Unity development for an experimental alt.ctrl movement game combining custom hardware, physical space and live tracking.
Tie Your Laces (TYL) is an interactive movement game designed for social and public spaces, created by BAFTA-nominated composer and chiptune artist Chipzel (Niamh Houston) and hardware hackers We Throw Switches.
It sits within the world of alt.ctrl games, an experimental form of videogame design that replaces conventional controllers with custom hardware, unusual interfaces and physical interaction. In TYL, players move around a physical court, with their position and movement translated directly into inputs for the game.
The result sits somewhere between a videogame, an interactive installation and a sport: a competitive experience built around speed, agility, physical space and music
From physical movement to Unity gameplay
Whitepot Studios joined Tie Your Laces during a later development phase, leading the Unity implementation of the installation.
Our work involved taking input from the project’s physical tracking system and turning it into a responsive, robust game experience, building the gameplay and real-time systems required to make the installation work as something people could immediately understand and play – responsively tied to Chipzel’s music.
Unlike developing a conventional game, much of the iteration had to happen at full scale, away from the desk.
We spent many days working directly with Niamh Houston (Chipzel) at Ormeau Baths in Belfast, setting up the installation, playing it, identifying problems and refining how the physical and digital elements interacted.
The court measured approximately 4m x 4m, so seemingly small changes to tracking behaviour or game logic could have a significant effect once somebody was actually running around inside it. Movement, positioning, reaction times and readability all had to work in the real world as well as in Unity.
A collaborative physical installation
Tie Your Laces developed through several iterations involving contributors across games, music, interactive art and physical fabrication. We Throw Switches, the experimental games duo of Craig Fairweather and Andrew Dyce, contributed prototype development and construction of the physical installation and its bespoke housing.
We Throw Switches presented an early version of TYL at Day of the Devs in San Francisco in 2019, and the installation was later included in BOM’s Joy Sticks exhibition during Birmingham’s 2022 Commonwealth Games cultural programme.
Interactive installation artist and game designer Robin Baumgarten also contributed tracking work to the project.
Robin is particularly known for Line Wobbler, his award-winning one-dimensional dungeon crawler played using a custom spring controller and LED strip. His physical game installations have been exhibited internationally at more than 100 events and venues, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
No controller required
The tracking system allowed players to move naturally around the play area without holding a controller or wearing tracking equipment. Their movement through the court became the input.
This created an experience intended to be approachable even for people who might not ordinarily play videogames, while still allowing competition through movement, positioning and score.
The result? ‘Punksport’. What a real-life community e-sport might look like when the boundaries between videogame and physical activity are removed.
Development supported by the Creative Industries Seed Fund
Tie Your Laces received £25,000 through the Creative Industries Seed Fund, supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, National Lottery funding and Future Screens NI.
The funding supported a concentrated development period exploring Tie Your Laces as a scalable interactive installation for festivals, community spaces and other public environments. The developed installation subsequently launched at RENDR Festival in Belfast in 2023.
Whitepot’s role
Whitepot Studios led the Unity development during the phase of Tie Your Laces we worked on, including extensive full-scale prototyping and testing with Chipzel in Belfast.
Our involvement included:
- Unity development
- Gameplay programming
- Tracking integration
- Interactive installation development
- Technical prototyping
- Full-scale playtesting and iteration
- Integration between physical and digital systems
Tie Your Laces is a good example of the kind of project where game development extends beyond a screen: combining custom technology, physical interaction and real-world testing to create an experience that could only exist as an installation.
