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Design Category
Experience design, 1995
Designers
Frank Lantz , Eric Zimmerman , Brian Loube, Karen Sideman
Collection
(1996) Communication Graphics: 17
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The objective of Gearheads was to invent a truly original form of computer game play. We call our design philosophy “rhizomatic design.” A rhizome is a plant such as grass that grows in a horizontal, open-ended fashion as opposed to a vertical, hierarchical structure like a tree. A rhizomatic approach to software design builds complexity from the ground up with simple rules that can be combined in an infinite variety of ways. The surprising and intricate ‘play’ of Gearheads emerges from the interactions between the dozen independent characters, giving the game experience both fast reflex action and subtle strategic depth.