FUNDRAISER: Charcade Kickstarter - Play with fire!

[drop_bear]

We’re building an arcade and it’s rather non-traditional. (Translation: We’re building the CHARCADE and ALL THE GAMES SPEW FIRE)

Support our Kickstarter!
We're so close! $1300 and 70 hours to go!

The goal is to build an authentic feeling arcade that is as visually captivating as it is fun to play. We’re thrilled to announce that Dance Dance Immolation, Flamethrower Shooting Gallery, Rock Inferno, Super Street Fire, and Toxic Bloom will all be making a triumphant return to the playa as part of the Charcade. In addition, the creators of PyroPodium will be joining us with a new interactive fire piece called Touch Me, and the creators of Super Street Fire (Site 3 Fire Arts) are building a bank of 10 colossal metal Skee Ball machines that erupt fire, lovingly dubbed Riskee Ball. Each game features a component that allows participants to interact directly with it, and rewards (or punishes) them with some form of glorious fire display.

Our super high-tech player tracking system

All these games will have a gameplay component that integrates our central player tracking system. Every new player gets their own personal Charcade player tag, embedded with an RFID, that they use to check in to each installation before gameplay. The RFID tag tracks their progress and sends any high scores to the leaderboard located in the welcome center. This helps to further unify the Charcade, encourage competition, award Charcade champions, and bring an old school arcade feel to whole experience.

The welcome center of candy-striped goodness

The Charcade will consist of seven fire games organized in a circle around a central welcome center. Strategically placed street signs, railings, and lights will direct visitors into the heart of the arcade. There they will find the welcome center, a large structure featuring the neon-trimmed "Charcade" sign, a bar-style counter behind which Charcade volunteers will distribute player tags, and a huge flame effect that will blast from high up on the roof to announce new players and high scores. The center will also feature a monitor that will display the scores and names of current Charcade champions.

Why we love the Charcade (and you should too!)

The Charcade embraces interactivity in more than just one way. The very idea behind the project is to bring together fire art groups from all over North America to share their knowledge and experiences, and to foster future collaborations. It creates a space that encourages visitors to interact with a variety of different fire art installations in new, novel, and enticing ways. Most of all, it provides smaller fire games with the support they need to be even more successful, as well as the opportunity to be showcased on a much larger stage. The Charcade merges elements of sculpture, performance art, and epic fire displays. It's both fun to play and fun to watch. From cheering on others and setting high scores, to the impressive nightly fire displays, to exploring the game mechanics during the day, the Charcade will provide an entirely new way for people to experience and interact with fire art games.

Where your money goes

The Charcade team is thrilled to have received honourarium status from the Burning Man Art Grants Committee. While we’re very grateful for the partial funding we’ve received, we still have a ways to go to meet our goal. Our hopes are to raise $10,000 to cover the cost of a shared generator to keep all Charcade games powered up for the week, to build our goofy flame-spewing welcome center, and to bring our player tracking system to life. We adore what we do and look forward to building one kick-ass fire arcade! Follow our progress at http://thecharcade.com or at http://facebook.com/charcade.

[drop_bear]

Yay, we made it! Thanks for your support. Look for us on-playa - it's going to be awesome.

[trilobyte]

Aesome news, congrats!