A game created by Julia Uhr, an ATLAS PhD student and a member of the ACME Lab, received the Best Remix award at the third annual Public Domain Game Jam.
Uhr’s game, There are No Eyes Here, is a painting-based puzzle that utilizes elements of Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky paintings as levers, and players locate the elements they can manipulate to complete each stage. The game carefully mixes and matches elements of multiple Kandinsky paintings, forcing the player to carefully study their elements, rewarding them with hand-crafted animations.
Julia Uhr
ATLAS faculty and the jurors found the game to be beautiful and enjoyable.
“It's a simple game that is as abstract and intriguing as the works it draws from,” one juror wrote.
“I found it poetic, witty and beautiful,” said Ellen Do, professor of computer science with the ATLAS Institute and Uhr's advisor.
“What a fun puzzle game!” said Shaz Zamore, ATLAS instructor. “A peaceful and enjoyable experience!”
This year's jam’s theme was “Gaming Like It's 1925!,” and game designers submitted new creations based on works published in 1925 that entered the public domain in the US this year. Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist, generally credited as the pioneer of abstract art.
