Familiar Glow is an installation platform designed to host approachable LED experiences, designed for audiences otherwise ignored by the games industry.

Reaching new audiences

For Plug in and Play Festival, we wanted to build a playful experience that: 

• Depicted a simple game experience on LED rope
• Something lightweight but covered a wide surface area
• Weaved into the fabric of communal spaces
• Combined familiar, tactile objects with simple sensors 
• Wasn't intimidating to engage with
• Gave audiences a positive first experience of the festival and games
• Built with hardware that was modular and scalable

From that brief, we built Radiant Vines, which used a watering can as the controller and succeeded at being an approachable interface for audiences young and old. Since then, the setup has been refined, toured around the UK and a second game has been integrated. 

The plan is to keep building simple LED games experiences combined with inputs made of objects understood by all, giving people a positive first experience of games. Further, rather than building these experiences in a vacuum, we want to immerse ourselves in communities to surface common inputs the public find intuitive.

The Setup

The current setup encases 4 individual microcomputers for LED installation in a waterproof security box. This is powered by lithium batteries which allow the setup to be completely portable and with that, reach communities and places conventional games installations struggle to. Each installation is bespoke, the LED rope is woven into the fabric of the space using knots and magnetic clamps.

Here are two of the experiences built so far:

GLOW GOLF

A simple sports game played along a line of glowing rope.

GLOW GOLF was the first LED installation I've built, which aimed to distil golf into an experience which captured the essence of the sport whilst bringing the skill barrier down to something more approachable. I recently upgraded the project to have LED rope and a door handle as the new controller.

RADIANT VINES 

Water the plants with light from your watering can until they blossom.

Radiant Vines was recently developed for Rotherham's Plug in and Play festival, a nature themed games trail through the town centre. Since the event, I've been finding public places to set up through the winter months. Find out more about the installation here: Radiant Vines by presskit

Controller Workshops

An important part of Familiar Glow is running controller workshops. These are creative sessions where participants fashion games controllers from cardboard, tinfoil and other craft materials. These workshops are run with the public and engage communities marginalised by games and tech and help them surface what interfaces resonate with them. Over the last year I've been running sessions with young people with disabilities, run sessions around the north of England in deprived areas and I'm planning next to work with the elderly.

Why the elderly?

The elderly has historically been an audience both ignored and villainised by the games industry in pursuit of the young. But this no longer reflects reality; games developers have begun dying of old age and as populations skew older each year, it is inevitable we will cater to these audiences.  Games themselves have shown promise as a potential tool for combatting cognitive decline and it was clear with Wii Sports that an older devoted audience base can be fostered by accommodating their needs and interests. 

Here's a 5 minute talk I delivered in 2024 discussing the topic:

Here's a longer talk I delivered in 2025 exploring the topic deeper and reflecting on delivery of Plug in and Play children's festival: