The Awkward Arcade is a real life experimental video arcade, showcasing games that make you move and think in ways uncommon in
mainstream games culture.
Friday 18th May was Light Night in Liverpool – a city-wide event of performances, exhibitions, installations, and workshops. As part of FACT’s current exhibition ‘States of Play: Roleplay Reality’ (co-curated by the superb Lucy Sollitt), the gallery transformed their interstitial spaces into exhibition space for small studios and artists.
Earlier in the year, I’d been approached by Gemma May Latham about the possibility of game/craft crossover exhibition, as part of the PhD research exploring the ways in which digital interactions (from CAD to gaming) cross over with more traditional crafts (from knitting to woodwork).
Keen to continue exploring single mechanics of gameplay as a focus in gameplay, I put forward a QTE-centric game as a candidate; Hazuki was born. The game gives players simple on-screen prompts, which they must press quickly in order to increase their score. As with The Mashing, the mechanic is separated from narrative, yet remains oddly compelling. The twist with Hazuki Knit is that the pace of gameplay is entirely influenced by the speed at which the second player operates a knitting machine, leading to a varied mix of competitive and collaborative games, depending on the two players involved.
The roles of the two players flip common preconceptions of the two activities. Knitting becomes a relaxed, disengaged, repetitive motion (dragging the mechanical carriage from left to right) and gaming becomes an intricate, unpredictable experience, requiring accurate and fast moving finger finger coordination.
And let’s not forget that we were being productive all evening:
I was approached by my friend Dan Hett a little while back about the possibility of putting a new commission of his into an arcade machine. Naturally, I couldn’t say no, and decided to try out a slightly modified design I’ve had in mind since assembling the last set of machines.
The game in question – The Loss Levels – is a very personal piece of work for Dan, reflecting on the loss of his brother Martyn in the Manchester Arena bombing of 2017. The commission came from Now Play This, and comprises 15 micro-games pertaining to Dan’s experiences in the wake of the tragedy. Each one is short and poignant, planting the player Dan’s shoes, who had to deal with loss in a very public way.
The work is some of the boldest I’ve encountered in the medium, communicating its message and overwhelming emotion in a simple and succinct way, juxtaposing colourful 8-bit graphics with a harsh reality that awakens the same sadness I felt this time almost a year ago. Game-skeptics I’ve spoken to about the work have expressed some confusion around why Dan decided to turn to games as means of exploring so serious. In an interview with Alan Wen, he clarified: “If a painter had a traumatic experience, you’d expect them to pick up their brush and try to express that through their work. With games, it’s really no different”. I’m glad that he did pick up that brush, and I thank him for inviting me to help present the work.
A brief note from James Medd, creator of the Awkward Arcade:
“The Awkward Arcade launched just over a year ago, completely changing my life in the process. I had no idea that I’d end up travelling around the country, working with developers from around the world, and meeting so many awesome people. After the last event in April 2017, Arcade appeared at 19 events, and been played by hundreds of people; I really can’t say just how profoundly grateful I am to everyone who has helped it along the way. I’ve been meaning to make this announcement for a few weeks but have only just found the time to sit down and write it up.
Shortly before the start of the year, I had begun scheming with gaming event aficionados We Throw Switches. We curated a new collection – tentatively titled ‘Beating Neon Hearts’ – with the intention of joining forces for events throughout 2017. A combination of busyness, geography, and budget restrictions means that I’ve decided the partnership was a little too much for me to take on without compromising the project, particularly alongside my other work. For the time being, I’m exploring other options, and focusing on other projects.
That said, the Arcade has had successful deployments at a few events this year. WTS deployed a couple of cabinets for Edinburgh Science Festival’s Play On event at The National Museum of Scotland, while I took the other cabinets to Now Play This festival at Somerset House (where I was also resident controller builder for the week). We capped it off with yet another stunning Games Are For Everyone event, back at The Caves. All in all, a hectic and wonderful month.
I hope to re-open the Arcade in the future but, until then, thanks for playing!”
We’ve booked a last minute event this week! So late, we almost forgot to post about it until now. We’ve teamed up with We Throw Switches ahead of our event in Edinburgh later in the month to show off a handful of cabs.
We’re right next to the Tekken 7 booth. This is the penultimate chance to see the Arcade this year!
