MX Contacted

Hey guys, if you're still checking this blog, I've contacted the editor of MX via email so fingers crossed they publish us!

Pictures from our demo

We need the website and promo pic posted on Floyd's blog. Good work today everyone, we did well!

Waterfall Climber

Okay, I've finished the final version of the flash game component. The player has 100 health, this follows the player around and will go down when the player is underwater or in contact with a rock. A game over screen comes up when the player's health reaches zero and the game resets.

Here it is: http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1274936100

Its pretty kick-ass.

No follow-up from Hardrock

Hey guys, for some reason Hardrock hasn't followed up to tell us if we can use the venue or not. We still need the projector though so we can at least project the animation at RMIT. Anyone heard from Dee? We need a website!

What we need

From the Maths/Physics Blog

* 1 exertion game without a conventional screen CHECK!...kinda..here's hoping
* 1 website that describes the game and its benefits (example see pacmanhattan)
* 1 video on youtube CHECK!
* promotional photograph (collage)
** 1024x768 landscape
** gametitle
** 1-2 sentences describing how the game works and why we need it
** URL
** team CHECK!
* Promote demo night CHECK!
* Bring cameras etc CHECK!
* Report red dots at end of demo night CHECK!
* Return hardware at end of demo night CHECK!

Video finished and on YouTube

Hey girls... and Nick.

I finished the video, it's short but sweet and it's on youtube. I was actually able to get the aspect ratio and everything right this time!

Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAsq0McyBcU

Advertise it on Facebook and whatever other networking site you have.

My finished animation which is projected on the wall is here: http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1274803345

We need that website up and running so hopefully we can get in contact with Dee tomorrow... and Amy, if you can get that promo pic done that would be sweet. The other rock climbing place replied to my email and basically said the only time we could do it there would be the same time we are supposed to be presenting our Games Studio games so I thanked them for their time and declined. We'll find out tonight whether or not we can actually set the game up at Hardrock during the exhibition but we should get that projector organised anyway because it'd still be great to show our idea by projecting the animation onto a wall at RMIT. Nick or Belinda, I reckon this is your task! Also, I'm not sure who is organising and setting up the Wiimote/sensors.

Anyway, I'll leave it there for now, see you at uni.

Response from Hardrock

I've finally gotten a response to my email from Hardrock, sadly, the company directors are away somewhere and so we wont be able to know whether or not it will be allowed to use the projector at the rock climbing center until late wednesday. This is very late so in my personal opinion, we should find another rock climbing place, go there will a projector and just try and do it there without permission. If we can get a bit of footage that will be great, that way, if on wednesday afternoon we find out we cannot do it at Hardrock at least we'll have something to show everyone.

Another option is to go to Hardrock without the projector and climb normally, and add in the animation to the video as an overlay afterwards.

Of course, we may still be able to use the projector at Hardrock but we wont find out until the night before.

What we need...

Alright guys, we need a few things for Wednesday (I'm assuming we're going to go to hard rock to calibrate the day before... Right?

-at least two infra-red lights
-laptop (we can use mine...)
-the flash animation (well, taken care of really.)
-Projector

Mostly.. we need the lights, and we can test it Wednesday and then change the animation and settings according I'm assuming... I'm going to look at them tonight, and if there's shipping time I will just buy them tonight to make sure they're here on time.

Anyway, thoughts?

Hardrock Contacted

Hey guys, a message through using the "Submit Enquiry" form on the Hardrock website. I'm not too sure how reliable this is and if its even the right way to contact them about this so if anyone knows a better way please let me know!

Here's the message:

"
Hi, my name is Tim Jeffs and I am a student from RMIT. As a part of an assignment for my course, Bachelor of Arts (Games Graphics Design), my team and I have created a game in which the player must climb a wall which has a falling rock animation projected onto it. Here is an early version of the animation: http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1273994986

We have tried out the rock climbing walls at Hardrock Melbourne CBD and have found that your easiest wall is perfect to do our demonstration. We are wondering if it would be okay to bring a projector and project this animation onto that wall. We would follow all safety rules, climbing the wall normally, simply with this animation projected to give the climber virtual rocks to move away from by moving side to side.

We hope to do this within the next week and would really appreciate it if you could allow us to use your rock climbing wall.

Regards,
Tim Jeffs.

"

Waterfall Coded

Hey guys, I've coded the rocks falling and water rising for the game. The graphics aren't done yet, check it out here:

http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1273994986

Infra-red tracking for the game

Hey guys, I did some research on the tracking and as I thought the easiest possibility would be Johnny Chung Lee's wiimote tech. It basically operates like Luke's demo in our homebrew presentation or the bubble game. Here's the link to the clip and software download: Link :D

Just to sum it up, it can track up to 4 infrared lights at a time. So basically if we have one on each shoulder of the climber, one in the center of the back they will be detected no matter what angle they happen to be on to the wiimote. Because the lights would constantly be emitting though there may be a slight battery issue. As I suspected it was a simple 4 touch calibration as well, and then the light is interpreted as a mouse, which makes it easy to integrate into a flash game :)

Cheers!
-Belinda

Whoo! Who is pumped?

I bet Amy is. Rockclimbing was fun, was it not? I figured I would post the outline of our game on here... While I retain it all.

So, we have:
Rising water
Waterfall background flowing around rocks
Falls rocks

To dodge the rocks you can swing from side to side, whilst swinging you must have one hand on a wall rock thing at all times. Whilst holding yourself to one side/stationary you must have at least one hand and one foot on a rock to avoid people easily pushing off and swinging from side to side (dirty cheating bastards!).

The water rises, meaning less time to react (possibly varied amounts of rocks too? More movement?) as you get close to the top. You must keep your head above water (possibly allowed a 3 second count underwater because well, people can hold their breath, what if you need to spring up...?).

Rock Climbing - Where are we meeting?

Hi, sorry, I should have gotten your numbers but I guess I'm going to have to communicate through our blog instead. So, I'm in the games studio now and I'm ready for some rock climbing. I'm not sure if we've worked out a meeting place and I assume we are meeting at 1:30pm?

Again, I'm sorry, and you might not get this, I'm going to search the blog for contact numbers now!

Weight Game

Just to add that second idea we had. The Weight game consists of two scales modified to display the weight on a large screen. Each scale is placed on opposite sides of a room or hallway and between them there will be a large pile of objects. There will be a wide variety of objects in the pile, some very large and heavy, some easy to carry, some round, some flat etc. Each player (or team) will start at their scale and a countdown timer will start (displayed on the screen at the pile). Within the time limit, players must run back and forth from their scale to the pile to load up their scale with objects to get as close as they can to a specified weight (also displayed on the screen). Only one object can be carried at a time so players must decide whether to carry the heavier objects or make quick dashes with the smaller objects. They must also think carefully about the shape of their objects as the scale will have a small surface area and by the end of the game each player will have a tower of objects sitting on their scale. Once the time limit is up, the player/team closest to the target weight wins.

Sabotage may also be a possibility with players able to run to the other player/team's pile and take an object from that to take back to their scale. As with taking objects from the central pile, only one object can be taken at a time from the opposing scale with the downside being that the player will need to travel twice the distance.

Erm, Going to try to summarise here....

Alright so Nick, Amy and I talked to Floyd (not sure how to spell...) about our rock climbing game. The key feedback we got seemed to be "Don't think, do".

So from this we basically thought the best course of action was for everyone to think up various ways we can change the basic up and down rock climbing experience and try it on Wednesday (e.g climbing with only one hand, or having to collect targets). From there the people who end up trying it out can figure out what was the most fun.

The laser idea:
We built on this with the possibility of a special webcam from logitech which can rotate up and down with the laserpointer attached to the top. This could then be controlled by the third team member on the computer using arrow keys.

Extra ideas:
Fantasy element - Projecting a game area onto the rockclimbing course which creates obstacles to dodge, battle or maneuver around. This could also be potentially coupled with headphones or some sort of audio feed which changes depending on your position with respect to the other team's climber.

