This Playable Pop-up Book Is The Coolest Thing I’ve Ever Seen

There’s obviously an abundance of innovation and creativity in the gaming industry but this playable pop-up book is probably one of the most innovative things I’ve ever seen.

Wallmasterr, aka Alastair Low from Lowtek Games, showed off his prototype for his projection-mapped playable pop-up book game Bib Goes Home, and as you can imagine, people fell in love with it.

Have a cheeky watch of the playable pop-up book in action below.

I can’t get over how freakin’ cool this is from @Wallmasterr pic.twitter.com/AxP8BsM55h

— JohnRiggs (@johnblueriggs) April 2, 2023

How freakin’ cool is that!! What a sweet little creation this is. Flipping through a book that changes the scene and advances the plot of the game?? Genius.

The best part about this playable pop-up book is that it doesn’t overcomplicate things. Just one little flip book and a projector and a controller.

It seems like what big gaming publishers think we want is the biggest, most complex game known to man but sometimes all we want is the simple, enjoyable things that make our hearts melt with how adorable it is.

That’s what I think Wallmasterr has done so effortlessly here. He’s stripped back everything we’ve come to know about a game to its most basic element — storytelling — and combined it with a creative way to tell a story in a form that we haven’t seen anyone else do.

It’s brilliant and I couldn’t be more obsessed with it. It’s the perfect blend of old and new. Who doesn’t want a video game that they can touch and hold?

If you want a closer look at the playthrough of the playable pop-up book, Bib Goes Home, check it out below:

@wallmasterr

New Popup book quick playthrough #popup #gamedev #prototype #light #magic #arduino #paper

♬ original sound – Lowtek games – Lowtek games

Lowtek Games, run by Low, is a new indie studio based in the UK that focuses on creating games, like the playable pop-up book and tools that help dyslexic players enjoy games more.

Think of all the games that have lengthy and chunky dialogue, tutorial text, hidden notes or item descriptions. Now think of how dyslexic players might struggle to get through all of that. Most of them would just skip that content, which decreases their overall experience of the game.

To try and find a solution to that problem, Lowtek Games created Dislectek, a unity plugin that allows developers to quickly and easily add dyslexic-friendly text-to-speech options to their games.

As someone who grew up alongside a family member with dyslexia and struggled to read books, this playable pop-up book is such an awesome way to subvert the stigma of dyslexic people and reading. Books don’t always have to be words on a page to tell a story, they can be little games too.