Pigs follow light (that humans move via tablet device) with their snouts on a touch-sensitive screen. If the pigs and humans move the ball through a goal triangle, it triggers fireworks.

By Yvette Wohn

Question: I understand that the novel component is the use of a game played by both humans and pigs. What is the importance of having the pigs play with humans? (Why can’t they just play with the computer…or other pigs?)

Kars Alfrink is a designer/ researchers at the Utrecht School of Arts in the Netherlands.

Kars Alfrink: The practical reason for this is that we think humans can provide a continuously varying form of entertainment for pigs, who are bored very quickly. A more philosophical reason is that we are interested in using play to transform the relationship between pigs and humans.

Clemens Driessen: The way we relate to animals in our society tends to be strictly defined by them being considered either food, a pet, wild, or something to test medicines on. What we wanted to explore with this design project is whether this is necessarily so, or that more ambivalent types of relations could be meaningful as well.

Question: Do the farmers have time to “play” with the pigs? Can anyone in a remote location with an iPad play with the pigs?

Kars Alfrink: The game is meant for the general public. As shown in the video, humans can play from a remote location (i.e. a cafe) using an iPad. Farmers are busy enough as it is, we don’t presume they have time to play.

Question: We have traditionally not used technology to entertain pigs. Why is it now that entertaining pigs is important?

Clemens Driessen, researcher and applied philosopher, Wageningen University

Clemens Driessen: Since 2001 there is an EU directive requiring that: “… pigs must have permanent access to a sufficient quantity of material to enable proper investigation and manipulation activities ….” (EC directive 2001/93/EC; Art.4). But already before this date pig farmers have been concerned with aggressive behaviour amongst pigs, which leads to the animals damaging each other and makes the farmers preventively cut off their curly tails.

Calls to improve conditions for farm animals have been growing louder for decades now. After the EU wide ban on battery cages for laying hens and veal crates for calves, many expect the next requirement to be to stop bodily mutilation of animals such as ‘debeaking’ of chickens and cutting the teeth and tails of pigs. This all means there is a growing interest in developing ways to entertain animals in ways that are meaningful enough to stop them from hurting each other. Perhaps a better solution would be to let them go outside or at least increase the space they have to live in. Most people concerned with animal welfare tend to think in terms of an ideal of naturalness, which often means letting them forage outside or give them some straw to munch on. What we wanted to explore here is whether we can develop more high-tech environments that would cater to the exploration and play needs of pigs. This offers an opportunity to find out what these animals that were domesticated thousands of years ago could be capable of.

Question: What are your personal moral views on animal welfare?

Kars Alfrink: My personal view is that it is important to limit animal suffering (without going so far as to abstain from eating meat). I try to be conscious about the kinds of meat I purchase, and limit my meat consumption. I am willing to pay a higher price for meat that is produced in an animal friendly way.

Question: What do you think are the potential of games to increase pigs’ cognitive abilities? Do you think a situation like that in the novel Animal Farm is something that is probable in the future?

Clemens Driessen: I had a conversation with a thirteen year old avid gamer last year about this project, and he confessed he was a bit worried that pigs would become smarter than humans and might take over the world. What is interesting from many of the responses we are getting there seems to be an implicit notion of being good at computer games as a defining feature of intelligence, and even of what it means to be human. I personally don’t believe pigs when given their own i-pad will take over the world any time soon, but I do like the idea of not seeing the abilities of these animals as fixed. In their current confined conditions they already manage to learn amazing things like opening gates and cheating on their automated feeding systems, so who knows what they will reveal if given a more challenging environment.

I guess the way Orwell described pigs to be the devious and ruthless rulers in his Animal Farm novel comes across as realistic to many people’s imaginations of what pigs are like, as if these animals have a craving for world domination. Perhaps in an interactive game we can find out more about their character, this time in a setting that would make pig personalities emerge also in terms of curiousity and playfulness.

Question: When not designing games for pigs, what kind of games do you personally enjoy?

Kars Alfrink: I personally enjoy a wide range of video games, board games and other kinds of games. My personal favorites are board games with a lot of social dynamics. Recently I have been very preoccupied with collaborative games such as Pandemic and Space Alert, but also the party game The Resistance.

Question: How important is the interactive aspect of the game? Would playing a game be different for the pigs than watching a movie?

Kars Alfrink: Watching a film and playing a game are two very different activities for humans. I believe this applies equally to pigs. Playing a game together is in a way an act of communication. It is an exploration of each other’s abilities. This is something film does not offer.

Clemens Driessen: One of the central features of what animal researcher Francoise Wemelsfelder has described as debilitating boredom for animals is the experience of a lack of control over their environment. So while some TV show might offer a bit of distraction, what we want to do in designing interaction for pigs is actually challenge their cognitive abilities and help them gain some sense of agency.

And by creating new forms of interspecies interaction we hope to also explore new ways of doing research into animal welfare. A large part of trying to define, measure and debate animal welfare involves interpreting behaviour and somehow taking the perspective of the animal. By creating a game this would allow a broad audience to participate in this type of research in an immersive and playful way.

Question: You seem to be incorporating an iterative design process based on feedback from the farmers and pigs. How do the pigs provide feedback? (One grunt for yes, two for no…?)

Kars Alfrink: As with testing designs with humans, we rely heavily on non-verbal cues. That is to say, we try to be sensitive to signs of enjoyment and base design decisions on what appears most successful.

Irene van Peer is a designer/ researcher at the Utrecht School of Arts in the Netherlands.