Things to keep in mind:
"Have you thought why you are trying to 'improve' rock-climbing? Are you improving it? If so, why? Or are you making it more accessible? Or more engaging? What do you tell a rock-climber who might say: but rock-climbing is great on its own? Why do we need to add computers?"
-Floyd

- A way to keep both players equally matched without any form of literal handicap on a more experienced player

Those are the main points I could remember. I would have published last night but my net cut out. So Amy, Nick, if you have anything to add please do :D

And I think it would be a good idea to start compiling a blog list of ways we can alter the rock climbing for Wednesday.

Meeting...?

Erm... When are we going to have our next meeting by the way to discuss our next step? I know tomorrow we need to ask for some help with implementing technology but when do we meet after?

Rock Climbing thingy Continued...

Just went to Hard Rock, to get an opinion from the staff there, since I figured we should have a solid design before we ask for a wall at a rock climbing site.

So the main problem we have is that the belayer won't be able to use a remote and manage the ropes at the same time, which means we either have to find a replacement for the remote, or add a third person.

as for whether it seems fun or worth doing in the first place, the staff seemed relatively interested in the idea, but also said another difficulty is that leaving the route managing to someone on the ground will make it hard for the climber, as their perception is different, and the difference in climbing techniques could result in having the route be too difficult or obscure.

as for the darkness, they said there didn't seem to be any extra health and safety issues surrounding it, that they can make it fairly dark, and the only problem is the belayer being able to see (which is negated by the night vision goggles)

so to fix the remote problem:

* add a third member to the group to operate the routes

* OR have the pathways change according the the abilities of the climber

example 1 : if the climber takes a long time to reach a certain point, have the routes change to an easier pathway
likewise if the climber reaches a certain point very quickly, have the a portion of the lights diminished to increase difficulty

example 2 : have buttons across the wall, that the climber has to press before more of the path is revealed. that way they have to traverse a large part of wall horizontally, to find the button, which will activate the rest of the wall, in order to continued on.

New Game

Alrighty
New game idea (it’s meant to be in caps lock to show enthusiasm but I’m too lazy for caps lock):

Blind Rock Climbing
Also known as Night Climbing? (Or extreme rock fighting)

Physical Aspect:

Two person team, consisting of a climber (who goes up the wall) and a belayer (dude on the ground in charge of the ropes). The roles can be changed to allow for both people to climb and belay.

The exertion game takes place at a rock climbing centre.

All climbing technique and safety rules follow regular standard rock climbing procedures, according to venue and skill level.

Digital Aspect:

Rather than creating routes up the rock wall using coloured rocks, LEDs are placed beside the rocks and coloured according to what level of difficulty.
Example: a large number of rocks will be accompanied by blue LEDs and creates an easy path to follow up the wall, whilst a sparse number of rocks will be accompanied by red LEDs and creates a difficult path to follow.

The lights in the venue will be turned off, the climbing taking place at night, so that the climber is unable to see the pathways up the wall.

The belayer is equipped with night vision goggles and a Wii remote.
The goggles allow for the belayer to see where the climber is going, as well as the LED pathways.

The Wii remote allows the belayer to signal which path to light up, and to what extent the path continues ahead of the player.

The climber is only able to reach the top of the wall by means of verbal communication with the belayer, as well following the LEDS when they are activated.

Purpose of the Digital Aspect:

If the climber is unable to see the rocks without the LEDS, resorting to cheating and using an easier path is restricted because the climber is unable to detect where they are.
The belayer is able to monitor the level of difficulty for the climber.
It also creates a new environment with the added feature of darkness, more similar spelunking.



Plan of Attack?

*contact rock climbing venues for feed back from rock climbers (since they might be able to give us insight into what would enhance/make easier) and to see if we can use their venues for testing/filming

*get some goggles

*decide how we intend to make the pathways/climbing routes

*see if there is a way to incorporate a strobe light and a smoke machine


so... um, yeah
also, I have to add my personal crisis into this: my mother just walked in with a picture of me as a five year old and brandished it in my face, and the study smells like turpentine.
that's... that's it
bye

The Film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xL7_icApM4

I couldn't fix the aspect ratio, I tried though.

