På Dybt Vand (In Deep Water)

Made by the game designers: TrampoHorse.

Best played by downloading the windows build and playing that!

"På Dybt Vand" is a cooperative game to help develop children's social skills and bring them together again after 1.5 years isolated from normal social life. 

You can play it by moving the submarine with the ARROW KEYS, unattach or reel the grabber with SPACE, and move the grabber while unattached with the MOUSE.

Click R to restart the game and Escape to pause

To win the game, you need to find the treasure, but it's locked behind a gate! Unlock it by collecting keys while not taking too much damage, and collect diamonds for points!

In the original version of the game the arrow keys were build as large cardboard buttons to step on, the space button was exchanged with a high five between two players and the mouse was hid in a bigger cardboard model to make the movements bigger and more engaging. All this was done via Makey Makey. The physical gameplay can be seen in this video: 

Our Vision:

Studies have shown that the closing of schools and other institutions has led to a rise in behavioural and emotional distress in children. Our vision is inspired by these studies that shine a light upon the struggles social distancing has brought onto children. This has inspired us to create a game which encourages physical interaction and cooperation between children - both with familiar people, but especially with strangers in public spaces.

Theory:

We have focused especially on Brian Sutton-Smith’s (2001) notion of the different play functions; extrinsic and intrinsic. In “På Dybt Vand”, we especially explore the extrinsic play functions of our game, meaning that the actual aim of the game is outside the game itself: for children to learn social skills through cooperating on a common goal in the gameplay. And since, according to Sutton-Smith, anyone can be turned into a player, Dokk1 is an appropriate place for a game created for strangers to meet and be turned into players.

Fieldwork:

We tested an early prototype of our game on a large handful of children at a local school. Their feedback, both positive and negative, was crucial in the development of our final game prototype, which is now ready for you to experience.

The game:

We have created the game “På Dybt Vand”, where the aim is to steer a submarine out of trouble and to find a treasure chest by working together as a team. All players each have a vital role in correctly steering the submarine around the underwater obstacles, as well as collecting all the hidden treasures of the sea and unlocking the treasure chest.

Technology:

We have decided to use Makey Makey as controllers for the game, because it increases the amount of cooperation needed for the game, which we hope will increase the social interaction between players, it also increases engagement because it's a different way to play. 

It is created in Unity, because it offers the tools needed to make a game like this.