What if digital karaoke and rhythm games existed in the Victorian era? Then you would have The Victorianator! Get scored on how well you can read a poem like a robot. Follow the choreography of arm gestures to trigger strange effects on your voice. Control the fate of our story’s hero, Silas Shornsong, depending on how well you score. Victorianate yourself! Here is how it works: Recite one of three poems into the phonograph recorder in your best monotone and get scored on how much you sound like a robot. The pitch tracking gauge will tell you how well you’re doing as your read. Then comes the gesture play. As you listen back to the recording you just made (or, you can use a built-in stock recording), follow the gesture signs to trigger “real” Victorian recitation effects on your voice. Visit the Victorian Robot in the Gallery of Gestures to learn how to perform and match the moves. Follow the story of Silas Shornsong’s adventures in London as you play your way through the game. The better you score, the happier Silas’s adventures will be. So gesture well, dear friend, as Silas much prefers the salon to the dung heap. You can also unlock pages of Silas’s secret diary as you play, and learn what life was really like in the Victorian period. Recite, gesture, read, have fun!
The LudicVoice team would like to thank TAG (the Centre for Technoculture, Art and Games) at Concordia University, PlayPR and Carré Technologies Inc. for their support of this project.