Our Hack #1 idea came from from exploring play as both a nostalgic and unsettling experience. The inspiration came from our class on Tuesday where we saw a unique take on Tetris. This reinterpretation of a classic game as burying bodies transformed it from something playful into something unsettling. This unexpectedness intrigued us, leading us to consider how play can evolve and juxtapose, and challenge our understanding of childhood nostalgia.
For our hack we wanted to examine Caillois’ themes of agon and mimicry. These two elements are central to our experience with games and how we interact with play over time. We decided to base our project on 2048, a game that many of us remember being addicted to during our middle school years. The competitiveness to keep adding numbers and reach 2048 reflects with agon. This game fueled determination and competition to get a higher score than your previous one, and to beat your classmates.
However, instead of the traditional number-based 2048, we used an altered version of the game with horror elements instead of traditional numbers. This forces players to reconsider their relationship with games that once felt nostalgic fun and lighthearted. The juxtaposition of horror with a childhood game creates a sense of unease, mirroring how perceptions of play change as we grow older. What was once a simple and joyful experience could later be viewed through a different lens.
For the Makey Makey component we chose to use stuffed animals, as it evokes nostalgia and embodies child-like play. Stuffed animals are an essential part of childhood, representing comfort, imagination, and play. By using them as the conductors for the horror 2048 game, it helps evoke nostalgia and simultaneously question how childhood play has evolved and changed. This contrast between the warm, familiar experience of toys and the eerie, distorted gameplay of 2048 reflects the ways in which digital play has become increasingly tainted as one grows up. The mimicry part comes into play as when we were children, we used to play dress up and role play with stuffed animals. However nowadays children play online games such as 2048 and other video games.
Our hack ultimately raises questions of the evolution of play as we grow older, from playing dress up and roleplay with stuffed animals, to the norm now being phone and online games. This project opens doors to consider what play means and whether it is just an innocent, imaginative activity, or if it becomes tainted, unsettling and eerie. As children our play is unrestricted, free, and lighthearted, but at what point does it become something else? Overall, our project is not just a game but allows us to explore how play shapes us and how we shape play.