Playdeo’s Ruby Bell, on set with Katy Reece, who plays Billie in ‘Avo’

Avo, Bandersnatch, and the New Grammar of Television (and Games)— Part 3: Interacting with Attention-Seeking Cameras

Part three of a four-part series, in which a new game about an avocado and a young inventor sketches out new ideas for both television and videogames.

Part one looks at mobile interactions and lean-in, lean-out. Part two unpicks the broader context of platforms and formats. This is part three, exploring the new grammar of television and games. Part four summarises an optimistic narrative for tech and format invention.

Ed. A few years after I wrote this, Apple hired Playdeo’s Jack Schulze and Timo Arnall (conflict alert: they’re good mates) to work on various projects, including their own augmented reality ambitions. That put an end to the Avo game discussed here, but continues their creatives lines of enquiry. I’ll fix up the links later.

Attention-seeking cameras

So what’s going on within Avo? The direct manipulation mentioned earlier, and the sense that this lends of “touching TV itself”, is in part enabled by a game engine (presumably Unity) and its ability to drop interactions on top of 3D environments mapped onto pre-filmed sequences. In other words, you…