MARELLE 2.0 / MAPPING
MARELLE 2.0 / HIMMEL & HÖLLE
The exhibit Heaven & Hell / Marelle 2.0 by Jannis Kilian Kreft is an interactive media installation that reinterprets the familiar jump game Hopscotch.
Kreft projects a 7.00 m x 4.00 m long gaming area onto the ground. In addition, the court is extended by fluorescent chalk drawings, that glow in black light. Fast-tracking Radar Touch technology is used for jump and position detection of the player, 4 speakers provide room-filling 3d acoustics. Heaven & Hell is a real-time application programmed in vvvv. For the digital version of Heaven & Hell, Kreft has designed a completely new set of rules that must be mastered through 9 levels. Kreft creates a visual world that communicates clearly and graphically. Ancient texts of various religions who deal with the issue of hell, as well as philosophical ideas like the nine circles of hell by Dante, find their way into the abstract imagery of the game. The game field resembles a bridge over an imaginary abyss, which is symbolic of hell. If the player jumps on a forbidden square, it breaks apart in an impressive and physically realistic real-time simulation.
In the first 4 levels, the player travels through a blue and friendly world. As the game progresses, starting in level 5, the color mood changes to red and the atmosphere gets dark. The difficulty increases with each stage. If all levels were mastered, the player receives freedom at the end of level 9. The ground is breaking away and hell is not located on the bottom of the gamefield anymore. A great opening reveals a beautiful sky. The entire game scenario is supported by amazing 3d sound design. The acoustic space perception changes depending on the position of the player.
THE RULES
At the beginning of each level some segments of the game field turn in random combinations (example: 1,3,6,7,8,7,8). This sequence of numbers must be memorized by the player, who then has to jump the correct order, into the game field sky. Once there, the player turns around and jumps the combination backwards to the game field start. If the player accidentally jumps on a field that is not in the combination, it breaks away and is gone for the rest of the level. It is forbidden to jump off the gamefield. If a player jumps in this forbidden zone (hell), this leads to the collapse of all playing fields. If the player jumps on the correct fields, but in the wrong order, this leads to immediate failure (all fields fall into the abyss). The player must then go back to start. The player has 5 lives. If a player fails in a level, he can restart it until all lives are used up. A player must jump all combinations correctly into the game field sky and back to start in order to begin a new level. At the end of level 9, the player has completed the game and is finally in heaven. Exhausted but with pride to have mastered all mental and physical challenges. The level of difficulty can be adjusted to match the player (pro, child, senior).
