Breaking Out of the Frame

Photo of the event. The game is projected onto the large windows of the JCT factory, with the audience visible in the foreground.
Photo of the event. The game is projected onto the large windows of the JCT factory, with the audience visible in the foreground. A screenshot of the game. Shows a horizontal slice of one of Kayleigh's storyboard images, with a ZX Spectrum shooting to the left of an explosion, leaving a rainbow trail in the colours of the Spectrum. A screenshot of the game. Shows another of Kayleigh's storyboard images, including a sign that reads 'Welcome to She-Town'. A screenshot of the game. Shows the text 'This is a collective, co-operative game about collecting falling ZX Spectrums.'' Another photo of the event, this time from further back to show the extent of the audience.

Breaking Out of the Frame is an event-specific game I developed with Mona Bozdog and Kayleigh MacLeod at Abertay University for the Generation ZX(X) event Mona ran on 4th May 2018 as part of her PhD.

Generation ZX(X) was an event celebrating the Timex factory where ZX Spectrums were built, and particularly the women who made them.

The game uses a webcam to detect audience members, who have to move left and right to control the game's player character, and collect falling ZX Spectrums. For each Spectrum they collect, a section of the background is erased to reveal an underlying image. These images (5 in total) tell the story of "She-Town"; how Dundee came to have a large female industrial workforce, and how that led to their part in building the ZX Spectrum.

Photos courtesy Erika Stevenson.