Course

Are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kinojabber/sets/1527852/

And another one From DigitalMediaWire newsletter:

New York - Dutch electronics firm Philips said on Friday that it has set a May 2006 launch for its "amBX" technology, which creates a "sensory surround experience" for TV and video games with added light, color, sound, heat and air. The technology utilizes LED color-controlled lights, active furniture, fans, heaters, audio and video output devices strategically placed in the living room. Philips said that it is in advanced stages of talks with game developers and peripheral manufacturers, and expects amBX-enabled games and peripherals to begin shipping in the fourth quarter of 2006.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/051202/20051202005296.html?.v=1
http://www.ambx.com

Click here to download a copy of my Powerpoint from today's presentation in 309.

By joe Barnes & Melanie Wider

Goal:
Incorporate typing into an action game. The advantage of using the keyboard is that a large number of people are already familiar with it. An alternative keyboard, with fewer buttons, might also later be a solution depending on the needs of the game. One of the requirements of this type of game (and a feature in our own design) is a highly interactive world – to keep the player’s interest.

A part of our design concept is to make a typing game as fun as possible, because most games which involve a keyboard are strictly for educational purposes (not counting MMORPGs), and do not hold the attention of the user beyond the goal of “teaching” them to type. One of the ways we intend to keep the user’s interest is to include a dynamic feedback system within the game itself which allows the player to immediately see the results of good hand-eye coordination in the way that the game world becomes richer in response to good performance.

The most interesting part of this design is, we believe, the uniqueness of both the interface and core mechanic. Though both of these draw on other, preexisting games for their inspiration, they become greater than the sum of their parts when incorporated into our design.

Descriptive Notes:
The player in our game will be creating a world through their typing in order to further the story and accomplish goals within the game universe. The player will be introduced to the mechanics in a tutorial which is not time-limited. During play, the user will be faced with a time limit to create elements of the world as he battles the antagonist(s) for control of a mind, a soul, and the meta-physical world.

By: Peter Van Dyke, Shon-Ting Fu, Jonathan Zabel

This will be an MMOG (such as World of Warcraft) that will allow players to input and add to the existing game world. The “Game Creation Engine” will be essentially an ongoing extension to play that will give players the ability go add additional content. An apt (though dated) analogy would be to compare this Engine to player housing in DAOC.

Many games today describe themselves as immersive, but we feel that something is missing from these experiences. What we propose to create with our new first-person shooter is the first game of the genre that will actually engage the player on an emotional level. By placing the player in situations in which he is forced to face difficult and morally ambiguous choices, the player will become more and more involved in the character that he plays. To further improve this sense of a real and dynamic world in which the player exists, the other characters around him will react in differing and expressive ways, based on the past decisions the player has made and each character’s individual and unique personality. By creating predispositions for each non-player character and using those to gauge their responses to the player’s choices at each critical point in the game, we will create a “mental fitness landscape” to determine the extent of influence the player has on that character.

The world in which we implement these design concepts will play a large role in the player’s involvement. Without a convincing setting and cast of characters, even the most serious of choices may not seem important or interesting, so we will develop an intriguing and dynamic science-fiction setting in which the player will assume the identity of a lieutenant commanding a small squad of soldiers during a futuristic war. By putting the player in charge of a group, he must take his responsibility to these men into consideration when he makes a decision (following or disobeying unjust or suicidal orders, for example). By combining the high level of agency offered by the choices throughout the game and this flexible character interaction system, our game will offer a more powerful sense of authorship than any FPS before. Since each choice the player makes affects the events and the characters around him, the player truly writes the story.

"Rive" by Logan Olson and Justin Lin

The main concept for our game comes off of two innovative influences: Katamari Damacy and Zone of the Enders 2.

Katamari Damacy takes the simple concept of rolling a ball in 3d space in order to roll up anything the character wishes under a time limit. The controls were intuitive and the worlds were expansive. Katamari took simplicity to a whole new level of complexity.

With Zone of the Enders 2, we have a game whereas non-stop fast paced action was an appealing feature. The game basically allowed the robot character in the game to perform "ballets of destruction" via an auto-targeting system that would push the action forward. It provided enough spectacle to wow the viewer throughout the whole game.

