sssSnake: the game

sssSnake is a two-player voice-controlled version of the classic 'Snake' game. One player controls the snake by making an "SSS" voice, while the other player moves the coin away from the snake by making an "AAHHH" voice.

The position of a player around the playing field determines the direction of the coin's or snake's path. The snake moves towards the player making the "SSS" voice, and the coin moves away from the player making the "AAHH" voice.

Two versions of sssSnake are available: A voice-visual version where the coin is virtual and screen-based, and a voice-physical version where the coin is a real coin placed by the player on top of the table.

Through prompting players to run around the playing area, the game encourages physical movement as well as vocal activity.

The "SSS" and "AAHH" voices are not distinguished through speech recognition but rather through pitch differentiation between the very high-pitched "SSS" voice and the very low-pitched "AAHH" voice. Thus, the game is an attempt to exploit the untapped dimensions of voice to enhance the role of non-speech voice characteristics in the user's experience of multimedia.

Such a voice-controlled game may create a real-time and immediate causal relationship between the vocal input and the visual output and may thus facilitate continuity and direct engagement. It may direct an interactive system to performative extremes and allow it to be experienced as a holistic engagement, with the human body as a rich source of expressive input and performance.