Close the Leaks
One of the games I enjoyed most at this year’s PLAY Creative Gaming Festival’s exhibition is Close the Leaks (to prevent imminent death). The game is about closing a spaceship’s air leaks to keep breathing. Releasing air however is the only way to steer the spaceship. Four players need to work together to navigate the ship out of the level before running out of air. They coordinate themselves in sealing four pipes that blow air out of the game (and that are the game’s most striking feature).
Inside the box are four hair dryers, four air pressure sensores and a Teensy USB Dev Board, which connects to the computer as a Windows gamepad. The pipes also caught the audience’s interest at the PLAY exhibition. Finally, the visitors picked the game as winner of the Creative Gaming Award (Audience Award). The Award Jury underlined that the game encourages creativity: “It shows what PLAY stands for: trying out and experimenting; being original, easily accessible and something people [...] can enjoy together.”
