UCLA professor Eddo Stern’s ‘Darkgame’ an example of research-driven, inclusive, interactive design

Darkgame is a long-term research and game development project created by Eddo Stern, professor and chair of the Department of Design Media Arts. Designed in collaboration with the Los Angeles Braille Institute, the project investigates how games can be built for—and enriched by—players with diverse sensory experiences.

“I set out to make a game that could be experienced by blind people, deaf people, and people who can both see and hear,” Stern said. “The game is aware of those differences and is designed around them. For example, you might choose to play as a character who can’t see, which reduces your resources in one area but gives you more points to enhance other abilities. Similarly, someone with full vision and hearing might also choose that path—say, to gain enhanced speed or heightened hearing.”

The gameplay explores communication and conflict under the stress of sensory deprivation and isolation. Players wear custom-made headgear that applies different physical sensations to the head, enabling non-visual and non-auditory navigation of the virtual world as well as interaction with others online.

Supported by a $25,000 transdisciplinary seed grant, Darkgame demonstrates how research in the arts can expand accessibility, advance inclusive design, and reimagine what interactive media can be. The project was also supported by Creative Capital, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the Beall Center for Art + Technology at UCI.