Hypnogenesis
Hypnogenesis is a video synthesis arcade game designed by Andy Wallace and Allen Riley. The game is a psychedelic space shooter that uses video feedback as a core gameplay mechanic. The game state directly modifies frame buffer values in a customized version of Andrei Jay's open source Video Waaaves software. Player controls are connected to parameters of the video synthesis software integrated into the game, so that by exploring the game, players simultaneously experiment with the creation of emergent visuals.
Concept: Before video games, televisions were mostly not interactive; they were one-way receivers for broadcast signals. In the 1960s and 1970s, video artists like Nam June Paik artistically experimented with ways of interacting with video, for instance by placing a magnet on top of a television to warp the image, or by creating video feedback by pointing a video camera at its own output monitor to create emergent visual patterns. We imagine that Hypnogenesis is part of an alternate history of games that followed from this spirit of experimentation. In other words, what if video games were based on video synthesizers?
Installation: This game is intended to be shown in an arcade format with a dual joystick controller and CRT monitor. We are currently presenting the game with a tabletop dual joystick console and standalone CRT but plan to expand the project into a larger cabinet and installation.
Game Trailer / Explainer:
Hypnogenesis Long Play:
Screen Shots:
Exhibition History:
Experimental Games Showcase, GDC, March 13 2026, Moscone Center, San Francisco CA
boshi's place x SyzygySF: Fried Egg the 13th, March 13 2026, Syzygy, San Francisco CA
Indie Game Art Gallery & Tea Bar, March 12 2026, Little Raven Gallery, San Francisco CA
Art Games! Gallery, March 10-14 2026, tiat, San Francisco CA
VIDEO SYNC 2025, August 15-17, Lloyd Center, Portland, OR
Indie Arcade, Super MAGFest, January 8-11, 2026. Gaylord National Resort, National Harbor, MD
About the Developers:
Andy Wallace is an independent game designer and creative coder who lives in NYC. He is also a founding member of the non-profit Arcade Commons. His work exists on the screen and off, as he likes his digital projects to venture out into the physical world in the form of arcade machines and other magical objects. His work has been shown throughout the US and abroad.
Allen Riley is an artist, curator and educator working with art and technology. He designs hands-on learning curriculum for youth at Beam Center and builds independent arcade cabinets with Arcade Commons. Riley's work has been presented at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Slamdance Film Festival, the Museum of the Moving Image, and Indexical. He is a PhD candidate in Film & Digital Media at UC Santa Cruz.
Andy Wallace and Allen Riley began their collaboration as board members of the indie arcade collective Death by Audio Arcade (now Arcade Commons). Together, they co-curated the Death by Audio Arcade section of the 2019 SAAM Arcade show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Hypnogenesis is their first collaborative game project.
Contact:
Andy can be reached at andy[at]andymakes[dot]com. Allen can be reached at hydlide[at]gmail[dot]com.
Related Work:
Andy Wallace previously created arcade games like Particle Mace, an asteroids-like game which eschews shooting in favor of an unruly, physics-based weapon.
Allen Riley’s previous game is Videofreak, a video synthesis arcade game that uses a hardware-based approach to creating video feedback. In Videofreak, arcade gameplay is integrated with circuit-bent video mixers and guitar pedals to create analog-digital interplay.