Jam-O-Drum: CircleMaze
Tina Blaine & Clifton Forlines / Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at Carnegie Mellon Universtity / 2001 / USA Collaborative audio-visual instrument and multi-player interactive musical game
CircleMaze is a game that encourages team building and collaboration while using the Jam-ODrum controller device. By combining novel input devices with real-time computer graphics on an integrated tabletop surface, CircleMaze brings together a group of people to participate in a synergetic musical game. Each player station has a turntable input device that is used to control its visual and aural elements.
CircleMaze was designed to encourage communication and collaboration among its players. To that end, the players’ task is to guide all of the game’s pieces to the middle of the maze. Because the maze is divided into concentric rings, the pieces must pass through each ring in turn; thus, all the players must work together to achieve this goal. Movement of the pieces and rings produces changes in the musical score – as each player turns their ring, they affect the graphics and alter their sonic contribution to the ensemble. Circle- Maze participants are immersed in a goal-oriented game in addition to a collaborative music-making experience.
