EGX, the games show organised by our corporate siblings, returns to London next week and we’re returning with it. Once again, we’re bringing a load of games with strange and interesting custom controllers or unique physical experiences. Pool on a bendy table! A game about growing a plant by directing light! Morse code! The many buttons of Tenya Wanya Teens! Something involving neckties? You’ll find these and more at RPS Future Of Play during EGX London, running September 22-25th.
To me, the best part of games events is getting to play unusual games and experiences that might not exist outside events—or at least are more fun to play with weird controllers or while jostling your pals. You’ll find nine such things at RPS Future Of Play next week. In truth, I don’t yet know all of them, and that’s exciting to me. The lineup is:
ByteDance – a “game/art-generator” full of swirly patterns.
Game Of Me – oh wow what is this? Projection mapping and a game and physical artefacts and… okay, cool.
Home Turf – a very inconvenient pool table which curves upwards in one corner. I personally am hoping it’ll be visited by hustlers pulling off outrageous trick shots.
Morse – Like Typing Of The Dead but typing morse code to direct forces in WW2?
Pocket Plant Carefully growing a digital plant by controlling light:
Tenya Wanya Teens – a two-player competitive game made with Katamari Damacy director Keita Takahashi, about brushing your teeth, weeing, playing guitar, and more as the controller many colour-coded buttons shift around.
Tie Simulator 2020 – a game played by using a keyboard as a tie, I assume as a serious sartorial study.
Trapped In The Debris – a game controlled by rotating an ornate brick to free an ancient spirit.
Unknown Number – a “first-person talker”.
I look forward to learning what they all are. And you can too!
EGX London 2022 will run from Thursday the 22nd to Sunday the 25th at ExCeL in the Docklands. Tickets are available now, ranging in fanciness from individual afternoon tickets to four-day passes.
Disclosure: ByteDance is made by my former flatmate (and fellow The Wild Rumpus member), V Buckenham. Speaking of, The Wild Rumpus are partially responsible for Tenya Wanya Teens, and I think the specific controller present at EGX is one I helped make?