The Loop

'The Loop' is a project focusing the attention and imagination of the Alt Valley community on the Liverpool Loop Line Cycle Track.

Artist collective Re-Dock, are working with groups around Alt Valley, using a mixture of old and new creative technologies, from Hula-Hoops to Computer Game Design, to look into the participants relationship to the Loop Line and envisage where it might go in future.

Video Grab of 'The Loop 1.0'

The Loop from Re-Dock on Vimeo.

Young people from Rice Lane City Farm and Norris Green Detached Youth Project are responding to the brief.
"If the Loop Line were a computer game, how would it play?"
"Who would you meet?"
"Who would you avoid?"
"What would you collect?"
"What would be the aim of the game?"

To find out more, scroll down the blog posts below, or click on these shortcut links, if you want to....

Download the game

View the instructions

Look at the Loop line drop-in activities

See how young people planned the game

Watch one of the films made by people around Alt Vally, exploring the places that can be accessed from the Loop Line.

Find out about Starlogo TNG, the free software we used to develop the game

Please mail any questions or comments to

neil@re-dock.org

or visit

www.re-dock.org

'The Loop' is part of the wider 'Art Valley' project, a collaboration between the Bluecoat, Re-Dock, and the Liverpool Everyman Playhouse.

Download 'The Loop Game 1.0' for Free

The Loop Game 1.0 is officially launched today.
'How to Play' instructions in the post below.
Project details the post below that.



The instructions guide to the game was written last night so now the game is ready to be shared. To play the game you will need a copy of Starlogo TNG, the free software it was made with.

Download your copy of 'The Loop' Game for free by clicking on the Hulks face below.

Installing The Loop Game

Firstly off check that your computer has the right specifications, sorry if it doesn't have a good graphics card it won't play the game. See system requirements below, or go to

To get Starlogo TNG working

Go to http://education.mit.edu/starlogo-tng/download and sign up to download your FREE copy of StarlogoTNG

Follow the instructions to install Starlogo TNG on your computer

You are now ready to use Starlogo TNG, why not have a look at some of the tutorials that come with it & make something yourself?

To get 'the Loop' game to play in Starlogo TNG

We added some extra models & sounds to customize our game, so you'll have to add them to your version of Starlogo TNG.

These instructions show you how to customize your version of Starlogo TNG to include the new characters and sounds we added, it is quite simple, you just need to copy the sounds into the Starlogo TNG sounds folder & the models into the Starlogo TNG models folder.

1) Double click on 'the_loop_game.zip' to extract the folder





2) You should find
'the_loop_version_one.sltng' = the game file
'theloopmodels' = the extra models folder needed to play the game
'theloopaudio' = a folder with the extra audio files needed to play the game

Open your applications folder on your computer




3) Installing the Sounds
• Open the folder 'the loop sounds' & select all the sound files, not the folder, just the files.
• Click copy
• Open your applications folder on your computer
• Go to to 'harddrive/applications/starlogotng/sounds'
• Paste all of the sound files into 'harddrive/applications/starlogotng/sounds'.

4) Installing the Models
• Go to to 'harddrive/applications/starlogotng/models'
• Copy the folder 'theloopmodels' & its contents into
'harddrive/applications/starlogotng/models'

***********************************************
'The Loop' Game was authored by the People from around Alt Valley & RE-DOCK.
MAIN CREDITS GOING TO the Young People from Rice Lane City Farm, Norris Green Detached Youth Project, Walton Adventure Playground, and Hartley's Village.
It was informed by people from around Alt Valley who contributed opinions, ideas and voice recordings.

'The Loop' was a part of the wider 'Art Valley' project, with the Everyman/Playhouse & the Bluecoat.

System Requirements
StarLogo TNG requires a 1ghz or better processor and a graphics card that supports OpenGL. We recommend 512mb of RAM or more, but it may run with less. For Windows computers we recommend a Pentium 4/Celeron/Athlon 1.8GHz or better or Pentium M 1.4GHz or better for a processor and a nVidia (GeForce 5200 or better) or ATI (Radeon 7000 or better) graphics card. For MacOS computers any "newish" 1 ghz or better iMac, eMac, Powerbook, or iBook will do, though it must run Mac OS X 10.4.4 or later. We have tested StarLogo succesfully on the low end using a 1.4ghz Pentium 4 with a GeForce 5200 and 1.4 ghz iBooks. StarLogo TNG is a universal binary that runs on the new Intel Macs as well.

How To Play: The Loop Game

The Loop Game 1.0
How To Play: Instructions




START THE GAME

Now if you doubleclick on the file 'the_loop_version_one.sltng' the game should open up in Starlogo TNG

• There are two windows in Starlogo TNG, Hilight the window called 'Spaceland' by clicking on it.
• Click on the circle with a plus sign in it in the top left hand corner of the SpaceLand window to make it go full screen

At the bottom of the SpaceLand window you will see some buttons.



Setup Game = Click this to get the game ready to play
Play Game = Click this once, it should glow, & then click on the screen with your mouse to start the game!

Aims:
The aim is to get as much people onto the loop line as possible using your 'Arsenal of Stories'.
The coke cans are worth 10 bits of energy, the carrots are worth 15 bits of energy and the knives take away 20 bits of energy

Controls:
In order to move you must use the directional buttons if you cannot find them look closer down at the bottom of the keyboard and you should see a bunch of arrows on four of the keys.

While playing press the 'M' button to look through the eyes and when you have enough stories press the 'space bar' to shoot stories back at people and they split into to two.

