FLAVA

Play is an important factor in human life. It brings joy and vitality to our lives, builds up trust in a group and keeps us creative and productive. Especially for children free play time is essential to develop social, cognitive and motor skills. But in our modern world free play gets more and more replaced by digital games which are considered as more efficient in bringing us fun, joy and a broad spectrum of skills. The downside is that most digital games are getting played alone by sitting down and starring on a computer screen for hours. This project was about creating a game that combines the good aspects of digital and traditional games where physical activity, social interactions as well as entertaining elements keep the engagement of the players high.

"Flava" is an interactive playground game for children and combines the traditional approach of the game "the floor is lava" with modern technology like projectors and kinect motion sensors to bring the gaming experience to a whole new level. Thereby the game mechanic is as easy as it is engaging: every time a player jumps on a platform, the platform will change its color to the team color of the jumping player. This principle opens up almost unlimited ways of playing.

For the prototype two different modi were created: Conquer the Platforms and a "free play"-mode (without pre-set rules)