The Film Is Finished

I didn't sleep at all but I've completed the masterpiece. We now have the best promotional video ever for our game and it's premiering tonight. Success!

Location and Filming

Yo, sorry I missed the last blog message! Anyway, moving along...

Tomorrow is the big day, it's make or break for us so I thought I'd clear some stuff up.

Firstly, I say we go for our backup stairwell - you know the one, for legal reasons I won't say where it is. I can see us wasting a lot of time tomorrow if we're trecking across the city trying to find the perfect spot when we've got a nice location right on our doorstep (metaphorically speaking?). So unless someone is completely against it, I say we get some footage there and then if we have time, we move on to find a better location.

Okay, so camera-wise, we are sweet. I've charged my camera, tested it and it's running fine, I'll be using it to film tomorrow. From Belinda's message it seems you all have the buckets and water balloons sorted out, I'm guessing the bathroom taps will be used to fill the balloons? As far as I understand we don't have a scale... I rememember someone (Belinda?) posting a comment that they could bring one though. For some reason I can't check the comments on that blog post anymore to make sure. So anyway, tell me if you can't bring it and I'll steal my parent's scale and we'll be good to go.

We've already been through this but I thought I'd just post it here because it makes sense: We are meeting outside the student lounge after our Games Studio lecture tomorrow with all our gear.

I'm going to edit the whole video that night, which will be stressful enough so basically, anything that isn't filmed tomorrow in that 4 hour gap will not be in the video.

That's all guys. LET'S DO THIS.

I don't know about you guys...

But we don't have a location. I'm thinking I said "let's meet Tuesday" without a time or place.

This is late notice but I was thinking just about... an hour tomorrow to scout out a possible location instead of testing, then after our games lecture on wednesday we can do the test (I don't know about you guys but i have a 4 window gap of nothing. Whereas tomorrow I only have before 2:30 and after 4:30 (and nobody likes peak hour trains).

So, maybe we should meet tomorrow at 1:30 *outside* the games lounge if nobody is busy just to find a location. I can't get a hold of all of you by phone.. So... I posted this hoping you would see. If you have seen this please text or call me on : 0431343388 to confirm that you can make it or to let me know of complications. That way I have your numbers so if need be I can change the time to suit all of us...

So that was all at the risk of sounding like a stalker :D but I think we need to see if we can even get a location first before considering this idea further.

So PLEASE contact me if you see this.

-Belinda

P.S - is anybody else going to post? I feel like I'm smothering you all O.o

The game.. plan?

I think this will need some tweaking, as I'm not sure if this is legal (or safe).

Basically, there are two teams:

The bomber team
The team that drops the water balloons from the top story of the play zone. Consisting of 2 or 3 players. Their objective is to drop the balloons from the top story in a way that their two/other team mate on ground level can catch WITHOUT it breaking.

The interceptors
This team is stationed on various stories between the top level of the play zone and the ground level (with buckets). They must use their communication and co-ordination skills to intercept as many of these balloons to prevent the other team from achieving the maximum number of balloons caught. This team consists of 2-4 players approx, depending on the size of the play zone. The interceptors must also be careful not to break the balloons (they will obviously get wet :P) and they do not score unless the balloons are intact.

The scoring system
After each round each teams intact water balloons will be weighed. After four rounds (two rounds each as playing as the bombers) the team with the heaviest weight/highest score wins.

Complications
The bombing team have the choice to fill their own balloons to any specification they wish. This could be all small balloons - relatively light, so low scoring, but less likely to break, big balloons - travel faster, easier to break, but score higher or a mixture of both and everything in between.
Interceptors cannot clean out their buckets between each catch. If their bucket gets full they can no longer catch for that round, if they are exceptionally good at catching however, they may switch with another station that has an emptier bucket. Additionally, the more water balloons in the bucket whilst catching new ones the more likely the already caught ones will pop.