By combining the two we came up with a game about a ribbon that would be able to go through 3d spaces and interact with the obstacles within an expansive world with no time limit, while providing a fast-paced visceral experience. Hence we coined the idea: "Rive"

Controlling a free flowing ribbon through a dream-like environment, the player of Rive, French for "strand," travels through the mind of a hospitalized sick child, fighting his internal demons and exploring the depths of his psyche to beat his ailment. The ribbon/strand is innocent, searching for freedom and a better world, fighting through the odd and sometimes evil worlds of his imagination in order to find his better place, in order to come out of his comatose state.

The overall artistic designs are based on movies and artists such as H.R. Geiger, Salvador Dali, Monet, Akira, and the Matrix. These will all be represented in the many unique and differing worlds within the child's psyche.

The most unique and appealing feature of Rive is the player-character and control scheme. Using the Nintendo Revolution controller, the player will guide the ribbon as if playing with a streamer to explore and manipulate the environment, as well as fight the enemies which inhabit it. The player will use the complete control of the ribbon to create his or her own combos, assisted by an auto-targetting system that will make sure that all enemies will be within range to perform attacks with the Revolution's wand. In addition to the self-created combos, there will be in-game combo/skill system that relies on the player performing certain movements with the wands and/or the button, allowing for special moves, actions, transformations, weapons, etc. to appear. The intuitive, physical control of the ribbon and abstract dream world will convey a sense of wonder and excitement to the player in the artistic and unconventional Rive.

Through our combination of innovative control aspects, engaging and unique production design, and hybridization of inventive game schemes, we hope to create a game that is accessible to all ages. We hope that this game will create complexity through the authorship of the player via our simple, but potentially expandable scheme and concept for Rive.

Joe Barnes and Melanie Wider

As a child, I always thought that the future lay in developing human ability within an entertainment context - increasing complexity in our gaming interface to aid in development of mental agility and hand dexterity as well as coordination between eye and hand. The missing link between my vision of the future of gaming and the current paradigm of physical interface is the game I wish to create.

Already there are games which force the players into a state of almost meditation with their complexity and demands placed on the player. A genre of games that typically has this effect is called "shooters". Shooters make a good showing overseas in the Japanese market, and while not extremely strong in America, they do hold their own as a traditional arcade favorite.

Also, there are already controllers which require players to use more than ten input keys (though not all at once, of course). The most common and widely used is the alphabetic keyboard. This controller has been used as an interface by many for productivity, education, entertainment, and device manipulation, since the personal computer has been prominent.

by Aaron Thomas and Jeremy Kopman

In the summer of 2000, a man by the name of Warren Spector and his development team released a little game known as Deus Ex. The game was an intriguing blend of first-person gameplay with RPG character building elements: utilizing skill points, players gained skills in computers, electronics, environmental training, lockpicking, medicine, swimming, and of course, weaponry. While some growth in all levels was possible, there were never enough skill points in a single playthrough to master more than a couple of these areas. When coupled with the game's extraordinarily open-ended level design, the player was privy to a wealth of possibilities; a player could snipe, sneak, hack, swim, or attempt to assault their way through the levels, which incorporated designs that would support any of these skills. This gave the player a feeling of authorship as they built their character, as the choices he or she made would greatly effect the strategy necessary to progress in the game.

This, while rare, was not entirely unique to Deus Ex. The System Shock series of games, released in the nineties, was based on a somewhat similar presence. Personal experience with System Shock 2 led to knowledge of the skill points and upgrades in that game, which placed you in either the marines (Brute), the navy (Tech Skills), or psychic warriors (Mental) that strongly effected gameplay, requiring the player to use the main attributes of his or her military class to survive. While not as free as Deus Ex, this still provided for a far more personal experience than most first-person games. It should also be noted that Warren Spector was involved with the System Shock series.

This intriguing and deeply-immersive blend of role-playing and first-person gameplay interests us considerably, and it shows that gaming is beginning to evolve. We believe this is a result of games becoming more mainstream with wider acceptance by society, now that the media backlash against games as a new media is finally beginning to back off after thirty years. The superlative reviews of Deus Ex and System Shock and relative commercial success - both games spawned sequels, and Deus Ex was released in a "Game of the Year" edition - seems to demonstrate that not only are games becoming more mainstream, but that they are also gaining credibility as a viable artistic medium. If this is the case, then we believe that it is time to take the step from superficial, albeit extremely compelling and sometimes complex, thematics into an artistic and culturally aware realm, examining and commenting on the vast social, philosophical, and aesthetic issues our society faces; the moment is right for a game that actually challenges the player to think about the moral and social impact of the decisions made in the game.

