GS: Why does area/code work in primarily urban space? How is it related to game space?
FL:
Well, cities are where you find the most people! But we don’t see
ourselves as limited to urban settings necessarily. We’re currently in
the early design phase of a game that includes cities in it but goes
much further, and will be completely global. The relationship between
cities and games is complex and fascinating, you can look at the recent
evolution of cities in games (Orgrimmar and Ironforge) and cities as
games (Sim City, but also San Andreas and Las Venturas).
There is a lot of weird and interesting crossover between what
architects and urban planners do and what game designers do –
structuring experience through systems of geometry and space. We take a
lot of inspiration from how skateboarders appropriate urban space for
play, and how they look at the city from a totally different
perspective. We want to make games that flip players’ perspectives in a
similar way.
GS: What influences, either in the game or art world, have impacted your work at area/code?
FL: German boardgames; role-playing games; sports; social gaming (like Werewolf/Mafia style party games); MMORPGs; GTA-style
digital urban gaming; Geocaching; reality gameshows like Survivor and
The Amazing Race; CCGs, physical-computing games like DDA and Eye Toy;
ARGs; LARPing, Military Re-enactment, and other forms of site-based
nerd culture; happenings; earthworks; Situationism; Christo; Serra;
Andrew Goldsworthy; and many others!
2004's ConQwest
GS: Where does
technology fit into the art of "big games"? What new technologies do
you foresee working with/are excited to work with?
FL:
A lot of what we do is discovering the gameplay possibilities of all
these new location-aware technologies that are just now emerging, and
creating games that take advantage of the fact that a lot of us are now
living with one foot in the real world and one foot in Wonderland at
all times. We spend a lot of time “shopping” around for new
technologies, many of which are super interesting but are not yet clear
about their practical utility. Games are great at inventing utility, at
creating problems. We love to take something that does some weird, cool
physical world / information space crossover and build a game around it.