The end of the first 10 weeks of this project is here! For our final deliverables for the end of the quarter we put together these two PDFs to describe all of our process up to this point as we’re working on our game. Feel free to check them out!

Final Project PDF

Research PDF

As we come upon the end of our first 10 weeks of working on this project, we wanted to pull together some summaries and summarizing lists (because we love lists).

The objectives of our game, refined and finalized:

1. Community collaboration
2. Sense of accomplishment
3. Use of personal creativity
4. Problem solving
5. Quick decision making
6. Communication
7. Goal setting
8. Team building
9. Fun

Our measured results:

Hear at least five people laugh while playing our game.
Have four people meet new people through our game.
Have at least four people play all four seasons in a row.
Have two people, not involved with team project, tell two other people to visit our game.
Spark at least four instances of trash talk.

Descriptions of Final Products:

Game
A fully functional bug free game executable to be run in the instillation.

Outer Structure
An enclosure built for the game featuring a rear-projected screen and a wii-mote based IR detection system.

IR Wands
4-6 custom built infrared emitting wands for interaction with the main game engine.

Take-aways
All users will receive a simple take away of a sticker or button, and can enter into a raffle to win a more extensive prize, possibly a plush toy of one of the avatars.

Just some quick ideation on different meters and paddles, done by Ira. Click for larger version.

Recently we had another one of those awesome group crits where people from other groups get to look at our progress, comps, code, etc, and make suggestions. We got some really good ones this time! Here they are, so you can see how we dealt with these issues later on.

- should have some sort of payoff animation for the end of each season (awesome transition)

- does the winning avatar do something to the loser? what encourages the competition? may be the winner punches the loser or some sort of other dominating animation..

- does the winner get some sort of advantage for the next level? (item, ability, etc?) winning side?

- need more competition and incentive between the two players!

- calculate percentages vs. time (www.ingenuitywelcome.com/game calculates your efficiency percentage in coconuts vs. time)

- may be use different styles for different seasons? multiple versions of the same season if there is time? (same avatar, different style = reward system)

- characters with stronger connection to season are better

- want a BIG difference between avatars level to level

- reflect paddle control in visuals (shake, etc)

After a first round of comps, Linzi noticed that each of them seemed to work for different seasons. Ira’s was spring, Linzi’s was winter, Andrea’s was autum and Andy’s was summer.

Inspired, we decided that our game would rotate between four seasons. In addition to working on a second round of comps, the team also did some preliminary drawings of characters inspired by the seasons and how they could transform between seasons.

Linzi

Andrea

Andy

Ira

Krista

Another engine test can be found here! This guy comes complete with two-point functionality.

Use W S A and D to change the offset of the two points.

http://myo.cias.rit.edu/discovery/processing/test02/

Since we do not know where we will be situated at Imagine RIT we have been operating under the assumption that we will be in the RIT Field House (our giant gym), which would be the best case scenario. In order for the installation to work in such a wide open, well-lit space though, we have devised a structure to go around it and eliminate the extra light. This is what Dan has come up with:

We plan on using PVC piping for the framework because of how cost-effective and light it is. This set up allows us to stick with our original idea of rear projection, as well.

After deciding to go with the seasonal theme, this is what round two of our comps ended up looking like.

Linzi:

Andy:

Andrea:

Ira:

After looking at our first round of comps Linzi pointed out that they all seemed to be seasonal, which isn’t a bad direction to head in as an overall metaphor for the game. Over the next week we entered the story-line discussion phase of the game development process, since this would dictate our visual direction and the overall gameplay.

The great thing about going with a seasonal theme is that it would allow us to keep the game pla cyclical, and part of our overall goal was to create a game which people can jump into and out of very quickly, without any time spent on having to explain the particulars or to catch newcomers up to a higher level of gameplay. This meant that the game needed to be extremely intuitive, but at the same time still fun. The other good thing about sticking with the seasons is that it allowed us to pull from everyone’s ideas from the first round of comps, as you can see below.