Inspired by the likes of Deus Ex, we've considered creating a first-person game that forces the player to examine cultural issues. The possibility we've most considered is a game set during a war in which the player would control a squad leader, likely a sergeant. We've chosen this scenario because of the many possible moral questions that a soldier would likely face, and as a squad leader, this would add to the player's sense of responsibility and tactical possibilities for gameplay. Multiple paths could be taken throughout the game world, some of which could rely on the skills of certain squad members or the player; some paths could and would prove more costly than others, resulting in more deaths of your squad members, civilians, and the other side. The idea is to present a world of contradictions in which the player must make difficult decisions about who and how many should live and die, is the side he or she is fighting for the right one, and if not, does that matter? A branching story would be implemented to allow the player's moral decisions to affect the game's plot progression. Obviously, true non-linearity would be impossible but the goal is to leave as many opportunities open as we can to give the player authorship.

We believe this can be successful due to the popularity and respect afforded to a game such as Deus Ex, as our game draws a similar premise as a first-person role-playing experience. This is an interesting area to explore both artistically and commercially: artistically, because the first-person viewpoint is by definition so personally involving, and commercially, there is a wide body of precedent that indicates a promising sales-base. On consoles, 30.6% of all games sold are first-person-shooters and another 9% are role-playing games. The numbers are almost as high on PC where 16.3% of games sold are FPSs and 10% are RPGs. There is even an international market that could offer great sales opportunities. For example, in the United Kingdom, 4 of the top 20 games in September 2005 were FPSs and 2 were RPGs. Even more intriguingly, 9 of those games were war-themed, showing another promising angle for a possible market of war-themed game enthusiasts.

In closing, we feel that the first-person role-playing experience is ripe for change. We propose to create a game that will engage the player meaningfully and emotionally that will also allow the player to influence the gameplay based upon their reactions through the actions of their in-game character.

Research and Inspiration for Final Projects by Justin Lin and Logan Olson

While searching for a game to create, we took various game elements that seemed innovative and interesting to us and combined them to form the game we wanted. One of the goals we wanted to accomplish was to create a visceral high-intensity action packed game that was innovative, and possessed qualities that could appeal to different audiences. We tried to search for simplicity, and allow complexity to spawn from that simplicity. We wanted something that was an organic experience, where the player would not be frustrated, but rather enticed by the mysterious possibilities of his mistakes or frustrations. One of our basic ideas was going to be about this "ribbon-like" innocent and lively character that would go about a dystopian surreal world, defeating various enemies with his powers. His powers would essentially consist of him moving his entire ribbon body to slash, kill, wrap, twirl, transform, mutate, etc. in order to overcome his obstacles. A story would eventually follow what we created for the basic gameplay sceme. Though the idea is still rough, we decided to research the elements we thought we wanted in a game:

1. Unconventional games
While "Ico" was commercially unsuccessful, it was a critical hit (91% on gamerankings.com).
More recently, Katamari Damacy, has been successful critically and financially. A sequel was just published, and immediately sold out due to underestimation of sales.
Okami has yet to be released, but is greatly anticipated by the video game media.
All three games feature unconventional play features or narratives. Ico takes place in a dream-like state, with no clear conflict established at the outset and a lemming-like feature to the gameplay in guiding a princess around the world. Katamari Damacy solely consists of rolling up the world into a ball. Okami takes place in a wood-block painting which the player, as a wolf, must bring back to life.

The concept of cel-shading also appealed to us. Looking toward games such as The Legend of Zelda: The Windwalker, Viewtiful Joe, Dark Cloud 2, and Zone of the Enders 1 and 2. The cel-shading effect according to various people makes the experience more accessible, especially to younger aged kids, but not so that the adult players would be scared away from it.While we hoped for a protagonist design to be a very solid colored design, we still wanted an edgy look to it, very streamlined and organic, but still technological, achieving in essence a sort of design balance for adults and kids. The background with all it's dark shadows and odd worlds would help to contrast our character providing the clear distinction between good, evil, and the not-so-normal.. We thought various elements of cel-shading (the cartoony look of texturing) could be used to create the character, that totally contrasted the dystopia world of the noir realist/surrealist background.

Movie/Anime influences: Evangelion, The Matrix, Aliens (a fusion of organic and technological).

