A good place it to start by reading Koster’s book, which is incredibly approachable. Then, identify the things he talks about in games. From a design perspective, learn to think beyond the graphics, and ask yourself why stuff really matters. Welcome to the design blog world.

Time: don’t even think about a time limit of 5 minutes … aim for eternity!!!Or at least the feeling of it! At any rate you can decide if the seanse has a beginning and an end. Perhaps with a time-glass – sand/salt/sugar running down onto the floor. The session ends when it is empty …

The video loop – exactly which video are you planning to use (url please) Will it loop at a constant speed ….. Will you play the sound track? Will you play music that is in keeping with the sound of the video loop? Where will the “other” music come from?

The brochure ….. perhaps you should rather hand it out to the mourners, rather than letting it be on the table, shrine or whatever you want to call it. Or do you have an idea about the mourners touching the table?

The brochure aesthetics: I think you should be a bit more bold with the design – if you want a “internet”-like design, what about going for cut and paste comments? Or using the blue rounded rectangle boxes of the game? Otherwise, are you going for a kind of Christian memorial service sheet aesthetic?

You have split the brochure into three parts, so label them as simply “Life” “Death” and “resurrection”. Leave the rest, especially the question marks to the public.You could embed “the flower girl” in the first page, or on the back of the last page. Let the “real” flowers do the talking!

The table … why a white cloth?
What about a projection in a circle of sugar or salt ……… it will glitter! (say you had salt falling out of a funnel from above, then the projection/light disappears when it runs out, the sound fades softly as we sit in darkness)

Lighting – candles? projection? lamps?

Flowers- on the table? On the floor around the table? Just petals? Are they smelly flowers? Do you want some incense?

In my opinion you have 2 options:
1. Use the light from the screen as the main source and build everything else around that. In this case, drive home a more Internet- or game- like styled brochure.
2. Move in to another aesthetic landscape …. church like (protestant/catholic???), relics, etc.

I think that you will have to choose between the one or the other!

If you can’t decide, my advice to you is to try different stuff out as soon as possible.(In fact, I would do that anyway.)

Good luck!

Amanda

About the big screen – I think this would detract from your idea of intimacy and proximity. You already have the sound on CD, like the voice of god/psychologist, etc coming from beyond the book. If you added smell to this – the aromas were emitted in the space rather than embedded in the book, that would also create an atmosphere that is not visually orientated.

If you did want to have a projection, then it should be used in a way that it can supply other information than that which is inside the book. That is something to think about – how to do it without interrupting the bookyness of the book.

Say you have made several books, and people in the space follow the story together. When the voice says close your eyes (perhaps accompanied with a sound of something closing – a squeaky door or a loud switch (ok they’re a bit cliche, but just examples that are easy to understand), you could also turn off the lights – as though the voice has control over sight. What I am thinking is if you actuate the space in which people read the book, you are working theatrically. So, there is on the one hand the twilight zone via the content of the book, and another twilight layer between what a book is and what it is not. To my mind, this is a kind of media archaeology approach – the older book media and the intervention of the more modern technology, etc.