Interference

Title Interference Genre Game installation

Description A collaboration between game designer Eric Zimmerman and architect Nathalie Pozzi, Interference is a large-scale physical game installation in which you steal pieces from other players.

Five suspended, superthin steel walls dotted with organic patterns resembling cell tissues act as vertical game boards and create the space of play. Interference premiered at la Gaite lyrique in Paris in 2012. It was exhibited at the Science Gallery in Dublin later that year, and won the Interaction Award at the 2012 IndieCade Festival of Independent Games.

The game is played by pairs of opponents. Each pair plays only on a small section of one of the walls – a “cell colony” which is centered on a special black piece. Your goal is to have more of your color pieces in each of the cells of your colony than your opponent.

Complicating this simple strategy game is the fact that each turn, you take pieces from other colonies – the active games of other players. And they are doing the same to you, creating chaos in your game as you are playing. Typically, Interference players begin to metagame heavily, striking deals with players in other pairs, and telling them which pieces to remove.

The result is a game that is at once satisfyingly strategic and maddeningly manic – both highly logical and highly social. A crowded game becomes a beehive of activity, as players race around to visit games on other walls, strategizing with and against each other, becoming allies and enemies with strangers.

Project Website http://ericzimmerman.com/portfolio/interference/

Technical Data Platform Mac Requirements Physical installation

Group Type Company Nathalie Pozzi & Eric Zimmerman

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