Vietnam Romance
If you hated the War but loved the Movies, you’ll love this game
Vietnam Romance is about the fictionalized history of the Vietnam War and its cultural remains. The project takes various forms: computer game, collectible, card game, live performance / puppet show / dinner theatre, and video installation.
Vietnam Romance is a tour of nostalgia for romantics and Deathmatch veterans pitting tourists vs. adventurers, history vs. its fantasies, and games vs. cinema. Film critic Ed Halter, described a film version of the project as exploring “a peculiarly American memory-trip, one in which the legacy of a gruesome war has become indistinguishable from pleasurable, if mythic-tragic, entertainments.”
GAME RELEASE
Download the Game Manual
The computer game release of Vietnam Romance is structured as a series of standalone vignettes or levels. Each level will either be released as part of a small set or individually. The separate levels are connected through a shared card inventory that is stored online on the Vietnam romance server. Eventually, the separate levels will be linked sequentially and comprise a more linear narrative playthough.
- The initial release involves two sets:
The Vietnam Romance Tutorial Set includes three levels the Computer Tutorial, the Driving Tutorial, and, and the Combat Tutorial.
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Deer Hunter Set includes: Level 7: The Deer Hunter, and Level 99: Personal Computer
The next levels we are working on releasing include: Level 1: Congrats it’s all Yours!, Level 2: Mojave, Level 3: Apache, Level 4: In Country, Level 10: In Charlie’s Company.
LIVE SHOWS
Vietnam Romance involves a series of live stage performances. Each show is a different site specific variety show including special scenes and performances including live music and actors, a multiplayer game system, puppet shows, karaoke, kinetic/interactive stage props, special playing cards and gifts, projection mapping, food, drinks, and other surprises.
EXHIBITIONS & INSTALLATIONS
Vietnam Romance also takes the form of installation or exhibition which includes new sculptures, video projections, prints, photos or other forms. These shows are installed in museums or galleries and take advantage of the formal opportunities offered by these spaces.
TEAM
Vietnam Romance was created by Eddo Stern with Steven Amrhein, Nick Crockett, Jessica Z. Hutchins, and Lucas Near-Verbrugghe
Thanks to Garett Johnson, Peter Lu, Miller Klitsner, Sam Klitsner, Adeline Ducker, Heather Penn, Gregg Tavares, Stephen Clark, Phil Scott, Thu Tran, Tamas Banovich, Tyler Stefanich, Louis Pham, Sofia Staab-Gulbenkian, and Friedrich Kirschner
SUPPORT
Vietnam Romance has been generously supported by the Beall Center for Art And Technology through an Andy Warhol Foundation grant, by The University of California Institute for Research in the Arts, the UCLA Council On Research, Northern Spark Festival, Babycastles, Postmasters Gallery, Dundee Contemporary Arts, and by Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Berlin.
EXHIBITION HISTORY
–Dundee Contemporary Arts (Dundee, Scotland) , July 2016
–Cirrus Gallery (LA), Feb 2016
–UCLA Game Art Festival at The Hammer Museum (LA), Nov 2015
–Northern Spark Festival (MN), July 2015
–Postmasters Gallery (NYC) June 2015
–Babycastles (NYC) June 2015
–Angeles Gate (LA), April, 2015
–Indiecade East at the Museum of the Moving Image – (NYC), April, 2015
–Amaze Festival (Berlin, Germany), April 2015
–Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto, Canada) March, 2015
–Beall Center (Irvine, CA) Jan 2015
–Beit Ha’ir Museum (Tel Aviv, Israel), May 2014