Houdini. El arte de escapar

Game outcome of the workshop on the exhibition "Houdini. Laws of Amazement "

This game is the result of a workshop held at the Fundación Telefónica Space during the months of February and March 2017. In it, bringing together a number of participants from different disciplines, without necessary that they had experience or knowledge of game development , he sought to create a playable experience from a collective thought process, rooted at the contents of the exhibition "Houdini. Astonishment Laws "(from 10 February to 28 May 2017). The goal, once finished the workshop was to obtain a video game design that allowed us to develop a suitable title to be published. Thus, through visits to the exhibition discussed both by educators as one of the curators of it, in which we speak, not only the content of it, but the museum design and how they had organized the materials retelling the amazing story of "the most famous magician of all time" and the time he lived, got to know in depth the life and major milestones and challenges of Houdini and his circus origins and approach to cinema or aviation the desire to be always better, always stronger, always bigger than the rest of those around him in what, we understood that it was actually a way to escape not only from everything that did not like, but of himself , wanting to be a different person, to the point of changing his name and say, for convenience was born in Appleton instead of his hometown, Budapest.

From all this, we decided to develop a video game whose narrative speak to us of the different stages of his life (and even adentrase in his death through references to the world of spiritualism to how close it was at certain times). We approach the different sections of the exhibition and challenges Houdini is marked throughout his life, work on each of them, dissecting and adapting them to the type of game we saw so clear: A game in which Houdini would run forever everything and everyone, from his past, always seeking prestige, always looking to the next level. This time we wanted to do a project whose art and aesthetics were risky and innovative, as was the magician himself, with constant references to the circus and the artists who decorated the barracks and banners that populate the world of Freak shows. A world full of bearded women, children-turkey, giant rats and mechanical men. Also add to the equation, dedicated to game design and reflections on contemporary art sessions. The result is in line with previous projects: a game that is the result of a process of collective thinking in which each of the scenes has been made from the point made by one or more of the participants within a and common thread unifying agreed by all.

We hope you like it and teach you as much as we liked us and taught us to do so.

Fundación Telefónica and GammeraNest