Most of our brainstorming to date has revolved around trying to figure out how to create an entertaining game for the user. At our last meeting with Adam we determined that our goal was to make an entertaining game that is FLAWLESS – hence last week’s mutilation of our idea, and the process of regathering and rebuilding that we’re involved in now.

All our research and conversations with Adam seem to have led us to one basic idea – the best way to create a new game is to use an old, familiar, and already knownt to be fun one as a base. Something as simple as hot potato or breakout can be used as a jumping off point, dressed, added to, changed, etc, to create something seemingly new and exciting. Adam describes the process in 3 levels:

1. Skin the game - dressing an old and familiar game in nice graphics so well that the user doesn’t necessarily see past the skin of the game to the very basic and familiar concept, i.e. hot potato, breakout, etc. In something like breakout, which usually involves a ball that breaks blocks, this could mean that instead of a ball it is a small creature being launched at a collection of stuff that it has to gather while it is up there, etc. Same basic principle – different skin.
2. Advanced Game Play – this one means skinning the game, then taking the basic gameplay and changing it a little to add a new element. Taking the example of hot potato, may be instead of just tossing the object around, every time you throw it you have to rotate it a certain way to make it fit through a certain shape in the middle of the screen on its way to the other person. Adding this elements fundamentally changes the game and adds challenge, but the basic idea is the same – catch and throw, and don’t hold on to stuff or it will burn or otherwise deface you.
3. Deeper Meaning – this is the third and final level of the game design process. Not every game needs to be tied to some universal problem or cause to be fun and entertaining, but there are some out there that actually work really well for raising awareness of global issues. Weaving in a deeper meaning like that into the game allows players to make better connections with the game play and to care about the outcome of the game

We went through and identified some elements pertaining to each level of depth:

Then we identified some elements particularly applicable to our game:

And created a flowchart of the game play we outline in our conversation:

A quick demo of glowsticks being tracked to create images on the screen. This is pretty much the system we would be using in our game.

None of us really know why we waited so long before running our multiple engine, 8 mini-game idea by Adam (our professor). Yes, Michelle (our other professor) had already cut us down from 10 – 12 mini-games to the 8 we came up with now. But really, we probably should have anticipated just what Adam was going to say.

The day was best summed up by Linzi on our team messageboard:

Good news: We submitted our project to ImagineRIT.
Bad news: We need to completely tear apart our idea.

Andy, Ira, and I met with Adam today and he made some really good points about our project. Basically, 8 games is way to many if we want them to be flawless and fun – so we’re back to 1 perfect game.

We should think about arcade games – games at their simple fundamentals that are time-tested fun. The idea he went off of was ‘Hot Potato’ as our 1 game that would work because it needs no explanation.

With ‘Hot Potato’ we went through a bunch of things that we could be passing that we wouldn’t want (water balloons, eggs, bombs) and words that correlated with them (splash, goo, explosions). Those led into user interactions, such as the water balloon pops if it hits the ground and the screen fills partially with water that slows down the movement of the people.

Then we got talking about combining ‘Hot Potato’ and ‘Tetris’ where 2 people are passing ‘puzzle pieces’ that morph mid-air trying to find the puzzle piece that will fit into their ‘lock’ – passing through level graphics.

He said our game could go two ways: an entertaining game; in which the game itself has to be flawless OR a message; where the message guides the game.

And so, back to the drawing board we went. Many doodles, weird diagrams, funny hats, and simple games later, here is where we ended up, summed up by Krista:

Our proposed game is a two-player camera installation piece primarily based on Breakout (sometimes called Blockbreaker). Users will each hold two glow sticks in front of them to act as their ‘paddle’. Point detection will be used to simulate digital paddle length and flexibility. By moving the glow sticks apart, the paddle will become taut and provide a hard surface for the ball to bounce off of. By moving the sticks together, the surface will sag, creating a space for the ball to fall into. When users quickly move the sticks apart again, the ball will whip back into gameplay (similar to a slingshot).

Users must work together to eliminate any obstacles around their goal. However, the player who actually gets the prize in the middle is deemed the winner, so the collaborative gameplay will quickly turn to competition in the game’s final moments.

