Augmented Games: "This Has Never Been Done Before"

William Shakespeare once suggested that all the world is a stage - but to Jerome De Baecque, all the world is a game.

Jerome De Baecque is the APAC Director at Moment Factory, the multimedia entertainment studio known and celebrated for specialising in the design and production of immersive environments and particularly beloved for their groundbreaking category of interactive play.

Described as “a larger-than-life competition for the player in all of us,” a type of playing where real-world movement meets digital gaming, the project is known as Augmented Games. Once again, Moment Factory is bringing Augmented Games to Illuminate Adelaide this winter: on Friday, June 26th, until Sunday, July 19th, in the Ridley Centre at the Adelaide Showground. 

“Moment Factory has a tagline, which is, ‘We do it in public’,” De Baecque explains over Zoom. “And the reason we say that is because our aim, our vision, is to bring people together in the physical world to create meaningful moments of emotion.

“Whether it’s a lighting trail in a forest, or a concert, or an immersive experience, we always try to generate some form of entertainment because we believe that we are social animals, and gathering together to live these moments is something that is essential to humanity.” 

He believes these moments are even more important in the aftermath of COVID lockdowns and the rise of addictions to handheld devices and social media. “They connect us all to a network, but don’t necessarily connect us human to human,” De Baecque shares. “Bringing people into the real world and providing moments of shared emotion is really the foundation of everything we do at Moment Factory.”

Augmented Games, with its emphasis on play and human connection, perfectly manifests the studio’s emphasis on meaningful interaction and socialisation. 

The games first came about as the studio was testing different tracking systems. “We do a lot of installations and motion tracking is key,” he explains. “And when we did the first prototype, it was basically an in-house project. We tested the initial prototype on the staff at one of our parties, and people loved it. We love partying at Moment Factory, every three months we throw a big party for the staff.”

When the video of the staff playing with the initial prototype was posted on the Moment Factory website, it quickly became the site’s most-visited webpage. “So, we decided to turn it into an actual product,” he says.

De Baecque describes Augmented Games as an interactive projection. “We turn the floor of any physical space into a video game. These games are very easy to play, very simple - a bit of an homage to the original arcade games like Pong. The only difference is that it’s human scale, and you have to play with several players, so it’s about connection. There’s a bit of competition. We call it competitive socialising.”

He compares it to going to the bowling alley with friends - the main emphasis is on having fun, but winning is an added attraction. “Augmented Games is really about collaboration. And something we’ve discovered almost by accident is that because it’s physical—you’re constantly running and jumping—it’s actually really good exercise. So, you’re having fun, you’re socialising, you’re being entertained, and on top of that, you’re doing a bit of a workout. The games are so engaging, you get really into it.”

He stresses to anyone who doesn’t feel confident about their athletic or gaming ability: “It’s super easy. If I can do it, you can do it.”

With eight different games—MEMORY, GRID, TARGET, OBSTACLES, HOT SPOT, POLYGON, PATHFINDER, MAZE—which all play to different strengths, Augmented Games should be appealing for all types of players.

Indeed, the games aim to be as inclusive as possible. Relaxed Sessions, specifically designed to make the experience more accessible for neurodiverse audiences, the Autistic community, and individuals with sensory needs, are on offer, as are Senior Sessions for older people with reduced capacity. More information about those particular slots can be found here.

This year marks Moment Factory’s fourth time presenting work at Illuminate Adelaide. De Baecque discusses the studio’s enduring relationship with the team behind the winter festival. “It is a beautiful story. At the time, I was still based in Singapore,” he begins.

Lee Cumberlidge and Rachael Azzopardi, the founders of Illuminate Adelaide, reached out in 2021 to see if Moment Factory would be interested in participating and helping launch the festival. “It was a complicated time: you couldn’t really travel, there were a lot of restrictions, borders were closed, especially in Australia. And I kind of liked the challenge. I thought, hey, these people are crazy enough to call us in difficult times - we should give them a go. And we really clicked.”

Moment Factory’s headquarters is located in Montreal, which De Baecque believes can partially explain the special relationship between the two organisations. “It's interesting because Canadians and Australians have very similar cultural backgrounds. Big countries, small populations, First Nations history, Commonwealth countries. And it was almost like love at first sight, so to speak.”

Moment Factory ended up working on the first Light Cycles in the Botanic Garden. De Baecque explains, “It was a very complicated project. We had to do a lot of the work remotely because of travelling restrictions. But it also gave us an opportunity to actually discover the talent of people in Adelaide, the people from Novatech and Illuminate.

“It was almost like a revelation for the Montreal team that you can really delegate a lot of these collaborations to local people because they’re talented, they’ve got great skills, and they were very passionate about it. We bring people together in our installations, but we also do that at the production level. We brought two teams together, and they collaborated across the planet, literally.” 

He feels a huge sense of loyalty towards the team behind Illuminate Adelaide - and he is a big fan of the city itself. “I would say personally - and so would most of my colleagues who come to Adelaide - that we love Adelaide. It’s a beautiful city. I think it’s probably the best-kept secret of Australia.” 

He is always surprised at the number of Australians he meets who haven’t ever been to Adelaide. “Every time I come back, I bring my family. We love to visit the city. The food is great, the people are awesome, and the city is beautiful. I think there is nothing in Adelaide that’s not to like, and I’m really glad we have the opportunity to come back again and again.” 

He will, he says, never totally understand why so many Aussies look down upon it. “Maybe it’s a defence mechanism, so you’re not invaded by all of the Australians,” he jokes. “You want to keep it quiet.”

Something else Adelaide has going for it is that this particular iteration of Augmented Games will be the first time that this number of playgrounds will be set up in tandem to build a full gaming arena. “This is something that is quite unique and has never been done before,” De Baecque says. It will surely be enough, he thinks, to “get people out of their home in winter, when you would probably prefer to stay warm and cosy by the firepit.” 

In essence, these games are for everybody. “From the age of 4 or 5 all the way to 99. As long as you can walk, you can play,” he notes. “We’ve noticed in a lot of our installations that you have kids playing with their parents or grandparents, so it’s also an intergenerational way to connect people together.”

At Moment Factory, he explains, “We love seeing people happy, basically. The way we’ve designed the games is for them to be universal; you don’t need to speak any language. And once you start to play the games, you will struggle to stop.”

Augmented Games will be presented at Illuminate Adelaide from Friday, 26 June until Sunday, 19 July. More information can be found on the Illuminate Adelaide website.