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.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
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
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
Friday, April 16, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
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!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, April 12, 2010
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
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
Saturday, April 10, 2010
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 :)
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 :)
Friday, April 9, 2010
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...
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...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)