Pay Attention

screenshot1 This was an eyetracker game that I made with Rodrigo Lira on Train Jam (with music by Nick Weihs). Rodrigo wanted to make a simple, low-scope game about managing a control room, and I wanted a chance to mess with developing for my Tobii EyeX. We rolled them together to be about managing tasks in a control room and avoiding distractions.

After a horrifying incident on the train involving me coming face to face with a  wind turbine that was like RIGHT OUTSIDE THE WINDOW and hiding in my bunk, we reworked the theme so that the controls were on a train and distractions would be flying by a window with a passing landscape.

screenshot2In the end, our theme ended up getting really abstract and disconnected, mostly because both Rodrigo and I had troubles on the second day that knocked us out for huge chunks of time (for me it was the fibromyalgia, and he got motion sickness on the train, whoops!). However, we did finish something, albeit silly and ridiculous.

My favorite thing about this game was seeing what sorts of things would steal away certain people’s gaze. Some folks could not resist glancing at text, others were always compelled to peak at the cat memes, but either way it was always fun to see people amused at their near-involuntary reflex to glance at the distractions. Plus, playing a game with your eyes is just fun and novel.

On the off chance that you have a Tobii EyeX and want to try the game, it can be downloaded here.

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Game Designer