2. Control schemes
Katamari Damacy is controlled using the two analog sticks to move and face all possibilities on a 2D plane.
Zone of Enders and ZOE 2 use the control sticks to control movement on a 2D plane and camera. Two buttons are used for the 3rd plane (up and down). This is all supplemented with auto-targetting.
Rise to Honor (Jet Li's game) uses one stick to control movement and the other to attack.
The face buttons in these games are mainly there to serve as triggers for special moves or to manipulate the environment (an action button, etc.)
Fight Night 1 and 2 uses dual stick controls to give an organic feel to controlling a boxer in the ring. There are no jagged moves, and it feels like you are controlling all aspects of what a boxer can do, from dodging to punching to countering.
In terms of creating a ribbon character that was fluid in motion, as well as simple in operation, we looked at games that had similarities in simplicity. We wanted to create the fluid use of Katamari Damacy's dual stick control, with the quick auto targetting of Zone of the Enders. The reason for this is because, in Katamari Damacy, whenever the action slowed down, the player would feel tired and frustrated. But with ZOE 2, there is always this non-stop feeling of visceral action that gripped you to your seat because you displayed a ballet of destruction before you. This made your actions feel cool because you can auto target your enemies, and yet it was still challenging because of the sheer number of things you could use and destroy.

3. Artistic research:
For cyberpunk backgrounds: H.R. Giger - http://www.hrgiger.com/ The designer incorporates organic objects into this technological feel. Similar to Aliens and The Matrix designs.
For protagonist design: Look at gymnastic streamer performances and "Legend of Zu."
Make the character simple in design, while making him elaborate in transformation. A sort of multi-purpose design, where each of it's design elements, however simple it maybe, could transform into something totally complex when needed for attack or for actions.
We did not want the character to be anthropomorphic nor anywhere near the uncanny valley. We wanted something more iconic and simple in graphics, so that people can view it simply and understand it easily.

4. Special moves:
"Legend of Zu" is a film that incorporates fantastic, sentient, malliable weapons. It is choreographed by Yuen Wo-Ping so it is aesthetically pleasing and satisfyingly violent.
Other ideas might come from "Red Ninja" (lackluster PS2 game) and chain-whip wushu routines (all the materials referenced are on hand, except Red Ninja)
Moves can become emergent like through a combo system. Whereas, when we attack an enemy a certain way, and create new moves from the system. However, we strive not to make these combos and special moves seem repetitive. (aka Megaman, Fighting games like Tekken or Street Fighter).

5. Camera Angles:
While looking through the previously mentioned games, we hoped for a perspective camera that would not distort, bore, or confuse the reader.
Since the games we were looking at were mostly third person, we thought of various third person ideas. There were games like Katamari, where the camera changes according to your ball, and ZOE2, where the camera is fixed according to your robot. Games like Resident Evil 4, fixed your 3rd person view, unless you turned around. Then there were games where the camera is fully adjustable. We wanted a camera angle that was both intuitive and fun in an all 3d world.

6. Story:
There would be a pre-set narrative story where we would create an outlining 3-act structure, where the character has a goal, goes through various obstacles to get to his goal, and obtain it. Since our character design has been more toward the abstract and iconic, we wanted to make people identify with the character's simplicity. There would be a story that would have emotional intensity in it, but not to the point where the story dictates the game play too much. This would provide a more detached feeling toward the character, but we wanted our focus to be more on the game than the story. Katamari is a good example of this. We want this to be a game that is accessible to both the hardcore and casual gamer.

This could be interesting:
http://www.imagine-it.org/uscsiggraph/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&Itemid=33&agid=30&year=2005&month=10&day=27

Hopefully it's not some one talking about "Skip Intro's."

There is a rich legacy of user-submitted content in games -- the most notable examples being Blizzard's breakout hits, StarCraft and WarCraft III. Using the included map editor (which is a variant of the design toolset used by the game creators to make the game), fans create their own game levels and variants. Triggers, as they're called, go into effect when a certain condition is reached, enabling the creation of new levels of complexity that amount to interesting ways of playing that deviate from a normal RTS: RPGs, Tower Defense, Arena, Madness, Puzzles, and, perplexingly, versions of other games on the market (so there is "WarCraft" map in StarCraft, a "World of WarCraft" map in WarCraft III, and a "StarCraft" map in WarCraft III).

