Mayor is sitting alone at the edge of the world, displaced and depressed
he slowly gets to his feet and begins to weep
the only feature of his empty world is a rock at the center
hunched over, he makes his way to the rock and sits on top of it
when suddenly, for the first time in who knows how long, he sees something new in his world
a smaller rock!
how did that get here?
confused, Mayor makes his way over to the small rock
picking it up, he finds out it's not a rock at all
'Welcome back, Stone!'
Mayor was shocked, Stone was back!
once again, Mayor began to cry, but this time for a entirely new reason
••••••
he slowly gets to his feet and begins to weep
the only feature of his empty world is a rock at the center
hunched over, he makes his way to the rock and sits on top of it
when suddenly, for the first time in who knows how long, he sees something new in his world
a smaller rock!
how did that get here?
confused, Mayor makes his way over to the small rock
picking it up, he finds out it's not a rock at all
'Welcome back, Stone!'
Mayor was shocked, Stone was back!
once again, Mayor began to cry, but this time for a entirely new reason
••••••
Wattam is a game where you meet others, play with them, and grow your imagination (along with your world). While not a particularly mechanical game in how you 'progress' in it, there's a very special tactile feel to everyone around you, or perhaps I should say everything around you. Fruits, vegetables, trees, flowers, toilets, a big ole mouth. Everything 'is', and everything wants to play in different ways. As you gain more and more friends you find new and interesting ways to play together. These explosions of joy and happiness lead to more and more friends. Before you know it, that once small and desolate world it brimming with life and fun.
Wattam is a playground with friends. As you play with your friends, you meet new friends who want to play as well.
Wattam is a park Keita Takahashi built digitally.
"Obviously it's my first attempt at park design, so I'm not sure what makes a good playground at the moment," he tells me.
"I'm just trying to work it out. What do you think makes a good playground?"
In answer to his deflected question about what I think makes a good playground, I suggest that I've always enjoyed a sense of progression, where one object leads to the next, giving the participant a sense of journey, like a playful assault course. Takahashi doesn't respond at first, mulling it over, perhaps masking a sneer.
"If there's a pattern embedded in the design of a park, the danger is always that all of the kids just end up doing the same stuff..." he murmurs.
- Keita Takahashi, 2009 Gamasutra interview
Wattam is a park unlike any other. It's not a park you can directly touch or feel, nor is it one crafted of rounded shaped and familiar staples of play you'd find at a park today. It's a park made of friends. The tree you climb is not just for climbing, you can also play with them. It's not hygienic to play with a toilet in real life, but in Wattam that toilet opens up brand new ways to have fun. Bringing all those friends together, on that small and desolated patch of land, you build your own park and play your own games.
Keita Takahashi has always loved 'things'. He looked out at the world and was amazed at just how much 'stuff' there was in it. With Wattam, Takahashi made all those 'things' your friends and gave you a space to play with them to your hearts content.
Sources:
Gamasutra: The Melancholy of Keita Takahashi (https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/116862/Interview_The_Melancholy_Of_Keita_Takahashi.php)
Sketchs from Keita's blog, saved to playscapes (http://www.play-scapes.com/play-des...round-keita-takahashi-nottingham-uk-proposed/)
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