This presentation outlines the game we designed during the Luce Foundation Hackathon November 16th-17th, 2013. The casual game uses a nine-section digital tapestry as a game board. Players race to complete a tapestry that meets challenge criteria. Challenges include Luce Women, Luce Cannons, Luce Clothes and the fundraising game, Luce Change. Once developed, the game can be played on mobile phones, tablets or online. Screenshots are included in the presentation. We welcome questions about gameplay, suggestions for improvement. We also encourage you to support the Open Data movement which can make data available for innovative games and applications we can only begin to imagine. Credits: Nathan Verrill, Phoebe Elefante, Nick Elefante, Kat Neville. Read more about the hackathon: http://www.americanart.si.edu/luce/hack/

1. Luce Foundation Center for American
Art Open Data Hackathon
Team Megatherium

2. Objectives
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Design a game to digitally showcase the Luce Foundation Center’s art
collection, using data provided by an Open Data API.
Use discovery and exploration as a way for people to encounter artwork
that piques their interest - people who wouldn’t interact with the art
otherwise.
“Secretly” educate players while they play.
Inspire visitation to the museum.
Reach new audiences such as young professionals.
Design the game concept in two days.

3. Concept: Digital Tapestry Race
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Casual game with a 9-section digital tapestry as the game board.
Players race to complete a tapestry that meets challenge criteria. Game
can be played on mobile phones, tablets or online.
In-museum gameplay with mobile devices is facilitated by keying in
accession numbers and/or art recognition magic.
The game features a leaderboard for best times for personal, Facebook
friends (a la Candy Crush) and all players.
Challenges increase in difficulty the longer the game is played.

4. To Play the Game...
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Players explore the digital collection searching the database including
artist name, tags and other metadata.
Players find a piece and “pin it” in their tapestry.
The game confirms the artwork meets the criteria for the challenge; players
lose one of their 9 lives if they are incorrect. Players can purchase
additional lives by making a donation to the Foundation.
Players can “dispute” artwork that should meet the criteria, but does not,
thereby identifying gaps/errors in the data.
Players receive credit for disputed artwork, with an asterisk and number of
disputes for “social proof” and another dimension of recognition for being
astute or “cheating.”

5. Surprise & Delight with Achievements
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Achievements are earned when, unbeknownst to the player, the system
detects specific patterns in the selected artwork.
Example achievements include:
o Smallest & largest tapestry: based on real dimensions
o Same year or same decade
o 3 works for each century over three centuries
o 9 works from the same artist
o 9 works from the same collection

6. In Addition...
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Risque/creative challenge names present marketing opportunities that play
on the Luce name, and help with pronunciation.
For example, Find Luce Women, Luce Morals, Luce Teeth, Luce Clothes,
Luce Cannons, Luce as a Goose, Luce Ends, Luce Lips Sink Ships, and
Footluce. Luce Change lends itself quite nicely to pay-to-play fundraising
opportunities a la Candy Crush Saga in-app purchases.
Having weekly or monthly challenges with different themes encourages
repeat game play over long timeframes.
Social media buzz on Twitter and Facebook drive traffic to the game and
serve as a “rabbit hole” to gameplay.

7. For example...

8. Social Media “Rabbit Hole” (game entry point)
Seriously amazing sketch, no?

9. Landing page discussion
Current discussion about women in art:
1. “How is a woman's gaze different from a man's? How does that difference influence
the ways in which the two genders view the world? And how they view art?
2. What constitutes obscenity and pornography? Where do they come from? What are
their results? Are they always transgressive? What place do they have in art?
3. http://americanart.si.edu/luce/object.cfm?key=338&artistmedia=0&subkey=314
4. http://ids.si.edu/ids/dynamic?container.fullpage&id=http://americanart.si.edu/images/
1950/1950.6.15_1a.jpg
5. http://americanart.si.edu/luce/object.cfm?key=338&artistmedia=0&subkey=2856
6. http://americanart.si.edu/luce/object.cfm?key=338&artistmedia=0&subkey=2335

11. http://americanart.si.edu/luce/object.cfm?key=338&artistmedia=0&subkey=23
http://americanart.si.edu/luce/object.cfm?key=338&artistmedia=0&subkey=1944
http://americanart.si.edu/luce/object.cfm?key=338&artistmedia=0&subkey=160743

12. Find Luce Teeth
http://americanart.si.edu/education/corazon/galeria_10_zoom.cfm
http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=31537
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/whc/whc-noframe.html?/exhibitions/online/whc/maloof.html (scroll down
to his quote on the bottom about teeth and put on top of card on right - could be a great example of “obscure”
matches (unless you disagree)
http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/t2go/1fa/index-noframe.html?/exhibitions/online/t2go/1fa/
1986.65.266.html

13. Furthermore...
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Players are encouraged to create their own tapestries - their own works of
art - and share them on social networks, thereby driving more traffic.
Player-created tapestries can be featured on-site on kiosk displays to invite
visitors to download and play.
Players can favorite art, thereby contributing to behind-the-scenes
analytics on collection preferences that can inform display design and
filling voids.
Race times can be analyzed as indicators of search interface efficiency.
Can be Smithsonian-wide with a standardized API across all data sets.

14. And it’s possible with the API made
available at the hackathon.

15. A giant Megatherium THANK YOU to the seriously amazing hackers, as
well as Georgina Goodlander, Bridget Callahan, Sarah Allen, Diego Mayer,
Jason Shen and everyone else who made it possible.
From Team Megatherium
Nathan Verrill
Phoebe & Baby Elefante
Nicholas Elefante
& Special Guest Kat Neville
@megatheriumlabs