Other notable features are that the ‘blocks’ will not stay static. They will actually spin around the prize as they are hit, adding more difficulty to the game. When the game is completed, a new theme will be loaded. This means that graphics (such as the ‘blocks’ and ‘ball’) are subject to change, adding more character and creativity to the game.

Research references/possible image sources: Breakout, Bubble Spinner, Rope example (holding a rope and moving the ends together), Zach’s point detection experiments

For homework, we all went back to our respective happy places to think of simple games that would grab the user and keep him or her interested for at least 4 minutes.

Immersion

Something our team has discussed with this project is setting up a video feed of the players’ interactions with our game, and displaying it on a TV outside the exhibit. This is the perfect example of why this is both worth it and necessary. Watch it to the end!

A visual direction for our project.

A technical direction for our project.

While taking a look at the rear-projection system in one of the fancy rooms underneath the library here at RIT, we stumbled across this wonderful DIY how-to on how to build a rear-projection screen in your own bedroom. Using a shower curtain.

We were so inspired that the following Saturday we set up the projector and screens again, except this time we came prepared with (dun dun DUN) materials.

The screens in the special rear-projection room under the library are made of acrylics (looks like thick, frosted plexiglass), and at first we thought that that might be a viable option for us as well. However, a trip to Home Depot very quickly proved us wrong – first of all, plexiglass is very expensive in large quantities; second, its fragile, heavy, and hard to move, especially for such a large size. Finally, we were so inspired by the shower curtain screen that we had to try it ourselves.

We gathered an array of materials in the shape of 2 shower curtains (one translucent, the other white), 5 different fabric samples ranging in thickness and stretchiness, and a large stretchy drape cloth usually used for photo shoots. Over the next several hours we tested and retested these materials for quality of projection. As expected, the stretchy ones worked the best – first of all, they are thinner and let the most light through, which allows for the best picture quality. Secondly, they do not wrinkle, which means we don’t have to iron huge sheets of fabric before every set up. Score!

The more we thought about the setup of the screens, the more we realized it needed to change from our original mockup. The biggest issue came when we read the guidelines for displaying installations in the fieldhouse, which gets the most traffic at Imagine RIT: no tents or roofed constructions, or flammable materials. Having some sort of roof over our heads for the installation is going to be pretty important – we will need it to block out the extra light that will interfere with the silhouettes, what’s being seen on the projection screen, and with what the camera picks up. Taking this into consideration, we decided to split the installation into two roofed sections so that the light is blocked out from directly above the players (so it does not interfere with the silhouettes), and also so that the light is blocked from directly above the screen, so that the visibility is not affected. In the dead space in the middle will be a wide walkway for passersby to be able to look in and see what’s going on inside. This will also help with the fire hazard regulations. I adjusted the mock up.

The screen that filters the light behind the people is curved in this setup to accomodate for it being smaller and still taking up the full view of the camera. In the original setup, the screen would have had to be about 16 x 18 feet in order to cover the whole background of the field of view (FOV) of the camera. This way, if we curve the back and lean it over the FOV, the same effect is achieved with more structural integrity and less heavy things to move.

The only problem with this setup is the amount of room it requires – that’s about 35 feet in length alone. Actually, backlighting the entire installation almost doubles its length, since the projector has to be about 12.5 feet away from the screen in order to project an image that’s about 7 – 8feet tall. We want this to be a fully immersive experience, so the projection needs to be very large, so the deadspace in front of the projector has to be pretty large as well. We could always try to save space by front-lighting the whole thing, which would increase the quality of the image too, but this presents the problem of having to hide the projector somehow – either constructing a structure for it above or below the screen.

Before going too forward with the project, we wanted to make sure that we tested our proposed setup to ascertain the dimensions, playing space, projectors, and cameras for everything we need. We used FluidTunes to test the camera and its sensitivity to light, dimension, and angle to the users.