One of the most popular variants (by far!) is Defense of the Ancients (DotA for short), in which opposing teams of four heroes gain experience and items in an attempt to destroy the "ancients" under the other team's protection. The time and resources that went into balancing 71 heroes (most of which are completely user-created) and a plethora of new items (including an item creation system) is enormous. This variant has gone through a year and a half of development, up to the most current release, v. 6.19b.

This leads us to believe that passionate groups of users are more than willing to devote their time and energy to create content for mainstream titles. The RTS and RPG have been attempted, but what of the MMORPG? That's what we'll discuss next week.

Shon-Ting Fu
Peter Van Dyke
Joe Barnes

Interface Pros:
- Clear Design
- User did not have any trouble realizing control scheme
- User did not have difficulty discovering how to use controls to advance the game
- Time restraints seemed natural and were communicated well

Interface/Game Cons:
- Too “simple”
- No explanation for the point system in the game
- Also no display of the point system
- Power-ups were ambiguous and were not explained
- Pause mechanic counterintuitive
- Boring
- Engaging, but over time player loses interest

Loop is a very simple game built around a mechanic of catching butterflies. The player, in this case Jeremy Kopman, uses the mouse to create circles around the butterflies to “net” them. Once a player has netted a certain number of butterflies (before the time runs out), the game advances to the next level. The user interface was very intuitive, as could be seen from the ease with which our player understood the controls. Overall the mechanic was simple and easy to use, but the game itself did not appear to be engaging to our player. He commented after the test that the game was “engaging,” but that he did not feel committed to continue playing – he did not feel bad when he lost. He also pointed out how easy the game was, and that in a lot of ways he was thirsting for a little more complexity to the main mechanic… the game was too easy. He knew that he was improving, but never understood how some of the power-ups worked. Overall, Jeremy enjoyed the game, but not enough to play again.

Blix

Interface Issues:
1. Screen is too crowded at times (Severity 1)
2. Player does not get any feedback of him getting better (0)
3. Did not understand time limit (3)
4. Too easy (3)
5. Repetitive (3)

Top 3 revision suggestions
1. Mix up levels
2. Better tutorial explaining the strategies, controls, and mechanics of the game.
3. A more friendly and simpler interface by making it bigger and less compact.

Blix is an action puzzle game, where you try to bounce balls into a box using barriers that you place around the grid. One of the problems that we had with this game, is that the tutorial did not provide enough information for us to accurately play the game. So this caused the difficulty level to be a bit high when you first started because you'd have to figure out how the mechanics of using the barriers would work. Each barrier you place, depending on whhere on the each grid square you placed it would cause it to bounce a certain way. When you watched a player play the game, at first it took some getting used to for them. But once they got the hang of it, they improved dramatically, when they understood how the game work. The thing is, the player didn't realize that he was improving, which is quite suprising.

by Aaron, Logan, and Jeremy

The subject was sent to the web address of the game and asked to play without any instruction except to "think out loud."

During play the subject negatively stated that he:
1. Found the interface unintuitive
2. Was guessing and pressing things. "Twist" and the "Last Word" options were mysterious and therefore, he did not press them

Positive statements:
1. Felt like it was the right amount of (limited) time

After the test was over:
1. Did not realize that he could use the keyboard (as informed afterwards)
2. Did not care about his Score
3. "Hated" the game
4. Did not like color scheme
5. Found "Twist" to useless

It should be noted that the subject did not like word games (Scrabble, etc.).

We decided that the following improvements should be given consideration: a) either an onscreen instruction that the keyboard was usable for input or a disabling of the mouse's ability to select letters to allow the user to intuitively start using the keyboard, as the keyboard allows for a more fair game than slowly clicking away at letters; b) an incentive for the player to earn a higher score, perhaps being able to buy hints (definitions, synonyms, etc. to the 6-letter word?) or to purchase more time with score points - though this would immediately lower his or her score, it would give the player more opportunity to advance forward and earn more points; c) more color to add life to the game.

Superhero

The player is placed in a fantasy world where there are two factions at war. The character is a mercenary with an uncanny ability to kill. You as the player get to choose what side of the war you want to be on. The two sides are split between good and evil but if the player chooses to, the player can decide to not partake in the war and instead run jobs for either side and play both sides off each other as a mercenary or they can decide to not be a warrior and be an expert in stealth. If the character chooses to not join a side, he/she will eventually be presented with a situation where they must choose a side or there will be consequences for the avatar.

