Programming for Play; Rapid Physical Game Design;

 

Programming for Play;

 

 

 

Birdie, Twigs and Bags. 

Birdie,Twigs&Bags.zip

Alex Cano McConnell

 

In this single goal game, the objective is to fly around as a bird and collect twigs for your nest while trying to avoid the plastic bags in the process. 

                                      

 

 

 

 

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Snake Thru.

 SnakeThru.zip

Jeremy Salo

Alex Cano McConnell

 

In this collaboratively built game the player is a snake, and the objective is to move past birds which are predator to you, while you are picking up your prey, the mouse.

 

             

 

                                          

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Prison Time.

PrisonTime..zip

Quincie Neale

Alex Cano McConnell

Google Doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fI6ZC4Y6-xGYXIAgkC9qSu4BJWj_mJ9aXYlAzsvAWUA/edit?usp=sharing

 

This 2 player game is set in prison, where a guard and prison try to collect cell phones. The narrative is based off of a real story, "In 2006, incarcerated gang leaders in Brazil orchestrated large, synchronized riots using their cell phones, reportedly in order to prove their influence even behind bars."  [find link in google doc.] Using simple left right movement and jump mechanics the characters are controlled either by W,A,D or Left, Up Right. A 'frustration metric' is used to gage progress, or lack their of, of collecting the phones.

 

Areas of Focus:

-Sense of social play/creative play/narrative/ imaginative play

-Allow for two players to play at the same time.

-Initially create game by passing the keyboard between the two of you every five minutes. 

-Using timers to create a reoccurring event. {Spawning phones}

 

 

 

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 Blue Blob Bounce. 

BlueBlobBounce.zip

Hanna Pardee

Tommy Benson

Jeff Mutchnik

Alex Cano McConnell

 

In this large team-collaboration we have designed a game where the player navigates over terraces.

Areas of Focus:

Physics acting on non player characters {Falling Pieces} (Hanna)

5-1 aspect ratio {Horizontal}

Character with two animation states {Walk, Idle} (Jeff, Alex)

Diegetic sounds {Jump, Win} (Tommy)

 

Play thru link:

https://vimeo.com/164357664

 

 

  

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Rapid Physical Game Design;

 

 

Bean Bag Bomber

Ben Efram

Stone Fisher

Alex Cano McConnell

 

 

 

 

 

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Blind Ninja

Richard Bui

Kelia Murata

Ben Efram

Alexander Cano McConnell

Hanna Pardee

Quincie Neale

 

Players:

• 4 players separated into two teams, each team has

• An Attacker

• This player is blindfolded

• They cannot speak or their team loses

• They start out with their arms at their sides

• A Watcher

• Cannot go into play space, but can move around it

• Watchers are paired with Attackers, one of each type on each team..

 

Goal:

• Hit the gut (front) of the opponent at elbow length.

• E.g. elbows have to be bolted at the side

 

Rules:

• At the start of the game Watchers spin the opposing team’s Attacker and place them somewhere in the 8x8ft. play space (marked with cones/tape/anything).

• No one can talk during this point of the game

• This is the only time Watchers can enter the play space square

• The team with the youngest player gets to call out the first move

• Watchers lead their own Attackers using verbal communication

• At any command except ‘Attack’, the Attacker’s arms must be at their sides

• Watchers takes turns commanding Attackers

• Watchers can only use one word commands

• Suggestions for communication:

• ‘Forward’

• ‘Backwards’

• ‘Left’

• ‘Right’

• ‘Turn’ (Tip: Watchers could move around the space to dictate direction of attacker.)

• ‘Attack’

• Once the Watcher is confident that their Attacker is in place they can give the ‘Attack’ command. To attack, with elbows bolted to their sides, raise arms straight up in attempt to hit opponents chest as seen below. Hit must hit the stomach/chest of opposing attacker to be considered viable.

 

• If an Attacker steps out of bounds, then their team is disqualified

• If the Attacker moves without consent, then their team is disqualified

• If the Watchers step into the play area, then their team is disqualified

 

Attacking motion:

 

 

Observations during play test:

• Placed the Attackers very close to each other

• Julia missed with her attack (On attack the opposing player avoided)

• Used ‘9 o’clock’ instead of ‘turn’ (good strats)

• “Come!’

