City Fireflies is a simple game that looks like tons of fun: Players cluster in a plaza in front of a large videoscreen showing a grid of 8-bit-looking "enemy" characters, which is superimposed on a live video image of the physical plaza itself. The goal of the game is for the players to physically move around the plaza to sweep the "enemies" off screen. (Or catch them like fireflies, if you prefer.) The game was meant to be casual: easily intuited rules, instant visual feedback, and a porous structure so that players could enter and leave the gamespace at will without disrupting the gameplay. Which meant that the interaction design had to be ultra-casual as well--so transparent that the energy barrier of joining the game was reduced to nearly zero.
The game designers programmed City Fireflies to track a much simpler indicator for each player: the glowing rectangle of light emitted by the smartphone screen itself. It’s the perfect solution: No apps to install or procedures to explain. City Fireflies simply directs players to point their phones at the giant game screen, and start moving around. The instant visual feedback is clear: The phone becomes your "net" for catching and removing the digital avatars onscreen.
[Read more about City Fireflies]
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