CTRL ALT PDX was an installation designed and built by WILD, a small team of creative technologists who specialized in interactive digital storytelling at real-world scale. This project was supported in part by the Oregon Story Board. WILD strived to combine new technologies, physical world interaction, and story to create unforgettable experiences. My contribution was the game controls (largely built on top of Twilio), visual and story design, and all of the dialogue and story prompts throughout the game.
The interactive CTRL ALT PDX window installation is an homage to classic pixel-art games, life-size technology, and all things Portland. It was installed across 750 square feet of storefront windows (or more than nine million pixels). Every evening in the summer of 2015, from sundown to 11 pm, players could approach the wall, call the phone number displayed on the window, and be transported to an alternative reality where Portland has been overrun by normalcy. Players used their phone's keypad to control the characters on the wall, explore the strange yet familiar world, combat mundanity, face humdrum enemies, solve puzzles, and listen in on curious conversations.
The CTRL ALT PDX game was designed and built in Unity using all original pixel art assets created by a local Portland artist. Players controlled the game using their phone's numeric keypad, facilitated by Twilio. Communication between the player controls and the game was carried by MQTT.
