The Book Ritual
A downloadable game for Windows and macOS
An interactive art-piece played using a real-world book of your choice.
Write in your book to tell it about yourself. Deface its pages in creativity exercises, so that your book can understand you. Tear out pages to keep the conversation going, as it reveals to you how it came to be and why it wants to know you.
The Book Ritual is about dealing with loss and accepting change. It is about coming to terms with decisions that can’t be undone, and the souvenirs which will lose their meaning to time.
What you use to dispose of pages is up to you, the player
- Play with a standard office shredder
- Play with your own waste-paper bin
- Build your own USB-connected shredder with the instructions included
The Book Ritual can be played at home on your own, or set up at an exhibition, with visitors collaboratively transforming a book, each shred being a souvenir of a stranger's personal experience.
Article:Reflections on making The Book Ritual
Nominee: Most Creative Game - PLAY 18, Hamburg
Official Selection: Leftfield Collection - EGX 2018, Birmingham
Official Selection: Alt-Ctrl GDC - Game Developers Conference 2019, San Francisco
Honourable Mention: A MAZE 2019, Berlin
Download
Development log
- Released!Jan 28, 2019
- v0.9.4 - minor changes!Oct 22, 2018
- v0.9.2 - Post-EGX buildSep 30, 2018
Comments
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It would be nice to have this available to Linux. It would also be nice to have this in paper form which is kinda contrary to the idea but a quiet way to play this would be beneficial to playing while the kids (or anyone else) is sleeping.
HOW DO I SHRED A PAGE! T_T
I've not made it very obvious - sorry! If you're using the shredder it is expecting to get a signal from a USB device (it expects to get a keypress of \ and | at the same time). I'm thinking to add instructions on how to build one before it's out of beta.
You probably want to start a new file and select "bin" at the beginning. Maybe I should make the bin default as most people aren't going to have a custom-built shredder 😅
Thanks for playing and for the feedback :)
Thank you so much. I just kept skipping chapters. Thank you.
Thanks very much for asking :) It's really helpful!
What if i don`t own a shredder, and its difficult to acquire one (not to mention i find it a waste of money for a singular interactive game)?
Heya :) To play at home you can use a waste paper bin. At the beginning it asks you what you have and will make the shredder character match that object