Eric Spoerner & I recently submitted our game, Sonar, to the Indie Game Challenge. Sonar is about the visualization of sound to create a unique and engaging experience. We made Sonar in 2006 as a student project at USC Interactive Media (specifically, for CTIN 489: Intermediate Game Design Workshop). Grand prize is $100K and the 6 finalists in our category (Non-Professional) get to pitch their game to a publisher. Wish us luck!
Watch the Trailer for Sonar
Download Sonar
I was just catching up on my Reuters Tech News, and found this video, while I'm sure I'm behind the curve compared to our VR researchers, and innovators, I thought it worthy of a post nonetheless. I'm wondering what people like Mark, Scott, and Michael might think about the viability of a such a system. I found it also interesting that they tried to claim in the Reuters story that there are no VR simulators for ground troops; having seen some of what goes on at ICT I found it a seeming unfounded statement. You can learn more about Vitrusphere @ http://www.virtusphere.com/
Speaker: Tamiko Thiel, Artist
Time: Wednesday, November 18, 6-8 pm
Location: Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
5750 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036
NOTE: The off-campus location for this seminar. If you a an IMD student who needs a ride to the Goethe-Institut, contact Professor Anne Balsamo.
Tamiko Thiel will discuss the creation of Virtuelle Mauer/ReConstructing the Wall that she created with collaborator Teresa Reuter. This interactive 3D virtual reality art work investigates the impact of the Berlin Wall, which divided West and East Berlin during the Cold War from August 13, 1961 to November 9, 1989. A digital reconstruction of a segment of the dismantled Berlin Wall and its surrounding neighborhoods creates a place of rememberance that users can explore in order to to experience and reflect on this historical time.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles is staging the installation from November 20-December 3, 2009.
Official Opening: Thursday November 19, 6-9pm
Exhibit: November 20 - December 3, 2009
Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
5750 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90036, USA
http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/los/kue/en4872732v.htm
For images from this interactive 3D installation on the Berlin Wall see:
http://www.virtuelle-mauer-berlin.de/english/devFiles/screenshots.htm
"Eyez: Lingering Images" is a top-down action/puzzle game where you explore D's twisted soul. Use your right eye to traverse the borders of his shattered reality, and open your left eye to expel his nightmares. Eyez present spatial logic in gameplay like you've never seen before.
UCLA's mobile media series continues tomorrow and through the weekend with some very cool speakers, symposia and workshops. On Thursday 11/12 Area/Code's Kevin Slavin will be speaking at 6:00PM, followed by a day-long symposium on Friday 11/13 organized by Casey Reas featuring luminaries including Slavin, Julian Bleecker, Mark Hansen, Ian Bogost, Robin Hunicke, John Underkoffler, Erkki Huhtamo, Machiko Kusahara and many more! Saturday 11/14 is devoted to a series of low-cost workshops on using Python, Arduino, and the iPhone SDK.
CTAN/CTIN 502a Experiments in Stereoscopic Imaging (Monday 7-9:50pm)
Stereo 3D is happening NOW, and this 2-unit class is designed bring you up to speed quickly with everything you need to know to produce breathtaking stereo 3D images, games, movies and animations.
Like earlier innovations like sound and color, stereo 3D opens up new possibilities for the structuring of cinematic space and time. New aesthetic and formal strategies and new forms of storytelling need to explored and developed, and there is a growing need for artists, filmmakers, animators and designers with experience and training in this new medium. This course will cover the basic principles of binocular vision, the history and development of stereoscopic systems and practices and the various available methods for creating and displaying stereoscopic images, as well as perceptual, aesthetic and cognitive issues.
The class is a co-sponsored by IMD and DADA, and is listed on the Animation Division's Schedule of Classes. Here's the Syllabus.
Sixth monthly meeting of the SoCal Max/MSP/Jitter Users Group (S.M.U.G.).
Sunday, November 15th, 2009 • 4:00pm - 7:00pm
Machine Project • 1200 D North Alvarado • Los Angeles, CA
This month, we will have a special presentation from Cycling '74's Andrew Pask about the new Javascript LiveAPI object in Max for Live.
All welcome. Bring ideas, questions, problems, solutions, projects, patchers, abstractions, externals, whatever. Please get in touch with Perry Hoberman if you'd like to schedule a presentation.
Machine Project • Max/MSP/Jitter
Facebook Event Listing • Join the S.M.U.G. Facebook Group
Andy Uehara and I have entered the Doritos Crash the Superbowl contest with this video ad:
When you go to this site, please clip skip intro on the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
Click Here.
