Human Frontier is a co-op, real life human puzzle where the players become the missing pieces of that puzzle. The game space i.e. the map of the game is a visualized version of a country’s borders. Paired and tied together with a special belt, each couple have to find their unique spot in the map and at the same time to obey specific orders. The final goal is everybody to be tied together and collaborate in order to form an impenetrable net of people, protecting their own country's border.
Human Frontier began as a custom-made street game for Athens Plaython Festival 2013. Players as contemporary Akritai had to cooperate, form and protect the borders of Byzantium. The players participate in a kind of Akritai Academy, where in order to receive the “chrism” of the courageous guardian, had to follow specific orders or else would fail.
Human Frontier in real motion https://vine.co/v/hnppX1w0jTr
Human Frontier also participated in Playpublik Festival, that took place in Krakow (2014). This time the map was depicting the borders of Krakow and the game narrative acquired a more political turn.
Before the game starts, the players received some bad news regarding an imminent danger that could mean a serious threat for their country. Their role once again was to protect their country.
In this version, the game continued online through an interactive narrative. See here: http://www.philome.la/The_Berlina
Human Frontier proved to be challenging in terms of game design. But the most important part was that it gave us the opportunity to experiment with the concept of borders, in different frames. Our ambition is to play Human Frontier for different countries in different cities and experiment with the concept of bounds and boundaries
Game Design: Elina Roinioti and Marilena Agathou Illustrations: Marilena Agathou Special thanks to our assistants: Katerina Koulouri and Stathis Lytras
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HumanFrontier