MORSE on tour, dementia research and what's coming up!

Steam post imageMORSE is headed to Friedrichshafen!

MORSE is going to be exhibited at the International Amateur Radio Exhibition next month in Friedrichshafen, Germany! It's such a privilege to be collaborating with the Deutschen Amateur-Radio-Club (DARC) for this event, it'll be the biggest amateur radio event the game has reached so far and thrilled to be on the German booth.

Germany has a thriving amateur radio scene, in particular a strong youth outreach programme so I'm looking forward to spending time with Matthias and the team to learn more about their efforts. The event itself last year had over 11,000 attendees, which is the biggest Amateur Radio festival in Europe.

Given the broad European presence at the event, I'm looking to get the MORSE help sheet translated to as many languages as possible. Any contributions would be greatly appreciated.

Steam post imageGlasgow Indie Games Festival

MORSE will be exhibited in Glasgow on July 11th as part of the weekend Indie festival happening in the city, I've also spotted that there's the local Friday ham meetup, so going to reach out to the organisers to see if there's an opportunity for a chance to show the project!

Steam post imageEMF Camp

MORSE will be in the arcade area at Electromagnetic Field Camp in July, I've wanted to attend the event for years now so very hyped to show the project off, particularly given the large contingent of amateur radio enthusiasts that frequent the event. If you're making it along, come and say hello! I'll be stopping by the booth throughout the weekend to wire up different telegraphs for players to try out. I'll also be exhibiting my other installation Glow Golf and doing a talk about my new research project designing play for people living with dementia.

Steam post imageDementia Research

As some of you may have observed from MORSE's credits, I've been using the success of the game to help support my recent move into dementia research, specifically, designing interactive play (and lots of unusual controllers) for people living with the condition. My interest in this area stems from several places:

• Whilst gaming is commonly perceived as a hobby for the young, gamers are already starting to develop dementia and are even dying of old age. In the next 20 years, a lot more people who dedicated their lives to games will lose the ability to engage with their favourite past-time when they will likely need it most.

• Games have an ability to create a sense of purpose, agency, stimulation and communal connection, all important traits for those living in care homes or in isolated communities. They can even provide respite to chronic pain, common amongst elderly populations.

• Sensory equipment for care homes is cost prohibitive, uses complex tech and is often non-interactive, on that last point that makes it hard to tell if people living with dementia are actually enjoying/engaged with the experience!

Steam post image Photo from delivering a craft based custom controller workshop at the V&A last year.

• For families/friends visiting people living with dementia, that experience can be quite difficult for both parties if entirely focused around conversation, so providing non-verbal means of play/interaction can give opportunity for bonding and fun.

• There's also a lot of people in older age who've never considered playing games who I'm particularly interested to engage, be that giving them their first experience of games or co-designing alternative controllers that are more approachable.

I've designed 3 installations and a craft workshop format that next month I'm going to be going around local care centres in the area in collaboration with seasoned dementia researchers at Sheffield University. We'll be testing the installations with people living with dementia and then getting participants to design their own games controllers made out of craft materials! I am eager to see how the session is going to be received. You can watch a demo of the Teapot installation here: Singing Teapots early demonstration

Steam post imageMORSE Roadmap

The combination of this dementia research and Friedrichshafen falling on the same month has meant stepping away from development for May and June. I don't however want this to be taken as a signal that the project is abandoned, just that I need time to focus on these important milestones!

With that in mind, Here's what I want to achieve for MORSE over the next 6 months: - Settings Page Upgrade: Whilst the current settings menu is perfectly functional, I want to add more granular controls/calibration for operators. This would include settings such as being able to isolate/disable the sidetone of the player, dedicated save settings for the different telegraphs and as requested in the feedback/suggestions section, a low contrast mode.

• Re-work of Listening Mode: I want to improve the current setup as it's more mimicking input rather than listening and interpreting the sound. In the planned overhauled version, you'll have letters listed with numbers as coordinates such as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 - Numbered coordinates to move to

I G N O R E - Different letters being sounded

So if the player hears the sound "dit dah dit", they'd enter ..... or 5 to target R.

This gives the player an opportunity to practice numbers and a clear distinction between movement and listening. Let me know if you can think of any other improvements or suggestions on this!

Steam post image A Vibroplex Semi-Automatic Telegraph and the MORSE stylised design.

• Semi-Auto Telegraph Integration: This is the remaining historical telegraph I would like to integrate into MORSE, it's a peculiar input as dot entry is automatic whilst dash entry is manual, hence the semi-auto labelling. It's relatively similar to Iambic in structure, but I specifically want to have a go with one (or preferably buy!) to get a proper feel for how it operates (Hopefully whilst at Friedrichshafen).

• AdjustedBuild Localisation InfrastructureI have ambitions long term to get MORSE translated to multiple languages, but first the game needs a structural overhaul in how the game handles text. In a perfect world, the translated text is loaded into a file which populates throughout the game, so I'll need to convert all in-game text to be stored in a list to be easily changed. A lengthy task upfront but one that hopefully makes translation easier.
• AddedA Wider Defensive ArsenalThis is likely the biggest deviation of the original games' mechanics, but one that I'm particularly looking forward to integrating. I want to implement allied ships that help with holding the back line, shooting at approaching enemy ships. I don't want these units to be dominant enough as to detract from player skill/learning, so they won't fire on hidden enemy ships till you've revealed them for targeting. I am open to suggestions from players on what they'd like to see from this new mechanic.

Steam post image MORSE displayed at Lake County Museum, South Dakota.

• Get MORSE in a second museum: I was so chuffed for the MORSE installation in South Dakota, getting the game exhibited in another museum (long or short term installation) would be wonderful. I have got a couple of sites in mind to approach, but if you're interested, please do get in touch!

• Run a telegraph making workshop: I have another hamfest in the calendar later this year (TBA) that I'm hoping to run a educational session where we'll be building telegraphs out of craft materials such as clothes pegs. I'd then like to formalise this into a classroom activity that can be sent to schools or clubs for outreach.

That's all for now, thank you again for your patience with the project!

73, Alex