Cone of Silence is an experiment in combining politics with interactive fiction. The piece is short and makes use of humor similar to that of a political cartoon.

The game is inspired by the recent nationally televised Saddleback Civil Forum. The format of the forum was supposed to be that Pastor Rick Warren would ask questions of one candidate while, the other candidate was placed into a “cone of silence.” When the first candidate was done, the other candidate would come out and answer the same line of questioning.

Senator Barack Obama went first, decided by the toss of a coin. During this time, Senator John McCain was supposedly placed into this so-called cone of silence. However, several media outlets are now reporting that John McCain was not in the cone for the first thirty minutes.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that McCain used this time outside of the cone to learn of the questions prior to his on-stage interview. Though if the media’s assertions are true, then the Saddleback Civil Forum was clearly compromised by John McCain and raises justifiable doubts about the validity of event. Which is really a shame because I really enjoyed the less aggressive nature of this kind of format. I guess it wouldn’t be politics if things didn’t get ugly.

To play “Cone of Silence,” you’ll need to download this and a z-machine interpreter. I recommend the Z-Machine Preservation Project. Written with Inform 7.

Two saturdays ago, NYC Resistor presented Art of the Game, an art show / party showcasing over a dozen works of game-inspired art. Though I’m a bit biased, being one of the featured artists, I have to say the event was a huge success. Every piece on display was personally very inspiring. Here are two flickr photo sets from the event:

Art of the Game Party at NYCResistor by bre pettis
Art of the Game @ NYCR by thumbuki

Here is a list of all the artists and pieces shown at Art of the Game:

Mortal Kombat Dizzy Dance Party
Aaron Meyers

SL:PONG
William Ward and Andy Fundinger
Second Life and Arduino

>frotzophone
Adam Parrish
Processing and hacked Frotz

Cobosoda Arcade
Justin Day and Jacob Joaquin
Java, Processing, Slipmat, and Csound

Game, Game, Game and Again Game
Jason Nelson
Online Game

Alarmingly These are Not Lovesick Zombies
Jason Nelson
Online Game

Game Over
Zach Vitale
C-print

Yolks on You
Zach Vitale
C-print

Mano a Mano
Andrew Y. Ames
Speaker boxes, walnut, steel, leather and custom electronics

MarioMarioMarioMarioMarioMario
Justin Day
C and hacked Gameboy

8-bit Music
Eric Skiff
Nanoloop and vintage Gameboy

This Game is Too Complicated for You to Play
Dave Clausen
RGB LEDs, Atmega 168 and Toner Transfer DIY circuit board

Nihilist Foosball
Adam Mayer

Conway’s Game of Life
Jared Klett
Java

Attention Hog
Chris Basmajian
Flash Action Script

If you were an artist at this show and noticed that I missed something import, email me at jacobjoaquin [AT] gmail.com and I’ll make the change.