This video game is the result of a workshop held in the Fundación Telefónica Space during the months of February and March 2017. In it, bringing together a number of participants from different disciplines, without it being necessary for them to have experience or knowledge about videogame development , we sought to generate a playable experience, based on a collective thought process, based on the contents of the exhibition "Houdini. The Laws of Astonishment "(from February 10 to May 28, 2017). The objective, once the workshop was finished, was to obtain a video game design that would allow us to develop a suitable title to be published. In this way, through visits to the exhibition commented, both by educators and by one of the curators of the same, in which we spoke, not only the content of this, but the museographic design and how they had organized the materials they related the amazing story of the "most famous magician of all time" and of the time that he lived, we learned in depth the life and main milestones and challenges of Houdini, as well as its circus origins and its approach to cinema or aviation in That desire to always be better, always stronger, always bigger than the rest of those around him in what, we understood, was actually a way of escaping not only from everything he did not like, but from himself , wanting to be a different person, to the point of changing the name and affirming, for convenience that was born in Appleton instead of his hometown, Budapest.

From all this, we decided to develop a videogame whose narrative told us about the different stages of his life (and even delves into his death through references to the world of spiritism to which he was 7upDownso close at certain moments). We approach the different sections of the exhibition and challenges that Houdini marks throughout his life, we work on each one of them, dissecting them and adapting them to the type of game that we saw so clear: A game in which Houdini would always flee from everything and everyone, their past, always looking for prestige, always looking to move to the next level. On this occasion we wanted to make a project whose art and aesthetic was risky and innovative, as was the magician himself, with continuous references to the circus and the artists who decorated the barracks and the banners that populate the world of Freak shows. A world full of bearded women, turkey children, giant rats and mechanical men. We also add to the equation sessions dedicated to the design of video games and reflections on contemporary art. The result obtained follows the line of other previous projects: a videogame that is the result of a collective thought process in which each of the scenes has been made based on what was proposed by one or more of the participants, within a common thread and common vertebrator agreed by all.
We hope, that you like it and teach it as much as we have liked and taught us to do it.

Telefónica and GammeraNest Foundation