We set up a camera on the floor at a 13 degree angle looking up at the players, and rigged up a sheet on some poles to provide a solid background for the program to recognize the silhouettes of the people moving about in front of the camera. This setup actually worked fairly well for interacting with FluidTunes, especially after we brought in a lighting kit to light the sheet from the back and create more of a contrasted silhouette.

We also tested a regular video camera for the feed in, which worked just as well as Linzi’s external iSight. Most likely the best solution is going to be using a lower quality camera, like the iSight, since the program will only need to detect dark pixels vs. light, and the actual image of the person will not need to be projected on the screen in high quality. By sacrificing quality no one is ever going to see we are actually optimizing the processing for the program itself, since the code will not have as many detailed pixels to rip through.

This first setup was mostly used to determine the sizes of the area that will be visible on screen and therefore playable. Linzi created this mock up to summarize our calculations.

Since we’re planning on setting up the display at Imagine RIT, we need to somehow keep the projector hidden from view of the visitors to the exhibit. While we could potentially construct an overhead berth for the projector, I think we all feel a little better about back-lighting the screen and keeping the projector behind it.

We knew we had to simplify whatever game we do to its bare essentials, but the more we thought about breaking the Human Machine game down, the more it seemed, well, too simple. After another long brainstorming session we decided that instead of doing one large game or one small simple game, we could do a game that is made up of many mini games.

There are several advantages to the mini game option. First of all, whatever game we do will need to be able to support a lot of people going through it quickly. We want to allow as many people as possible to play the game and have access to the exhibit, so that nobody has to wait for a long time for one round to finish in order to jump in. This means that the rounds will need to be very quick – a minute tops. Otherwise the wait period may become too long and people will wander away before getting a chance to try the game. Having a series of very short mini games will allow us to push large quantities of people through the exhibit at a fairly quick rate, while keeping the games interesting and the players fresh and new.

The other advantage to this solution is that the games will need to be super super simple, based upon a universally well-known concept, and therefore intuitive and well tested in their quality of fun. Our list of basic games to take as the basis of our interpretations went a little something like this:

• The Human Machine (make stuff out of body parts)
• Tetherball
• Pick & Throw @ Target
• Hot Potato
• Fit Into This (fit into certain shape with body)
• Falling Objects (catching game)
• Simon Says
• Don’t Break the Ice
• Rope Pull
• Digging (dig something out)
• Don’t Wake Daddy
• Whack-a-Mole

From there, we each came up with 2 detailed games based on these simple concepts and the following criteria:

Important things that ALL games should have: – group/team interaction (working together to complete a task) there can be versus games, but in those games, the game itself should show a sense of communal “good deed” – good use of 3D space (being able to move forward and back, side to side, using your whole body) – problem solving – around 30 secs to a minute long (minute long games for memorization or taking turns games) – be witty, have a sense of humor, the graphics are as enjoyable as the action of playing the game (it can still be beautiful, Little Big Planet does an excellent job of blending “sense of humor” and “beauty,” Wario Ware makes excellent use of the mini game concept)

The games we came up with were these:

1. Human Machine

Story: The machine has broken and you must fix the circuitry by using your
team of nano robots.

Players: 2 or 4

Objective: Two teams try and connect their start and end point before the
other.

Style 1: Twister / Tuba-Ruba Flow Style

Players are divided into two separate, equal teams. When the game starts,
two different pairs of colored points are placed on the game playing field.
Each team has 2 colors to signify their start and end points. The players
must position themselves in such a way as to define the path the electricity
will take using glow sticks or the like. When the electricity beam begins to
flow the players must adjust their path to avoid obstacles and the other
teams path.

Style 2: Block / Break style

Players are divided into two separate, equal teams. When the game starts,
two different pairs of colored points are placed on the game playing field.
Each team has 2 colors to signify their start and end points. A countdown
timer will count down from 3 and at 0 the players begin game play. The
players must position themselves in such a way as to define the path the
electricity will take using glow sticks or the like . The countdown repeats
until a circuit is connected in a turn based style. Players can block the
others path like in snake, you cannot cut into a path. There would be
barriers, bombs, dead spaces and other obstacles to avoid.