The player can choose from a wide array of weapons that depends on the stats the user gives the avatar. Through training in the game, the character can learn the skills necessary to wield different weapons. Weapons that will be available: Swords, axe, bow and arrow, knife, and a flail. There will be items in the environment such as rocks, animals, trees (for some), dust, and magical spells.

The game will use the Nintendo Revolution’s controller with the analog stick attachment as its main input device. This control method is the best one available to create an immersive experience that is different from any other game in this genre.

The control input is:

Revolution Controller
A – action (open doors, menu’s, pick up stuff) when in battle used for block
B – use weapon, some weapons require you hold the button
Directional Pad – Weapon select, weapons are mapped onto a direction (up, down, left, right
X – Use magic 1
Y – Use magic 2

Attachment
Analog stick – move character
Z1 – Jump
Z2 – Duck


Melanie-John

Prototype robotic simulation and Natural Motion Controller
Shon Fu and Joe Barnes ©2020

Overview:
This controller is designed to allow a person to use their arms to directly (or indirectly) control a character through arm motion. There are buttons for fingers on the hand portion of the controller, but the primary focus of technology in this controller is its ability to measure the motion of a person’s arm through this controller and provide feedback directly to the muscles of the user (via resistances or vibrations) which should immerse the player in the control of the game character – be it a person, athlete, or giant robot.

Particulars for the purposes of this assignment:
Our controller is designed with the Gundam in mind. Player controls a giant robot. Control of giant robots has been attempted in the past with simple controllers, which lack the true feel of controlling a giant robot. Our controller is designed to allow a player to articulate weapons targeting, ranging, and firing, as well as offer the ability to switch to a manual combat mode where user directly articulates arm movement for use with an in-game shield or plasma saber.

Other benefits:
Our controller not only allows users to use their arms to control a character, it requires a user to get exercise in order to play much like the ever popular dance games. This has potential uses in medical therapy as well as simply getting a gamer to engage in physical activity.
In the near future, the military will be using giant robots to wage wars, and our controller will effectively prepare the soldiers of the future to work together to control a giant robot and kill people – a lot like Japan has trained its teens and swarms of ninja using arcade games.
Portability. This controller system is completely portable – weighing in around only 7kg. The design allows soldiers, children, and old people to easily cart the controller around if they cannot carry it.

Details:
Controller consists of a deployable cabinet, which opens into a system offering the user a helmet with HUD, and two arm-sleeves for control. The sleeves are of a sturdy dual layer design. The system uses an internal sleeve to fit, sense articulated motion, provide the game with heart rate and arm temperature feedback, and an external sleeve to provide heavy feedback such as vibrations, resistance, and shock to the users body. The hand controls offer the user three finger-buttons and two multi-function thumb hats. This allows precise control of various systems in-game such as individual missile guidance for two missiles in every volley (Fig. 1), plasma saber activation, shield transformation, and fist missile release and guidance. Force feedback through the outer sleeve allows the user to feel explosions and impacts to their character, and optional chest pad allows the feeling to be expanded into the users primary body mass for easily simulating a mortar or high-caliber bullet impact as well as nearby heavy weapons explosions.

"Akai" is a first-person action game from the perspective of a man, "Trent," trying to return to his former self. Once a normal civilian, a mysterious accident led to his body and mind being used for military research in the field of nano-science. His hand has become a versatile weapon and tool using nanobot technology, his skills have been trained over many decades, his aging slowed down and memory warped and eliminated through experiments. The result of the research done on him is now used by the corporation to sell their tools of war around the globe and become a dominant force in business and politics. Now, an improbable event has recalled traces of his innocent past, and Trent must know more against the wishes of his military captors.

Our character is a medical doctor, stranded, and ADDICTED. He is stranded in Micronesia after his late sister died in Proxima and he had to book a ticket to appear at her wake across the quadrant. Your objective as this game’s hero, nay, Protagonist, (in fact, Mr. H. [for Herbert] Protagonist) who is addicted to SPACE heroin, is to save the universe (you must strengthen the underlying cohesion of the universe to stop everything from falling to pieces). The only tool that Herbert was able to salvage from the crash is his trusty manual laser revolver. In the game itself, you receive more points for successfully completing tricks with your 6-shooter than killing people. This game draws from the following influences:
· Lost
· ER
· The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
· The Salton Sea
· Spun
· Catz

Here is the interface for our Voice-Based RTS command structure.