• Running into each other

• “Huddling” before play

• Too much talking from attackers

• “Still”

• Agency of attacker

• Staggering moves with a single word

• Always in attack

• What  is a movement, what is not a movement.

• Attack mode, defense mode

 

 

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Happy Circle

Brock Soicher

Tommy Benson

Alex Cano McConnell

Rules:

• Each person can choose where they start on the edge of the circle and place their bowl at the starting position

• Each person’s objective is to get as many balls from the center bowl into their own

• You can only grab one ball at a time and cannot purposefully move the stack of balls, or any of the bowls once the game has started

• Each person also has the ability to tag other players, and to be tagged.

• If you are tagged, you are out and your score is the amount you had before being tagged

• If two people tag each other at the same time, they are both out.

• Safe zone: no tagging outside of the ‘happy circle’

• Each player gets a scooper that they must use to transport the balls.  Each player must also choose which hand they will use for the scooper because they cannot tag with that hand

• Balls that end up out of the circle are not able to be picked up

• The round ends when everyone is out or if there are not balls left to collect

• If the game ends with a tie (2 or more players have the same score), then there is one extra round where there will only be a single ball in the center.  If all players are out at the end of that round there it is a tie

 

 

 

Example1.m4v

 

 

 

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COLLABORATION NATION INFILTRATION

Hannah Tindal

Alex Cano McConnell

Ben Efram

Jeremy Salo

Hanna Pardee

Kelia Murata

Tommy Benso

 

Object of the game:

This is a game for 8 players, two teams of 4 each in a separate space. Each of the 4 players will start in different corners of the play space. The teams will have to work together to retrieve balls of a certain color from the bowl, this color determines what corner you must return to (the corners color is dictated by its cone, which cannot be moved) as well as arrive there with the matching colored ring. (ie by the end of the game your ball, ring, and cone/corner must all be the same color, but not necessarily the same color that you started with)

 

Set up:

Both teams of four have 5 minutes to set up the opposing team’s obstacles. This includes setting up the string (security lasers) and the location of the bowl of balls (jewel case) within the space, and choosing what rings go in what corner.

 

Each team will have one NPC runner who is able to return the travel ring, determine whether a player touches the trip wire.

 

Restrictions:

• The string may only have up to 8 anchor points and may ONLY be attached using tape to the four walls around the space. You may not wrap the string around the tables/walls. The tables/board/walls may not be moved.

• The bowl of balls must stay within the space and not placed inside any of the rings, but may be placed next to a ring.

• Each corner must have a cone and a ring (red, blue, green, or yellow. They do not need to match) The movement ring (purple) must be placed by any one of the four corner rings(within stepping distance).

• See image below

 

During Play:

• All four players simultaneously attempt to reach the bowl without knocking it over and grab a ball, then travel to the corner with a cone of the same color as the ball they retrieved.

• Players may not share rings (Be in the same ring)

• Players may ONLY have one ball at a time but may hand another player a ball.

Movement

• You are considered standing  “inside a ring” as long as you have two points of contact within your ring (i.e. if a player must put down a hand when traveling through trip wires, they are allowed to do so if they have two points of contact inside their available rings).

• Players may ONLY move by stepping into the travel ring, and passing the ring they stepped out of to another player (that ring becomes the new travel ring) .

• At the start of the game the purple ring is the travel ring. There is only one travel ring at a time.

• The current player with the travel ring steps into that ring and passes their previous ring to another player to allow the next player to move. The previous ring then becomes the new travel ring.  

• When the player passes the movement ring, players must move to where the ring lands, they cannot adjust its new location.

• If the movement ring is unreachable, players can recruit the help of one of the NPCs to retrieve the ring and give it back to the original thrower.

• Players must slide the fifth ring (the Travel Ring) to each other to allow movement through the space (you may slide in any order).

• When passing the ring, players cannot slide the ring to move themselves and must coordinate with the other three players to move.

• Players have a choice to either step into the travel ring or they can pass it to another player.

Player Reset

• If you are caught outside a ring, touching a tripwire, or if you knock over the bowl players must reset the space (this changes based on what you touch).

