Cracking the code

How experimental-game specialist Alex Johansson is bringing telegraphy to the masses with Morse

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No sooner have we entered Alex Johansson's Sheffield hackspace – perhaps the closest equivalent to Emmett Brown's workshop we've yet encountered in the real world – than our host offers to make coffee. One problem: his kettle's broken. The switch doesn't work, he says; it flicks back up as soon as it's pressed. If he weighs it down, though, it'll boil over. No matter. He grabs a knife, balancing its handle against the edge of a shelf, the tip of its blade resting on the switch, just enough to keep it down. A few minutes later, the switch flicks up, and the knife clatters onto the worktop.

The coffee's terrible, but we're getting a picture of a man accustomed to solving problems with unorthodox solutions. Johansson is every bit the charismatic inventor. Having spent time on the game industry front lines, he's happier now operating on its fringes. An advocate for "approachable game design", this self-styled educator and experimental designer has mainly been exhibiting his work at events in recent years. His games typically require alternative controllers, with which he's looking to reach beyond traditional audiences.