Tee Ken Ng created a game where you use shadows cast by real-life objects to play a game. You play as Plato, a small neon-green square aiming to collect all the coins that appear on the screen. To help Plato reach the coins (some of which hide high up on the screen), you place various objects in front of the projector so they can be used as ramps.

The setup is beautifully simple: a webcam registers the shadows and converts them into low-resolution collision surfaces in real time with TouchDesigner. Then, the information is sent straight to Godot, which turns those surfaces into interactive physics geometry so Plato can run and roll on it, and jump off or over it.

"The camera, projector, and game are mapped to the same space, so the collision map lines up with the shadows you see on the wall," the artist explains. In this project, he used MadMapper for projection mapping. 

As the creator noted, in theory, anyone can play this game with a projector, a camera, and MadMapper and TouchDesigner up and running. He added that anything can become a usable collision object, including moving objects like your own hands, although those will come with a little lag.

Although Plato might seem like an uncomplicated game, it's a neat reference to Plato's allegory of the cave. According to this allegory, prisoners living inside a cave perceive shadows of objects projected onto its wall as the truest form of reality, as this is the only reality they know. Tee Ken Ng's Plato is, in a way, a prisoner of its own reality formed by a projector behind a pile of random objects.

If the artist's vision resonates with you, check out more of his work on Instagram. He is an actual shadow wizard who uses light and shade as his medium in video direction and game design.

If you like the idea of using real-life objects in a game, check out this mixed-reality game by Gustav Almström that allows you to inject reality into a mobile game with a camera. 

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