A team of artists in London create a Katamari Damacy controller that plays a large-scaled version of the wacky puzzle game.
I always figured a trackball would be the best way to play Namco’s goofy, junk-rolling puzzler Katamari Damacy, but this life-sized version from artists Chris McInnis, Ron LeBlanc and Tom Gwozdz is truly a step beyond what I ever had in mind. Oh, but I’ll take it!
As a part of the London Fringe Festival’s Nuit Blanche, recently held on June 15 and 16 in downtown London, the aforementioned creative trio built a giant custom-made Katamari controller to play the game, using a large yellow yoga ball, a PlayStation 2 controller, and the mighty spirit of the cosmos!
Okay, okay, so it’s not the “real” spirit of the cosmos per say, but rather just an Arduino microcontroller and wood making up the frame that makes up this very unique input. But still, it’s pretty magical how well designed Chris, Ron, and Tom’s Katamari ball controller is.
In a grand presentation to match, too. Visitors to their outdoors exhibit got to play the game projected on a tall adjacent building. Plus the group’s friends even made awesome Katamari costumes for the event, and yes, rest assured, the King of All Cosmos was also there in attendance.
You could say Chris, Ron, and Tom really got the “ball” rolling on this amazing project! Heh, heh. And likewise you too can get the ball rolling on checking out the latest geek-tastic news, from cool Tokyoflash wristwatches to beautiful Okami paper craft, right here on Walyou.com
