Interaction & Collaboration

Exercise 01 - Modify Bill's Basic Car Game

The first and biggest change I made to the basic car code was to rotate all of the objects in the world around the car so that the car always stayed in the middle. One advantage of this was making it impossible to lose the car off the side of the screen. It did however make it possible to lose all of the collectibles off the screen. I used this modified car code to create two games: Taxi Game and Race Game.

Taxi Game

For the taxi game I added the passenger and destination collectibles. When you stop over a passenger collectible they will disappear and a destination collectible will appear on screen that you must take them to in order to get cash. The green collectibles add time and the red collectibles subtract time. The goal is to collect enough money before the timer runs out. Use the arrow keys to control the car.

Race Game

For the race game I modified the code so that the player is always moving upward (or foward). Indeed, the only controls are with the left and right arrow keys; there are no controls for moving forward or backward. The player has a limited amount of time to take and maintain the lead against 4 other drivers. There is not finish line, just time. Green collectibles speed up the car and red collectibles slow the card down. The enemies cars are also affected by collectibles and will attempt to collect or avoid them.

Exercise 02 - Collaborative Car Game

For this exercise I worked with Dylan Jones. We took the basics of my Taxi Game and developed them into a more fleshed out game.

Taxi Game V2

Most notable are the new graphics. The collectibles were changed as well. There are no longer collectibles to increase or decrease time. Instead if you can manage to deliver the passenger to their destination quick enough you will gain a cash and a time bonus. The collectibles now consist of cash to increase your score and gas tanks to increase your maximum speed. The orientation of the game was also changed so that the car is moving around the screen instead of remaining stationary.

Exercise 03 - Fun with Vectors

For this exercise I worked again with Dylan Jones to create this CTC aka Collect the Circles.

CTC

This game requires an Xbox 360 Controllers (and probably does not work on Mac). In the game two players must work together to collect the circles using both joysticks on one Xbox 360 Controller. Players control the same orb, but must fights against separate forces including wind and each other to move around the screen.

Exercise 04 - Forces: Attraction and Repulsion

For this exercise I worked with Philippe Moore to create a game that incorporated attractive and or repulsive forces. We came up with Shepard Master.

Shepherd Master

In Shepherd Master the player controls the shepherd with the arrow keys and attempts to herd his sheep into the pen before the wolves can eat them all up. The sheep are repelled away from the shepherd and the attacking wolves. Wolves spawn randomly and will focus on one sheep until that sheep is dead or safe in the pen. The shepherd can kill the wolves by running into them.

Exercies 05 - Kinect

For this exercise I worked with Stephen Rice and Dylan Jones incorporating the Kinect sensor to create Siera Monte, a shootout game.

Siera Monte

This game is a western style shootout. Players stand across from each other in front of the Kinect, wait for the signal (an eagle call), and then draw! The game uses the changes in sizes of the bounding boxes to determine which shooter shot first and when player took the bullet. The game was originally designed for top down play and 2+ players, but because of issues mounting the Kinect to the ceiling was developed to work with the just two players' profiles. The code should still work for multiple top down players if a Kinect ceiling mount is used.

Physical Games

Challenge #1

Limitations: 8x8x8ft space, 2 players, 1 mechanic, non-aggressive

Team: Alicia Rausch, Dylan Jones

Game #1

Using their voice one player guides the second, blindfolded, player through obstacles to retrieve a ball and return to the start. To add challenge and competition (and fun) a third person sets ups the obstacles in a way they think will be most challenging to navigate through for both the guide and the blindfolded player.

Challenge #2

Limitations: 8x8x8ft space, 4 players, 2 props, 30 second intervals

Team: Nate Gutschow, Steve Rokoczy, James Riley, Sarah Begnoche

Game #2

The space is divided into 3 sections. The game is played in 5 second intervals. During the 5 seconds the players move around the space and at the end of the 5 seconds are awarded to any player standing alone in a section. No points are awarded if multiple players are in one sections or if a players is occupying multiple sections. Players may "spoil" by standing in two sections (one foot in each). This will keep any player in the other space from gaining points. No player may spoil two rounds in a round.

Challenge #3

Limitations: 16x16x8ft space, 5 players, 15 minute maximum time, limited props allowed

Team: Khoa Nguyen, Thomas Wynne, David Fogle

Because Wumpus

Rules provided in link above. In designing our game we wanted to design a physical game inspired by the strategy of board and card games. The final version of the game is most strongly influenced by the card game Munchkin. In Because Wumpus 5 players must work together to find and the kill the Wumpus. To do so the players must navigate through a grid of monsters and treasures. Treasures (weapons) increase a player's power and ability to defeat monsters. To defeat the Wumpus players not only need to find it, but also collect enough treasure to be able to defeat it.

Challenge #4

Limitations: 2 non-contiguous spaces, player must stay in space they started in, 8 players, no turn based play

Team: Kevin Keables, Stephen Rice, James Riley, Eric Schneider

This game could best be described as blind capture-the-flag. Each team has 4 players that consists of 1 captain, 1 flag, and 2 other blindfolded players. Both team captains stand in the same 16x8x8ft space. All the other players stay in the another 16x8x8ft space. Captains must direct the blindfolded players to find the opposing team's flag or defend their own team's flag. Flags can see and move around freely within the 16x8x8ft space. The first team to touch the opposing team's flag wins.

Final Game

Team

David Fogle, Dylan Jones, Kevin Keables, Khoa Nguyen

Icarus's Dream

A peaceful game where players break free of their earthly inhibitions and fly up and beyond the sky.

Power-Ups

+ Convey the concept of otherness or loss          + Employ the KIncet

+ Runs without Errors                                        + 45 minute envelope (setup, play, take-down)

+ Employ Twitter libraries                                  + Employ ambient light control

+ Employ Matrox triple head projector               + Non-contiguous spaces

Power-Losses

- Resembles known game mechanics           - Turn-based gameplay

- Less than 3 players                                       - Group disintegration