Beginner Level: Fall
.The Harvest
.Andrea’s ‘Peter Rabbit’
.Halloween
.back to school / paper airplanes
.little characters are in long sleeve shirts & pants

Middle Level: Winter
.Death
.Linzi’s winter landscape
.snowballs
.ice
.shovels, snowboards, skiing, mountains, ice pics

Hard Level: Spring
.Life
.Ira’s plants
.Jumanji
.treacherous jungles
.rain

Boss Level: Summer
.Excitment
.Andy’s warm, inviting colors
.grass, beaches
.swimming, sports, frisbee,
.camp: wood, tents, bon-fires
.lemonade / ice tea

[end_columns]

Here is what Linzi had to say about her idea:

The game play for the “winter” level as I’m comping it will be that two of the characters will encourage the players and a third character will be frozen in ice. Saving the third character will be your goal!

How do you save the third character – you melt the ice with FIREBALLSSSSSS. (fireball lazors) In addition to melting the ice to save the character your melting the environment to turn into spring – therefore progressing to the next season! Two birds with one… fireball? lol… sooo lame.

And Ira’s variation on that theme:

May be each block contains a part of the broken weather machine. It’s each player’s goal to put together one before the other does – instead of the meters for each player, each accumulates these pieces, and once he reaches a specific point he is able to shoot at the Final Machine Piece (goal), which there is only one of. This can go with the same fireball melting environment idea – just at the end you have a weather machine to help you get to the next level.

And finally, our settled thoughts on how the elements of the game will function with the seasonal theme we seem to have settled on:

Block & Meter Info

1 meter

.dropping the ball transfers power to other player
.breaking blocks gives you power
.power only increases ability / never deters you from being able to break stuff
.blocks will take more than one hit to break / power will allow you to break with one

.your paddle reflects your power
.paddles should be visually defined from each other
.the ball inherits qualities from your bar

meter – sun energy(?)

**we don’t want to have to explain anything

– – – – – – – – – – – -POSSIBLE GOALS

. Sense of completion per season

Cycle:
-when all 4 seasons are hit, something happens (community)
-show year

Overall Goal

– move through the seasons – each level has a different block layout (difficulty is subjective) – move through easily and can enter at any timeSeasonal Goals

– something from the next season in the goal of the season before itSummer to Fall Options:
Leaf
Pumpkin man
Turkey
Halloween
Pilgrims
Indians

Fall to Winter Options:
Snow
Ice
Sled
Snowman
Hot chocolate
Snow shapes up to snowman
Ice pic
Santa
Shovel
Reindeer
Elf
present

Winter to Spring Options:
Seedlings
Cloud
Bird
Sun
Flowers
Raindrop
Sprout
[reading]Rainbow
birdhouse
bird eggs
seed to flower

Spring to Summer Options:
Sunflower seed
Butterfly
Rubber ducky?
Sun
Pool toys
Suntan lotion
Shades
Flipflops
Beach
Starfish
Sandcastle
Frisbee
Underwear
Lemonade
Nudity

[Video Outside of People Playing]
[Monitoring Seasons & Year]

Takeaways have season, year, and graphic of season.
Stickers, buttons

The other day, Linzi had a great idea, which I think it’s fair to say, has benefited all of the groups involved in New Media Team project this year. Originally, Adam’s plan was to pretty much not have lectures spring quarter, since there isn’t that much material to present. Instead of skipping lectures on the days when Michelle and Adam don’t have a lot to present to us, Linzi wanted to try sending representatives from the teams to other teams for feedback.This has deinitely benefitted team MYO: today marked an important turning point for us thanks to another fellow team. Among other feedback, they suggest that we try using IR tracking instead of color tracking for our game, since the color tracking was a bit finicky and spotty. Dun dun dun! Stay tuned for more on this from Zach.