@agaitcheson
🎭 Let's get creative together, on a stage! ✨ Drag clown and videogame programmer 🎈 Interactive artmaking + playful theatre http://alistair.games http://twitch.tv/agAitcheson
@sahilbajaj.dev Heya - I just read your article in the Game Narrative Kaleidoscope book and really enjoyed it. Really insightful and gave me a lot to reflect on in my own work.
I love love love the line "normal audiences come to listen, kids come to speak"
So, the orifice. Maybe it looks planned and won't work as well. But I've got to try.
At the very least, when the dummy inevitably asks me to get inside him, I'll be able to "yes and" quickly and move on to the next outrageous activity, rather than kill the pacing struggling to rip him open 🧡
Watching me struggle to tear a hole in this thing isn't fun. It's confusing. It's forced. You're watching wondering "why is she doing this?"
It was funny when you didn't have time to ask the question because you immediately got your answer. It was punchy when the answer was simple.
And it looks planned. It's no longer impulsive... because it isn't impulsive.
Now, worse would be to *not* rip open the dummy, and to wait for a better idea to come along. Opening the dummy is the most obvious idea, it's speaking to me loudest and I'm excited to see where it could go next.
Where originally you could see me have the idea, savour its delicious deviousness, and then *bam!* rip a hole in the dummy.
Now you see me have the idea, then struggle and struggle to open the dummy. Much of the audience aren't entirely sure what I'm trying to do.
Anyway, I digress. I was telling you about the orifice.
Basically, I love it when the audience ask me to enter Pierce Brosnan and I love the whoop of surprise when I actually do it.
However, every time I've stitched up the dummy it's got harder to open him up. It just kills the comic timing.
So this whole thing of proudly wearing the remnants of the shows that came before...
Am I trying to find some sense of permanence to cling on to?
Or am I flying the flag for impermanence: showing off the remains of previous shows that you, the audience member, missed?
I realised that everything I made was going to be ephemeral. In this age of internets and the cloud more ephemeral than you could ever imagine.
And I thought if I can't fight ephemerality why not make a virtue of it?
Hence playable live shows built to be different every time.
My first interactive show was in 2016, the year I had to take down both Greedy Bankers and Slamjet Stadium from the iOS App Store.
The first indie games I released and they vanished into the ether after barely 5 years of existing, never to be played again.
When I show The Book Ritual at exhibitions I make a point of not tidying up the paper shreds until the exhibition is over. I want it to accumulate the messy history of every visitor who played before you.
And it connects to why I started doing interactive shows in the first place.
I notice this is something I've been doing for a while.
The Artholomew Video costume got more and more messy as I started using it as a palette during painting livestreams, or stapling/gluing stuff to it during live shows.
It also means I frequently have to sew him back up after a show. I am not good at sewing but fortunately I think it looks better if the sewing is kinda bad 😄
I like the way that everywhere I take the dummy it brings remnants of the shows that came before
I think part of the fun is that whoever typed this never expected me to actually do it. And there's this "oh my god" moment when I actually follow through on it that sets the tone for the show.
It also stokes curiosity because it proves the boundaries of the play-space are wider than you expected
Notice that he has acquired an orifice. It's very common that the audience makes him ask me to insert something in him during a show.
I've found I always get a good laugh when I respond to this by ripping a hole into the dummy.
A peach-coloured fabric dummy with lots of stitching puckered in weird places (due to said stitching) with a card cut-out of Pierce Brosnan's face next to it
Spent the morning repairing Pierce Brosnan after the last show, where I climbed inside of him.
I'm not good at sewing and I kinda like that the repairs are obvious and he becomes more and more like Frankenstein's monster.
Also I pulled off his face so I could kiss him without climbing back out 🧵
Really interesting talk by @josephwilk.net at @pmstudiouk.bsky.social today
www.youtube.com/live/-AUBMok...
It's about using data from RightMove to show how people with disabilities are let down by the rental market, using visualisation and game engines in creative and impactful ways
Really enjoyed listening to this. This thread of local multiplayer design was really having a moment early in my career, and was very influential to me.
Even my clown shows today are motivated by what local multiplayer taught me in 2011-2014 🧡
Still super proud of my interactive ballet act 😊
I get the audience to draw pictures on their phones during the act, which become the prompts I interpret as dance moves on stage
youtu.be/4_iVh-JQYJU
Every time I do it I'm always surprised what the audience will come up with 😄
Awesome!! Congratulations!! 🥳🎉
The point of this was just to point out you already have what you need to make your art. Just go for it 😤
Car boot casino poster. A painting of a dog who wears a poker visor and holds a hand of cards. Text reads “Car boot casino. A night of homebrew card, bluffing & betting games”
Friday 27 March your favourite Pitt Boss & croupiers will be opening to doors to the CAR BOOT CASINO once more.
This time we’re at the V&A as part of the Player/Performer Friday Late curated by @susepicious.bsky.social
Tis FREE & no tickets required
www.vam.ac.uk/event/Wl9jvz...
The Friday Late for March at the V&A Museum includes performances from the London Livecoding community! I’ll be there doing a half hour visual set with Magpie. Also includes Slaystation, Car Boot Casino and lots of games. Free tickets here: www.vam.ac.uk/event/Wl9jvz...
📖 THE GAME NARRATIVE KALEIDOSCOPE ❄️ is out NOW!
www.inklestudios.com/kaleidoscope
100+ essays on writing & narrative design, with articles from the writers of Baldur's Gate 3, Control, Call of Duty, Prince of Persia, Tomb Raider, Sam and Max...
ALSO the Kaleidoscope Podcast with 2 full eps!
That's fair enough :) I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive but I really enjoyed Games: Agency as Art so I'm looking forward to reading this new one
The first proof of the dust jacket / hardback version of The Game Narrative Kaleidoscope has arrived! It is a thing of beauty! @jon.inkle.co
🎉SUBMISSIONS OPEN🎉
IMPACT! Indie Games is back for 2026! We're looking to showcase YOUR incredible games. For more information or to submit your game, click the Google form below! Submissions close 5pm April 10th and we’ll reach out to everyone around April 15th.
forms.gle/PwrPkkXQ8kpv...
Join the A MAZE. Fulldome Game Jam. An amazing opportunity! The games created will get presented at the A MAZE. / Berlin 2026 - 15 Years Anniversary – Positive Chaos Party on May 16 at Urban Spree.
Register until March 10: https://f.mtr.cool/laxluqqjta
#AMaze2026 #mbbfunded #playfulmedia #berlin
A clown in a french maid's outfit chews the stuffing from a dummy she has ripped open
Tomorrow I feast!
hdfst.uk/e144634
This audience made Pierce Brosnan say he wanted me to tear him open and devour his succulent stuffing.
What will you make him say? ✨
Amazing! I think I just saw it pop up on my YouTube 😀 Well done ✨
3 days to go! 💕