An important thing to not is the versitility of the Main Viewscreen and the minimap. For example: you can size up different zones on the minimap into your main screen to view up to 4 different (even non-adjacent) minimap zones into your main screen and control units across them. These are all voice-based because you can't really control it as effectively with just a mouse.

Hi, I'm posting this for Joe, Melanie and Jeremy because Joe doesn't have an account yet ...

GPS enabled game types brainstorming:
While our brainstorming session did not run its full course, we still have a few things that seem to be in the right direction.

MMO conspiracy:
Use your GPS enabled mobile gaming device to find average people with not so average roles in the game. Your seven eleven clerk could be your next informant or mark.. or you could be his. You'll never know until you speak the pass phrase to him. This type of game would allow people to experience the intrigue of a detective or spy story by simply communicating with other people in person. Possible directions for this game include finding the 'head' of the conspiracy group, discovering a secret plot to , or simply meeting new people via a passphrase (once youve met them and spoken your phrases, you both check in and get new targets and phrases).

Continental board games:
Not only are you a piece, the board is your state(, country, or continent).
To make the next move, someone must report from specific geographic coordinates corresponding to a place on the game-board overlay of a territory (size may vary). Requires little to no interaction with strangers except perhaps online somehow to determine how and by whom the next move will be made.

MMO scavenger or person hunts:
Each person has a goal, be it gathering items scattered around a map area or finding a person using their last known GPS coordniates. Goals can very from attempting to track someone down to simple collection. There was a precedent mentioned where the goal of the game is simply to collect things from random locations.

(new addition)
Virtual graffiti:
Players of this game can take pictures of specific GPS locations and modify them with their own overlaid art (think MS paint style). The graffiti is archived at a site online where users can check for existing art at nodes all over a city. Players would have the option of graffiti-ing over an existing graffiti just like you'd expect in a real graffiti-art battle. This game requires not only a GPS enabled mobile gaming device but one with a camera as well. There would be ways to find art by user as well as by location on the website so fans of an artist can see all of his "works" throughout the city.

Real-Time Response

Users command units using their voice. Possible applications include:

RTS (helps with micromanagement by allowing a user to command troops with your voice)
Sports (call out your plays, eg. "Defense!")
Sidekick Adventure/Platformer, eg. Jak and Daxter: Command your sidekick with your voice while you control your character with a controller.

NOTE: Tone could be given utility. If you shout "ATTACK NOW" loudly instead of whispering "please go attack" softly, you'll get a more immediate response. This could also impact the emotions of those you're commanding. If you're consistantly harsh, you could hurt the feelings of your sidekick or troops.

Zany Minigames/Puzzles (eg. Wario Ware Mega Microgames, Inc.)

Telemarketing
Preaching
Waveform Puzzles

Roleplaying

Actual voice interaction with NPCs integrates the players in the fantasy world.
Certain classes impacted by voice (eg. Bard)
Distance based chatting--if other PCs and NPCs are far away, you can either not hear them or hear them faintly.

Game Show

Host your own game show!
Like You Don't Know Jack, but one person serves as the host. Niche topics, like WWII history, would draw specific subsets of fans that would allow for expandable content.

Education

Teaching singing as a skill.
Programming for educational interactivity.

Performance Based Games (eg. Dance Dance Revolution, Karakoke Revolution, any sports game)

People usually have to sit around waiting for their turn. But what if when spectators boo or cheer, it actually impacts the game? Taking DDR as an exaple, if you get cheered you might get more points, but the arrows could come faster. This concept is adaptable to just about any game with spectators.

1) Top selling/most popular mobile device games/GPS
It seems that the most popular mobile games are clearly derived from big hits on consoles such as Space Invader or Pac Man.

As a result a GPS mobile game called “Human Pac Man” was one of the first GPS location game prototype:
“Where the original 1980 arcade Pac-Man used a joystick to manoeuvre a small, yellow avatar through an energy grid, eating power points whilst being chased by "Ghosts", Human Pac-Man is a real-world-physical, social, and wide area mobile entertainment system that is built upon the concepts of ubiquitous computing, tangible human-computer interaction, and wide-area entertainment networks.
Players interact with each other and the digitised, 3D "Pacworld" environment overlaid on their field of vision through the use of wearble computers, a headset and goggles. One player acts as Pac-Man and the others roleplay the Ghosts, tracking each other down real-world streets or corridors with GPS receivers and motion technology linked to a central computer by a wireless LAN network. Extra helpers are linked to the system through the internet, making it possible for anyone in the world, not limited by her geographical location, to take part in the game and send players messages. Helpers can also"fly" into any part of the virtual world and advise the mobile players on the positions of all the cookies, treasures, and enemy mobile players in the game.”