In order to get the camera back to normal just press the 'N' button to get it back to normal view and to get the view to aerial just press the 'B' button to get the camera to the aerial view.

Here is a screen shot of the code blocks that tell your character what to do. You can find the code blocks for the whole game in the StarlogoBlocks window, why not try one of the tutorials that comes with Starlogo TNG in the support folder, or watch one of the videos, and get started making your own games.











Scores:
My current high score is 13.
Can you beat it?
In order to get a high score you must collect stories from the other characters and then get more people onto the loop line as possible.


Watch OUT for!!!
Look out for the Joker ******* who removes the people from the loop line but can also kill your character.

The Loop Drop-in Workshop at Hartley's Village

During 'The Loop' project, as well as the more focused sessions at Rice Lane City Farm & Norris Green, we also dropped in to other community events around Alt Valley, to collect a wider range of contributions for the project. This short film documents the process that we took people through as part of a drop-in session at Hartley's Village, as they contributed ideas, voice recordings and code, to 'The Loop' game.

The Loop Line Fun Day 22nd August '09

The project culminated in an activity day on the 22nd of August, on which visitors to the Loop Line will be able to explore and add to the suggestions put forwards by the community, by playing the computer game and taking part in other creative activities.

Setting Up on the 22nd



The Hula-Venn Diagram created on the 22nd



Every Entry & Exit Point on the Alt Valley Loop Line

Norris Green Game Plans

Tonight we unexpectedly had a completely different group join us at the Ellergreen centre, a group of 6 lads and six girls plus the three from last week, which was great.

This took a bit of adapting to as I turned up by myself this week, as we were only expecting three young people, but we got the young people playing some program your friends games and thinking about how the Loop Line would play if it were a game.

Here are a couple of videos made by the young people to describe their ideas.

Things to do around Walton Park

This is a short film, made by a group of young lads at the opening day of the new Walton Adventure Playground. We asked the group to tell us what they, and other people like to do at the park, and helped them make this great film about it.

The Big Lunch at Hartleys Village

We were worried that we were going to be intruding a small communities get together, but the people of Hartley's village made us very welcome to their Big Lunch, feeding us cake, sandwiches, cups of tea and local knowledge all day.

The Village has big plans for the loop line including setting up a cycle hire store to encourage trans-pennine cycling holidays. They are pushing for Heritage Status, and if beautiful architecture and a real community spirit has anything to do with it then they won't be waiting long.

Below is a short film Made by Re-Dock artist & filmaker Tim Brunsden, which was posted to http://liverpoolstories

Jacob's Social Club Committee

On Friday the 31st of July, we went to visit the Jacob's Social Club Committee, who kindly gave us time to talk to them about The Loop project and run a couple of activities with them. As this project has a focus towards young people, it was great to hear some stories about the history of the Loop Line from people who have lived and worked around it for years. Ted shared a lot of stories about the Factory's relationship to the Loop Line when it was a functioning railway line, not that he is old enough to remember first hand.

Warbreck, 'Your Community Matters' Forum.

On Thursday we set up a drop-in activity at the Warbreck, 'Your Community Matters' Forum at the 'Drop Inn' Cafe on Walton Vale, to collect some memories, experiences, and suggestions from the people there about the Loop Line and where it is going.

The responses we received ranged from the most positive experiences and suggestions to bad memories of being burgled, and the fear of being attacked.

We asked people to contribute activities to the Hula Hoop Venn Diagram, by adding activities that people from the area do in their leisure time, either on or off the Loop Line.



We also asked people to place possible future uses of the Loop Line in the overlap. Suggestions included better disabled access, Lantern Parades, and Allotments on the area by Walton Vale Tunnel. Below are photo slide shows of the activities, if you want to enlarge them just click on them & they will play in a larger window.


Things People Already Use The Loop Line For
To Play the slide show, click on the little tab in the top left hand corner.



Other Things People Do Round Here
To Play the slide show, click on the little tab in the top left hand corner.




Things People Could Do On The Loop Line in Future
To Play the slide show, click on the little tab in the top left hand corner.

"What else could we do on the Loop Line?" By young people from Norris Green Detached Youth Project.

"What else could we do on the Loop Line?"

We worked with a group of young people from Norris Green to discuss their experiences of the Loop Line. After a few creative activities to stimulate thinking about the people that live in their area, and how they could use the Loop Line in future they created this Hula Hoop drawing, and later a simple computer game, which they designed so that characters tell you their sugestions for the Loop Line when you bump into them.

To play the slide show, click in the tab in the top left hand corner.

The Loop From Hartley Avenue, by the Young People from Rice Lane City Farm

As a result of their first workshop with the project, the lads at Rice Lane City Farm created this film about the places that you can easily get to from the Hartley Avenue entry/exit point of the Liverpool Loop Line.



Using a hula hoop to represent the area and added images of the different places people might want to go, the people that might go there and some of the things that they might do there.

They then filmed it using an a toy train on the hula-hoop as a steady-cam, adding their own commentary.



After talking with the group, they have decided that they would like to look at computer game design, for the rest of the project instead of animation. So Next week we will be setting them the task of imagining what the Loop Line would play like, if it were a computer game.

Using Starlogo TNG

The young people made the game using Starlogo TNG which an ingenious piece of software which enables people who might never think that they could program anything, to create complex simulations and games.

Its key feature is a pioneering Visual Programming Language of Blocks which allows users to build their own sets of instructions and interactions, to potentially 1000's of creatures.

To find out more about Starlogo TNG or download it for free click the image below.