• Note: tripwires only triggers when contacted with the body, not loose clothing. NPC runner judges use best judgement

• If you fall outside your ring or hit one of the tripwires, you must return to the corner you began the game in with your current ring and must return your ball to the bowl.

• If you knock the bowl over during this kind of reset, it doesn’t count as a full reset for the team.

• If you knock over the bowl, all players return to their starting corner and must return all the balls to the bowl.

• If a player has successfully made it to their correct corner with the correct ball and ring, they become immune to these reset conditions.

Win State

• Once you have a ball and you are in the same colored space, you must be standing in the ring of the SAME COLOR as the ball you are holding. Once all players have met this requirement they have completed the game. The first team to complete their task wins.

EXAMPLE:

 

 

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Prototyping for Programmed Physical Play: Challenge 1

Brock - OSC/Melee Progammer

Hannah - Sprite Artist

Richard - OSC/Race Game Programmer

Alex - OSC/Kinect/Level Designer

 

MingoMangoMongoFinalGame.zip 

 

Design Document:

 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1V-dPxJm0C4mvqlNOm5b4_gQeLg-9MwIZUvdU9ipxNZY/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

 

This game was designed for four players. Using 2 Wii Balance Boards, and 2 Kinects the four players interacted on two teams through melee, race and motions game play. 

 

The mechanics: 

-Kinect Games send Power Ups to Melee/Race Games.

-Kinect Games are played in two play spaces, each player in each space moving in the 4 cardinal directions to collect and avoid objects. (The score is then sent thru OSC to the Melee/Race Games.)

-The Melee Game uses left, right motion from Wii balance bored, and jump by pressing both feet forward, attack is done with an Xbox controller pressing Y.

-The Race Game also uses left, right mechanics from the Wii motion board, but uses the Xbox controller for jumping.

 

What I personally contributed:

2 Kinect Game Spaces

8 Distinct 'power up' Kinect Games (Each game had a different collect item mechanic, background and sprite)

OSC String message being sent at the end of 30 second round to activate power ups in melee and racing game.

OSC String message received to instantiate 3 levels to cycle through during game.

 

Formal Constraints Achieved:

 

1. Games must employ the Kinect sensor and a large-scale projection in ways that are responsive to bodies moving in space.
2. Games must involve at least three (3) players.
3. Gameplay must be simultaneous, but may have rhythmic intervals.
4. Games must run without errors for the final presentation.
5. Games must honor a 45 minute temporal envelope, inclusive of setup, gameplay, teardown, and reset of the play space.
6. Games must have a minimum spatial envelope of 16’ on one side x 8’ tall to accommodate the projection screen. Additional spaces can be used, whether contiguous or non-contiguous.
7. Games must be programmed for 2D, or 2.5D spatial projection.
8. Games must be programmed to employ the Unity platform for gameplay. They may make use of supplemental libraries and environments.
9. Games must employ at least 2 networked machines using OSC.
1. Diversifiers (must use at least 2 from the following):
1. Gone Orthogonal: Meaningfully making use of both themes
2. Bit Shifter: Electronic wireless networking of non-contiguous spaces
3. Untethered Control: Meaningfully makes use of wireless controllers, or portable wireless control surfaces such as Wiimotes, PS3 controllers, Wireless XBOX360 controllers, or tablet-based controls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  This game taught me fundamental as well as higher level team tactics. Working with 4 people, building on different elements, but still working together at the same time. So much work was put into this game from each individual member because the scope was so large, the scope pushed each of us as game makers to focus, and work diligently on tasks, pushing beyond boundaries and imaginable possibilities. Hanna making over 400 sprits, Richard refined racing game was so fun with simple mechanics, Brock set up most the OSC connections, and ("amazingly") everything came together and functioned. Working next to a programmer pushed my programming abilities and also opened horizons and potential skill to be gained. I began working on c# outside of class, as well as OSC Simpl with Max, widening and taking what we have learned in class into my own projects and concepts. As we were wrapping up our game I felt compelled to keep working, to keep adding bits here and their,  and in this moment I know I was done. The game was functioning, but now I have infinite amounts of possibilities to add on.