The game flow:
At the start of each round both teams start at ground floor. They may/may not (haven't decided yet) have collaboration time beforehand to decide on strategy.

As the sound (horn? whistle?) goes, both teams must get into their places. The interceptors have less to travel with light buckets. The top bomber has a huge bucket of water balloons which is relatively heavy. If there are 3 bombers, only one needs to stay at the bottom, so the third may help to carry it up. However, should the third help carry it up the bomber cannot start throwing until they are back at the bottom.

In the middle of each round, both teams are then allowed to switch stations between their own ranks. It is mandatory for the top bomber to switch with one of the ground bombers. The ground bomber chosen must start climbing the stairs as the top bomber descends, but the top bomber must also carry whatever water bombs left with them down.

Once both bombers meet they will continue up and down depending on their station, but the previous top bomber will give their left over bombs to the previous bottom bomber. They must choose whether to have the top bomber move slowly so the bottom bomber has less to carry back up the stairs, or to meet approximately middle to meet up faster.

Once the new top bomber takes their station at the top of the play zone interceptors must cease switching places.

Edited with test -:
[Whilst the bombers are switching places the interceptors have to wait a minute (60 seconds) then are allowed to scale to the higher bomber floor to 'steal' balloons, but only one at a time. Meanwhile, bombers who pass the interceptor level/s can steal from interceptors but ONLY if it is unguarded (no tackling :P). This means that the interceptors can send everyone up to steal balloons or leave someone behind to guard their stash.]

That was a lot of writing. I think that was our general idea though. We need to tweak it according to how the game plays. Or we can come up with an entirely new idea and establish those rules quickly if you're all feeling unsure. I'm easy :)

Let's test this... quickly!

We need to test our water balloon game, (if that's what everyone still wants to stick with?). I know people have programming and avatar assignments but this is what we will need:

Water balloons
Buckets (at least.. 4?) ------------- TICK :D
Scales/form of measurement of weight
Recording equipment (To show for the presentation)----------------TICK :D

So if anyone has ANY of the following items, we need this all together and ready to firstly test by at least Tuesday (latest Wednesday if there are clashes?)

We are a little behind so we need to sprint to get this all together and shiny before the presentation!!

..I'll send a copy of this through email, not sure how many of you check this thing...

Meeting Next Week

Okay guys tomorrow we will be getting lots of feedback with the guest lecturer, so I figured we should have a meeting next Wednesday after Games studio (lec) to get our bearings. Meeting in the games lounge perhaps? Just a thought...

Helicopter

hey guys, had an idea for a game… but the execution is still a little sketchy

Did anyone ever play the game “helicopter” in primary school?
Basically you swing a long rope in a circle at different heights and everybody has to jump and duck as it swings their way. So if you hit the rope, you’re out.

What I was thinking we could do to mimic the game would be to replace the rope with a laser.
As the laser comes towards the person, they have to duck or jump. If they block the laser’s light, then they’re out. So the last man standing is the winner.
Maybe if we place the laser on a rotating disc or something, it could provide a constantly changing height and direction, increasing the difficulty.

So yeah, let me know what you think.

Laserhead

Here's another idea, again, click the image for a larger view and feedback is appreciated! This one would be more difficult to achieve but I think it has potential. The main problem I see is judging whether or not the laser has gone off the track (in which case it would be game over for the player). This would be a major issue if the track was moving at a high speed as it would be easy for the player to clip a corner on the track without realising it.

The Mat-tastic Trampoline Scale Game

This is the first of a number of ideas I have for our exertion game, complete with a ridiculously long title. Click the image to see a larger view. Please comment with criticisms of the idea and what aspects we could use for our final game!

You might be wondering, why use doormats? I chose them because they are fairly heavy and have a large surface area. The weight of the mats allows for clear readings on the scale and the large surface area means there can be instances where the mat lands partially on the scale. This allows for an unlimited amount of outcomes as, rather than the player either scoring or not scoring, they will accumulate weight on the scale based on how well the mat has landed. Mats can also be stacked easily so if all shots are on target, there will not be a problem with them all landing on the scale.