Clemens Driessen: Hard to tell, if the pigs get up and play all day they might become a bit leaner, but since domestic pigs are known to sleep a large portion of the day I don’t think it will make much of a difference. In general their taste seems mostly determined by the way they have been bred and the food they get.

Question: Can you recall an interesting or funny story related to this research?

Irene van Peer: While filming with Hein Lagerwij (shooting the footage) for the video sketch, there was this one piglet who preferred laying just in front of our view. She tucked herself nicely against the ‘screen’ blocking the field of action for the other piglets. It once again made us conscious of the differences in characters and behavior we are dealing with. As humans not everyone will be attracted to the same game.

Q. Who is your target game player?

A: We wanted to create a game that would be fun and entertaining for the entire family. We think the Journey of Moses has something for everyone in any age group.

Q. To me, Journey of Moses is interesting because it follows a specific narrative. Many games do not have a narrative. Why did you choose to follow a story?

A. We thought this would be a unique way to retell the story of Moses and to keep people engaged by following one of the most well known biblical stories of all time. Players will experience the many twists and turns as they explore milestones in the life of Moses – from growing up in the king’s house as an Egyptian to his exile in the wilderness. Then, after an encounter at the burning bush, Moses’ life is changed and he eventually leads the Israelites out of Pharaoh’s rule.

The game is similar to other Facebook puzzle games in that you click tiles to reveal hidden "items" (click to enlarge)

Q. What do you think is the element that will keep people hooked to the game?

A. First of all, the Journey of Moses is a very fun game to play. We have spent a lot of time perfecting the mechanics of this game, focusing on the level of engagement and production quality so that everyone can enjoy it for its entertainment value. It is also a great story. Essentially, Moses is the grandson of the king of the world, has a falling out, is exiled to a no man’s land, then has an encounter with God and his world is turned upside down. While there are a number of good games out there, our players will find the Journey of Moses is a cutting-edge social game, incorporating best practices, high quality art, cool effects, great music, and the newest Facebook features.

Q. How historically-correct are the “items” or other design elements in the game?

A. We have been very deliberate in making sure there is nothing in Journey of Moses that is contradictory to the text or the spirit of the Biblical account of the life of Moses. We have vetted portions of the game with leaders in a variety of faith groups to ensure their accuracy. Because the Bible doesn’t provide a minute-by-minute account, there are some details that have been added for entertainment value, but overall, you will find it to adhere to the historical account.

The game follows the story of Moses, who, early on, thinks he is a true Egyptian prince. (click to enlarge)

Q. Moses is a story that is part of Jewish as well as Catholic history. Is there a reason why you chose to frame this as a Christian game?

A. I agree, that the story of Moses is part of these faith stories. Overall we consider the Journey of Moses to be a biblically-based game, but I am a Christian and specifically set out to design a game for this audience.

Q. Have you seen people of different religions interact on the game forum?

A. We have seen some people of different religious beliefs play our game.

Q. How did you get into games?

A. I’ve been making board games since I was in elementary school. I thought Facebook gaming would be a fun industry to be in and we started our company in that market.

Q. What is/are your favorite game(s) of all time?

A. My favorite video game, hands down is the Zelda series. The first, Legend of Zelda, and 3rd, Link to the Past are my favorites. You can probably sense that if you play our games. One of our favorite board games as a company is Settlers of Catan. To pay homage to this game, we named the company after the shape of the pieces on the board. I also love all types of card games, including poker.

Q. What is your opinion on the hard core vs. casual game distinction?

A. With 300 Million gamers out there, there is a big audience. There’s plenty of games for all types of players out there.

Q. What is some advice you would give to parents who frown on their children playing games?

A. I would tell parents that there is cause for concern if your child is playing games 24 hours a day consistently. But, enjoying games can be a very positive form of entertainment. Social games, like Journey of Moses have positive and uplifting themes and a very social aspect.

Trying to piggyback on the success of the game, the company is expanding to other products, such as toys, paper books, digital books, a feature-length animated movie (with David Masel, former Marvel chairman leading the development), and—coming in August to Barnes and Nobles—an Angry Birds cookbook which is all about how to prepare eggs. Clearly, the company is not confined by platform. They are trying to get on as many platforms as possible, some of which include the Nook, Kindle, Roku (for TV), in addition to Web, Android, iTouch, and game consoles such as Play Station and Xbox.

The Future of Angry Birds

“We want to be an entertainment company with a billion fans. Everything we do now is getting more fans and building better products to do that. We’re a very ambitious team. We want to make Angry Birds a permanent part of pop culture,” he said.

Rovio is also expanding in China (second largest market after U.S. for Angry Birds), with offices in Shanghai, for both production of Angry Birds products and to localize products for the (huge) Chinese market. “We want to be more Chinese than Chinese companies.” Vesterbacka said. The company has a very interesting way to deal with pirated products in China. Angry Birds is the third most copied/pirated brand in China (Hello Kitty is number one), but instead of sending a lot of lawyers to deal with the issue legally, they are going to use NFC to make the toys more interactive; whereas the physical toy can unlock more features in the digital games (think Webkins).

Geo-location is also a component that will be integrated into the Angry Birds franchise. For example, the company is making “magic” places at Barnes and Nobles, where Angry Birds is available for free and if you have the game, new features can be unlocked. So it’s like Four Square, but with added benefits.

Vesterbacka was hesitant about giving advice to smaller developers, such as when they should expand on their brand. “Don’t worry about doing the wrong thing or going against conventional wisdom,” he said. He said that the company ignored a lot of advice (including some from Hollywood) because they were “crappy.” “What is right for us may not be right for you.”