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?