Tentacles is a unique application for the Apple iPhone/iPod touch turning your device into a mobile game controller enabling your participation in a multi-user, location-based game projected into public spaces. Tentacles can be played indoors or out – projected on walls, in theatres, stadiums, giant outdoor screens, or on the side of a building.
Players are immersed in an inky pool of darkness found deep near the ocean floor. Each player controls a Squid-like form evoking primitive sea creatures in search of life sustaining micro-organisms dubbed “tenticules.” As your creature grows in size, players are subject to the presence of other oceanic avatars. Played in a world for all to see, the shared display reveals what happens as the actions of individuals co-exist in a sea of others’. As creatures interact, players must make the decision to “share” or “scare,” for as they collide, a tentacle’s tip is capable of stealing valuable “tenticules” inhibiting a creatures ability to grow.
Played in a public, multi-user environment, creature negotiation in the ever-changing world of independent and collaborative behaviour renders Tentacles an innovative ambient gaming experience.
For more information or technical support, contact: info@tentacles.ca
PRESENTATIONS
Project Demonstration - Discovery 2010, Ontario Centres of Excellence, Toronto, Canada - May 2010
Panel - "Digital Media: Successes and Accomplishments in Canadian Digital Media Research," Canada 3.0, Stratford, Canada - May 2010
Artist Talk - International Centre for Art and New Technologies (CIANT), Prague, Czech Republic - March 2010.
Mobile Experience Innovation Centre (MEIC), Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Canada - February 2010.
Music in a Global Village Conference, Budapest, Hungary - December 2009
Project Demonstration, iPhone Developer's Group, Augmented Reality Lab, York University, Toronto, Canada – November2009.
Project Demonstration, A New Media Gathering, Town of Markham, Markham, Canada – October 2009.
"Tentacles: Design, Technology and Interdisciplinary Collaboration in the Mobile Media Lab," PEKING/YORK SYMPOSIUM: Interdisciplinarity, Art and Technology, York University, Toronto, Canada – October 2009.
Public Installation - Nuit Blanche, Lennox Contemporary Gallery, Toronto, Canada - October 2009.
"Artifact or Experience: Presenting Network Mediated Objects," Interacting with Immersive Worlds conference, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada – June 2009.
TENTACLES DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Research Leads: Michael Longford (Mobile Media Lab, York University), Rob King (Canadian Film Centre Media Lab), Geoffrey Shea (Mobile Experience Lab, Ontario College of Art & Design)
Development Team: Sara Cwynar (York), David Green (OCAD), Ken Leung (OCAD), Tracy Ma (York), Christopher Moorehead (York), Nick Storring (CFC/York), Sarah Scarbrough-Wilner (York)
Tentacles is an ongoing project developed with funding from The Consortium on New Media, Creative, and Entertainment R&D in the Toronto Region (CONCERT), support from the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and with the participation of Apple Canada.