Two popular GPS location game available now are:
A)“Swordfish”
“Using GPS technology in your mobile phone, your position is determined via a fish-finder so you can see where the nearest school of virtual fish is located in relation to your current position – just like real fishing! The fish finder also features navigational assistance by providing the direction of the closest school of fish and an optional localized street map* of your current location with virtual schools of fish.
Once you hook a fish – the game begins an arcade-style fishing gameplay. You try to reel-in the fish while keeping in mind that too much tension will snap the line and too little tension will lose the fish. And of course, the bigger the swordfish, the more of a fight it will put out

B)“The RayGun”
“A mobile phone loaded with RayGun software emits "spectral" energy that lets you attract and track ghosts. Unfortunately, the energy also annoys the ghosts, so you'd better "ionize" them before they get to you. To aim the raygun at a ghost, you move toward it. Moving quickly increases the raygun's range. You can adjust your beam to long and narrow (good for zapping ghosts while they're still far away) or short and wide (good for zapping them when they're closing in on you). The longer you play, the more ghosts you attract, and the faster you have to move to stay ahead.”

The website http://www.gpsgames.org/ offers downloads for GPS mobile games.

2) Who plays?
The report added that kids between the ages of 13 and 17 (60%) are nearly three times as likely as adults (23%) to be mobile gamers. A mobile phone is the best alternative when video gamers are away from their game consoles, PCs, and handhelds. Consumers who play games on other devices are twice as likely to play on their cell phones, as well. There is some interest in the general cell phone market as well as 27% of wireless subscribers play games on their and another 6% confess
to being interested in playing.

3)Genres that appeal these players
Puzzle and card games appeal the most to mobile device users since they
require less coordinated input. The most popular GPS games seem to involve movement within the real world to collect imaginary/digital objects in the game world, often for little other gain than obtaining the game items (ex: Treasure Hunt, Mogi). Otherwise, some games use the players movement in real space to simulate different attack vehicles movements in a simulated space (ex: Blister’s Torpedo Bay, GPS::Tron).

4) Characters/scenarios that appeal
In general it seems that the trend would be to follow whatever is popular on consoles with probably a bigger focus on games involving more than 1 player, since the GPS allows people to play against each other in real life. On the other hand, the reasons for playing mobile games are different than consoles, as the top Two (2) reason why people are into mobile gaming are to kill time or to alleviate boredom.

5)Activities that appeal these players
In general it seems that simple tasks that require very rudimentary input are the most attractive as can be seen from games like Raygun where simply moving your body creates all the input. The GPS enabled devices also seem to incorporate a lot of hunting and searching in real life as input for the game. This corresponds to the popularity of Geocaching where people use the internet (as a place to post coordinates of prize-filled caches) and the GPS devices in a sort of digital orienteering.

6)My conclusion
Since more and more mobile phones are equipped with GPS, we definitely think that GPS mobile games are part of the future of mobile games.
For now high prices remain a significant issue for mobile GPS gaming, which explains why the industry hasn’t really taken off, while an unoptimized and difficult controls further hampered user experience.
The cell phone technologies are improving relatively fast, and it seems very probable that within a year or two all cell phones may be equipped with GPS as well as bigger screen to facilitate users’ gaming.
Finally, one important advantage of the mobile game is its capacity to introduce games to the big and eclectic market of cell phone users.

Top-selling or most popular games that use voice:

Halo 2
Lifeline
You Don't Know Jack
Socom II
Karaoke Revolution
Pokémon Channel

Who plays these games? Who might play these games if the voice features were more integrated?

Females
Larger Groups of People
Families

Genres that appeal to these players:

Puzzles
Group Adventure
Interactive Arts
Sports
Tactical War Games
Party Games

Characters/scenarios that appeal to these players:

Singers/Divas
Cute/Cartoon

Activities that might make good use of this technology:

Wargames (command troops with your voice)
Music Games
Sports (talk out your plays)
Management (fire your employees)
Pets (talk to your pets)
Beatboxing
Partner-Based Adventure (voice-controlled sidekick)