“Magister Ludi” is a short conceptual digital escape-the-room game. The wry narrator and reverse mechanics facilitate an interrogation of our role in needing to escape. It was originally informed by the thought-processes that stay with you long after the problems aren’t around anymore, and so you don’t truly escape until you deal with them.
The title is an allusion to Herman Hesse’s Nobel-prize-winning novel The Glass Bead Game, and the intellectual game depicted in the novel.
The game was commissioned for Experimenta’s 2015 International Biennial of Media Art: Recharge and toured as an installation.
Credits
Christy Dena – writer, designer, director
Marigold Bartlett – visual artist
Trevor Dikes – sound designer & composer
Cameron Owen – programmer
Iain McManus – port & updates programmer
- Official Selection, Contours Exhibition on Australian Independent Games, Melb, 2016
- Finalist for the 2016 ‘Digital Narrative’ Award, WA Premier’s Book Awards
- Official Selection, Babycastles (NYC) for Cara Ellison’s 2015 ‘Embed with Games’ book launch
- Finalist for the 2015 International New Media Writing Prize
- Official Selection for the 2014 Freeplay Independent Games Festival’s Parallels
- Commissioned by Experimenta for the 2015 International Biennial of Media Art: Recharge