series by Nick Bantock, Postcard Memento is a short, intimate and personal game about the power of memories and time. Lovingly crafted as a love letter to Melbourne after lockdown, Postcard Memento was made as part of the Australia Global Game Jam 2021 for the theme ‘LOST & FOUND’. Collaborators: Michelle Chen (Programming), Yi-Ling Ng (Music) and Andrew J Ryan (Sound Design).
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I Spy in the Dark
Remember those childhood times when we would read books under our bed covers with a flashlight? I Spy in the Dark is a physical hidden object game that tries to capture that same feeling of childhood wonder. Inspired by the original ‘I Spy’ book series, this game prototype is played in the dark with a torch. As the player reads a custom-designed storybook, they are prompted to find hidden objects within a paper diorama using their torch. The story is about a witch named Penelope Nightflower, who needs to collect five different animal sounds in the forest to complete her magical spell. Created for the Make Things Interactive elective course as part of my Master in Animation, Games & Interactivity degree at RMIT University. Collaborators: Chad Toprak (Storybook)
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Heartree
Freeplay Independent Games Festival Awards 2021: Finalist (Experimental Game Award) Heartree is an interactive tree installation that reconnects players to the natural and Indigenous histories of Brunswick through touch, audio and play. It is a part of a bigger project called Playable City Brunswick that was completed in collaboration with the Moreland City Council and Dr. Troy Innocent. The purpose of the project is to reconnect people to the “lived experience” of Brunswick through urban play. Different soundscapes play when players physically touch the tree trunk (to feel the “heartbeat” of the tree), or the six ropes that hang from the branches. Multiple players can play Heartree simultaneously to create different layered soundscapes. Heartree plays on the idea that it is only through our connection with the land, does it reveal its past stories to us. What if every tree had a story to tell? Heartree was completed as part of my third semester studio project for the Master of Animation, Games & Interactivity program at RMIT University. Collaborators: Israel Carter (Sound Design)
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Sashiko
Featured on ABC Radio National program, Life Matters. Listen to our radio interview. Sashiko is a meditative sewing game based on the Japanese form of decorative stitching to reinforce or repair old and worn clothing, making it stronger and warmer. Players have to physically sew using a needle and thread on a custom-made sewing circuit board, following the geometric patterns displayed in the game. There is no time limit and there is no right or wrong. Players can choose to replicate the displayed pattern, or create their own. The sewing board is an alternative controller made from cardboard, denim and the Makey Makey. Sashiko was made as part of the 10th Melbourne Global Game Jam in 2020 in response to the theme REPAIR. The game was showcased to the public at the Community Play Party on 18 February 2020 at the South Melbourne Town Hall. Collaborators: Tabitha Leimonis (Programmer); Caitlin Hopwood (Sound Design)
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