FusiForms
FusiForms is an ambient architectural puzzle game about buildings that look like faces, which builds upon our interests in two-player local multiplayer games using large scale dual projections. Taking its name from the part of the brain responsible for shape recognition, our game draws upon face-like architecture from around the world, both intentional and incidental. Here you can also see us next to Kazumasa Yamashita’s iconic Face House in Kyoto, one of the original inspirations for the project.
In constructing the puzzle elements of the game, we designed a series of architectural archetypes that embedded facial features within their designs, emphasising how the face-like transcends architectural period or style. As players progress through FusiForms, random combinations of these buildings are presented to be matched together on a two-way projection screen.
Inspired by psychological phenomenon and pattern-finding, players tap into the brain’s facial recognition powers to spot and match the hidden faces within each building. When players combine buildings on screen through their shared facial features, the architectures merge together into new shapes that create a city of FusiForms. Each face can be found in multiple buildings at varying scales and orientation, meaning that each playthrough of the game generates a unique city shaped through collaboration (or competition). The different buildings become connected through their shared expressions.
Installed in the NYU Tisch Gallery, FusiForms is designed to generate a social space around the game. Using front and rear projections, the two players operate their individual screens that are combined onto one surface. However, the relative strength of both projections plays with the perception of the player, in fact it is their counterpart’s viewpoint that appears more visible on their screen, requiring conversation and collaboration to solve the puzzles.
FusiForms was built in Unreal Engine by You+Pea, specifically for this public showcase at No Quarter. As both the game and the event progress, the social space around the game changes, and in turn so does its difficulty. In an empty gallery players can easily communicate with one another across the space, but as the gallery fills and onlookers gather, communication becomes more chaotic and the lines between collaborative and competitive play become blurred.
Featured as part of No Quarter 2023, an annual playable exhibition curated by Marie Foulston, as a showcase of newly commissioned games, alongside Arcade Artist Ben Blatt, Game Designer Blake Edwards, and Arist + Game Designer Everest Pipkin.