Civic Robot Interaction Protocol

On November 18th, the third edition of the Civic Game Jam took place at the BTK / University of Applied Sciences Europe. As part of the organizing team, my task was to give a talk about ideas for the game they would make, and to organize a team building + ice breaking activity.

These series of jams brought people together from varied backgrounds who don't know each other well (or at all). Ice breaking can be hard in these situations, but they need to start interacting fast, as they will be working together for the next 8 hours and there's no time to waste.

With this in mind, and inspired by the topic, Machines, I designed a playful activity where participants would play as robots, sharing ideas for games using a very simple protocol. This will have them chatting with others very fast, but without forcing them to impress anyone, look smart, or to be spontaneous. The activity was a success, and participants were talking and having fun just 10 seconds after it started. It helped them meet new people, form groups, and think together about their ideas for the games they wanted to make.

A more detailed description can be found in a blog post at Gamasutra.