2. Electric Team Tetherball

Players: 2 or 4

Objective: Wind the electric rope attached to the electric ball completely
around the electric pole

Players are divided into two equal opposing teams. The setup is each team is
in front of a display that shows an avatar representation of each players
position around a tetherball pole. The players will have glowsticks to track
their arm movements. The two teams stand on opposite sides of the pole. Each
team tries to hit the ball one way; one clockwise, and one counterclockwise.
The game ends when one team manages to wind the ball all the way around the
pole so that it is stopped by the rope. One player can hit the ball around,
but if a player manages to hit it in such a way that their teammate can hit
it as well then the ball will achieve Super Shot Status and thusly have to
be countered by both teammates or it will keep swinging in favor of the
other team.

3. Team Pong

Players: 2 – 4

Objective: Score 5 points against the opposing team by hitting the ball into
their play area

Players are divided into two equal opposing teams. Their glow sticks help
define their paddles. Players can bounce the ball against their teammate up
to 3 hits per side before returning but never against themselves.

4. Don’t Hatch the Egg!

Game round fades in from black with one of the players holding a spotted creature egg that was supposedly given to them by a lazy creature mama. The egg vibrates and shakes every once in a while, threatening to hatch at any time.

The players are instructed that they must pass the egg from one to the other by throwing it, because it is about to hatch. When it hatches, the little newborns will decide that whoever was holding the egg at the time of its hatching is their rightful mother, and will attach to that player, slowing down his or her movements through the game and putting them at a disadvantage.

There are multiple rounds to the game, which end when one player reaches a chain of 3 hatchlings attached to him or her.

The egg cannot be dropped – if it is, the creature mama will come and wreak havoc on the players, taking away a life. The reward in this game could be an extra life for the team, or a specific object/skill that could help the team in the game.

Game Play:

Users must work together to not drop the egg, and against each other not to have it hatch in their hands.

They can utilize 3D space to run around in and be of a certain proportion to the size of the egg to determine whether they are close enough to it in Z-space to successfully catch it. The catching motion will be recognized by folding the hands together a certain way to mimic catching – just contact with the silhouette is not enough and will cause the egg to slide down the side of the body and break.

5. Nom Nom Nom

Game round fades in from black and the players find themselves in a field of strange looking edible things, and strange looking poisonous things. The aim of the game is to pick up the yummy things and throw them to you partner to collect or “eat”.

The game can be played two ways.

1:
One player is the designated picker, the other the designated catcher. The picker must pick up only the edible objects and thrown them to their partner to put into their basket and have for later – depending on the amount of yummy things collected at the end of the game the players may or may not get another life or advance in the game (versus starving). If the picker throws non edible items and catcher catches them, points are subtracted, and/or the catcher become momentarily poisoned or otherwise affected, slowing down the game.

2:
Both players can pick up objects and take turns throwing them to each other to “eat”. Same deal – if someone eats a non-edible object they get sick, affected, or die, ending the game. The game is timed to speed is a factor, and the aim is to get as much as possible yummy food in the time allotted.

After the presentations, the most positive response seemed to be to the Human Machine idea. The snowball game could be interesting, but would be harder to instill deeper meaning into, and we don’t want to build just another snowball game. The dancing art idea slowly got accumulated into the Human Machine as well – all we would have to do is have the body movements generate some sort of trailing sparkles, or whatever fits the concept the best.

From there, we focused on team building. In order to have the Human Machine be more interesting than just another game, we decided it should really force the players to work together as a community to accomplish some task. We are looking pretty extensively into team building activities (huge lists found here, here, here, and here) for ideas on the kinds of games we might want to incorporate into our installation. We want to keep these games very simple, but spin them in such a way that their overall meaning to the game is much bigger than just fitting shapes into other shapes or whatever. Linzi found this cool Swedish Armed Forces recruiting website, which does a fantastic job of keeping the games simple but the users entertained. And it does a great job of tying the simplicity of the game to the overall concept.

I also found this paper that goes through the decision making process for creating team building games in Second Life using the model of teams that are spread out wide and not next to each other. It’s long but interesting, with good examples of abstracted tasks representing a larger whole. It goes through several games: