Orit's project People Pretzel is based on the once popular 70's game Twister. With the lights, colors and sounds it is an engaging party/group activity. Yet, I feel the copying of the actual Twister game limits its potential.
I encourage the design to be multi-modal, instead of depending on visual cues. Do all the shapes/pads need to be round, similar and arranged in a structured, symmetrical arrangement? For example, what if the shapes were of different animals, and the sound cues could be of animals? What if the pads were circular, but had an embossed shape of an animal or an instrument, adding a tactile dimension. What if People Pretzel were a musical instrument? Individuals could play chords? The quicker a user responded to a cue, the longer the sound duration. The pads could also vibrate, as well as light up.
A variation of the Simon Says game is the electronic version Simon. An even more engaging toy is "Bop It Extreme." Bop It is an excellent example of a multi-modal interface.
Simplicity will be the key to making it an engaging group activity. Orit suggested the design should be flexible in programming the People Pretzel. To simplify things, the game should have, let's say, three different modes with three separate skill levels. To add a programming interface might be too sophisticated for the casual participant. Perhaps the programming modules could introduce different sounds/objects for the pads: musical instruments, numbers & polygons, animals, vehicles, languages, etc. In other words, People Pretzel is a socially-engaging, body-oriented interface.
People pretzel was a fun game. My only concern is that so is Twister. It seems that the more technologically dependant games that could be applied to the people pretzel board have the strongest potential for success. Dance games, memory games, quick response games... These games are not only possible with the people pretzel board - the board is conducive to this type of game. The possibilities for its use seem endless and I believe that a reasonably priced version of this technology, that includes a variety of games, would be very sucessful on the market.
It was fun game. Just looking at people playing, I really wanted to step on to it if I wasn't sick. There are many game like the people pretzel available such as DDR, Pump. And most of them was very successful. I think this will be nice game that improve people's social skill.
Why is it that the game board is limited to only a horizontal surface? Though this is like twister, wouldn't it be more interesting to introduce this same concept in a 3-D environment where you interact in 2 or 3 axis of play? Just think, it could become a combination of twister and beat the mole! (another old arcade game) Could the game be further enhanced by stimulating or interacting with visual, audio and tactile clues?
People pretzel is fun. And it is easy to see one of these things on a sidewalk in NYC, with kids and adults jumping all over the thing.
I especially appreciated Orit's approach to her presentation. The solicitation of user feedback that is recorded on cards is a great idea. I hope they were useful.
One reason this project is easily comprehended is that it is physical. We could interact directly with it, and thereby imagine what else it could do without changing its physical form.
Conceptually, the device is fairly straightforward. My only criticism is that it doesn't seem to do much more than make already existing hand-based games (e.g. Merlin, Simon) larger, to engage the whole body.