I have a game on the way for the RSM 2018 (retrospelsmässan or retro game fair) and I call it “PickaBoog”. So the jam theme is “traffic jam”, ideated from the fact that the fair will be in an old go cart hall/track and that there is a fair bit of trafficy things in many retro games. As one does I wanted to take a somewhat novel take on the theme and landed in many fingers picking the same nose causing a traffic jam in there. The cabinet will be a large nose for two competing players, each controlling their avatar, a finger, with a joystick hidden in their respective side’s nostril. Blends really well thematically and makes great use of the cabinet format if I may say so myself. : ) The game will be something of a competitive snake, though the fingers will be able to extend from and retract to a static point on the screen and you pick boogers and not apples. I have ideas for tactile feedback for when the nose is “irritated” and eventually “sneezes”, but one step at a time. This weekend I did a bit of body storming on the great material that cardboard boxes, specifically banana boxes, are and came up with something that looks vaguely like a nose. Progress, progress! : )
All posts by admin
OK, now we are talking
Such Finger Physics
Now there are two players, zero noses and full weirdness. : )
Is that a Snake-like finger, or are you just…
… happy to see me? : )
Kick-off for Traffic Jam
It’s the latter half of April and about a month left to the annual traditional retro game fair in Gothenburg, Sweden. We, as the local game dev community, has once again been asked to come up with some creations and they will supply us with some space to showcase it. There is more than a month to work on the games, but people are looking into doing a lot of other things during the period so it might be necessary. Extra much so because we’ll try and continue with last year’s concept; cardboard cabinets. A perfect solution to arcades cabinets being cool but most game developers mostly being into the software and digital arts of games; make the cabs out of accessible materials. I have what I believe to be a great idea for a game, so really looking forward to this. : )
Virtual park
We have started to create a game world, using readily available assets from previous projects as well as custom models created by the park. We are starting to get a feel for what the main game could be like, but we are still lacking an implementation showing what random generation motion augmented VR can do.
Git on with it
Today I introduced the park colleagues to Git, Github and GUI Git clients. Now we can start collaborating for real, and they have a new powerful tool at their disposal.
More on gun, less on ground
We have successfully managed to improve on the gun on some well needed aspects. The handle had to be screwed onto the frame in order for it not to break of should the weight of the gun rest on it. The gun now has its own power supply attached, avoiding the need for a separate heap of metal to lay on the ground and preparing for a single cable solution. Furthermore, we have attached the air spray, though only physically, not functionally.
Racing in the water
So I’ve come to get comfortable with the people I’m going to work with at the park and also the workshop they have over there. Very cozy and somewhat familiar to my home office. We have had some time to discuss what they would like to see towards the end of the project, what I would like to explore and how we are going to get there.
While we have discussed several potential innovation vectors and game designs one main concept with started to crystallize, but with a few potential branches should we have the time. The main idea now is to build on the strengths of VR and the motion chair, creating a surreal type of experience with a lot of movement and vertigo, and the digital nature of the game, using generative content and adaptive multiplayer. As such, we have started to explore a down stream race in a steep river flying in the air. The race track can be generated by a computer given parameters by and operator.
We still have some paper work to sort out, but my colleagues at the park are on the ball and so am I. : )
Project Presentation at SBC in Amsterdam
We attended the Smart Building Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands. There I held a little talk on game design and gamification in the TRIBE project and energy efficiency in buildings in general. A short visit, just like the previous one in this project, but at least I had the opportunity to travel there a day earlier and meet up with an old friend who lives there. Good times, drinks and food were had.