After reading about Wiffle Hurling in the New York Times,
Japanese National TV producer Miho Sakai approached us about
shooting a full-length episode of their TV series New York Wave
about Aesthletics. The one catch: she wanted the show to revolve
around the creation of an entirely new sport. Having just got back
from an insane experience on a Lithuanian Reality TV show, Tom quickly
got to work and was filmed during the entire process of inventing a
new sport from scratch. With no room for error, as the game had to
be ready within two weeks, Tom designed a new sport called Opener
based on a previous idea of having goals on people’s heads.
After play testing and creating some neo-Scottish Highland cum
Japanese game show uniforms from cheap women’s apparel, the game
was ready for the air. Collecting a coterie of the Institute’s
comrades, we played the first game in Prospect Park Brooklyn in
front of NHK cameras in September 2009. Not only did the game
turn out to be really fun, it prompted another appearance on
Japanese TV, this time a live playing of the game on Good Morning Japan in 2010.
Opener has since been played at numerous games festivals including the Come Out and Play
Festival in New York City and the W00T festival in Copen-hagen, Denmark where it was
written about as a feature game review from Kill Screen Magazine.
Kill Screen Article