Original Storyboarding & Ideation by: Andy Uehara & Juliana Griffo
Animation by: Andy Uehara
Video & Sound Editing by: Juli Griffo
Speaker: Sha Xin Wei, Topological Media Lab, Concordia University
Time: Wednesday, November 11, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)
Professor Sha Xin Wei holds a Canadian Research Chair in Media Arts and Sciences; He is also an Associate Professor of Fine Arts and Computer Science At Concordia University in Montreal. The Topological Media Lab (TML) is a studio-laboratory for the study of gesture and materiality from computational and phenomenological perspectives. His talk will present examples of research/art projects that have been developed at the TML over the past decade. These projects include the TGarden responsive environment, Hubbub speech-sensitive urban surfaces, Membrane calligraphic video, and softwear gestural sound instruments.
This is an amazing article written by a man in Venezuela about Chavez's insane anti-video game laws. This guy risked his freedom to write the article- not only is possession of a violent video game now a crime, but the very act of questioning the law is also a criminal act. Venezuela is basically attempting to heap the blame for the country's insanely high crime, murder, and kidnapping rates squarely on video games and the people who play them. I wish more Venezuelans would write like this. This guy, Guido Núñez-Mujica, deserves a medal.
So... this is what i come up with in a week for the 534 class...
The plane in the game is constantly pulling down by the gravity and your job is to pull it up by making sound to the microphone. The higher the sound intensity the higher the plane goes. However, you must be careful not to hit anything within the game. The six sided spinning polygons are your enemies, you must peak the sound input in order for the plane to produce a bullet which will kill them off. Orange polygon will move while blue are stationary. IF THE PLANE IS PRODUCING A BULLET EVERY TIME YOU MAKE A SOUND, PLEASE LOWER THE MICROPHONE SENSITIVITY FOR PROPER GAME PLAY.
BTW... if you found this game too difficult... press space bar to cheat... :P
Enjoy~ (hopefully) :)
======= CLICK HERE FOR THE GAME =======
SpaceWolves is a board game developed by myself, Samantha Vick, and Mike Sennott, as part of our "Up the River" variation assignment for Tracy Fullerton's class. For anyone who might be curious or want to play it, we've decided to post up the rules and the panels so you can download it and make it yourself!
Here's what you need to do:
Hey, I know this girl! I worked on this game! I'm famous by association!
Congrats Kyla!
UCLA Design|Media Arts' Mobile Media Lecture Series continues tomorrow at 6:00PM with expanded storyteller and ARG designer Jordan Weisman. From the UCLA website: "Jordan has been the creative force behind a number of entertainment companies, including his newest venture, Smith & Tinker (connected toys), FASA Corporation (roleplaying games), Virtual World Entertainment (networked virtual reality entertainment) acquired by the Disney Family, FASA Interactive (PC games, including the MechWarrior franchise) acquired by Microsoft, WizKids (collectible games) acquired by Topps Inc., and 42 Entertainment (alternate reality gaming). During his career, Jordan has created some of the largest and longest-lasting franchises in the gaming industry, including BattleTech/MechWarrior, Shadowrun and Crimson Skies."
Speaker: Mark Bolas, Associate Professor, Interactive Media Division, SCA
Time: Wednesday, November 4, 6-8 pm
Location: USC's Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts (RZC)
Room 201 Zemeckis Media Lab (ZML)
Please join us at the IMD seminar this week for a presentation by IMD Professor Mark Bolas. He also serves as the director of Graphics Lab at USC's Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT). Professor Bolas' research explores perception, agency, and intelligence; he creates virtual environments that are designed to engage one’s perception and cognition to create a visceral memory of the experience. His work has been exhibited in many venues including six Emerging Technology exhibits at Siggraph. In 1988, Bolas co-founded Fakespace Inc. with Ian McDowall and Eric Lorimer to build instrumentation for research labs to explore virtual reality.
This Wednesday, from 1pm to 5pm, the 594 class is open for 'walk-arounds' by the IMD community. Students will have their projects running, and would love to have you come and try their projects and give feedback. This is a chance to go a little deeper than is possible in standard presentations. Come one, Come all! Location is the Flower Street Colab.
The challenge is to be the first to submit the locations of ten moored, 8 foot, red weather balloons located at ten fixed locations in the continental United States. Balloons will be in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roadways.
For our third assignment in CTIN 534 (Experiments in Interactivity) we were tasked with creating a navigable space which should "convey a sense of space based on the collaboration of the author with the viewer: the author formulates a space within which the viewer can decide by himself or herself in which direction to proceed, where to look and how to read the space in such a way that the exploration follows a dramaturgical development." I've created a pastoral scene for viewers to explore, which is timed well with this weekend's activities.
Click here to explore Pastorale in full screen and with sound!
