May 3rd, 12pm - 3pm, ZML

I've had quite a few people that said they were interested, but not to many mentioned that they will be bringing a Wii and the game. If you can, please do! As it stands, I will have two wiimotes and two gamecube controllers, so four can be played on my system.... but I want to get as many going as possible! If we can get enough people to bring their Wiis and copies of Mario Kart, we can have up to 14 screens running (with up to 12 racing against each other)!

Anyone that can bring their Wii and game, please contact me ASAP with your friend code. I'll send the collected friend codes out on Friday so we can get that taken care of ahead of time.

We are looking for some test subjects playtesters for a small handful of projects. We will be using the usability lab in the game lab (RZC 209) on Monday 3/31, Tuesday 4/1, Thursday 4/3, and Friday 4/4.

We are looking for people willing to give around 30 minutes or so to test several projects; however, it probably won't take that long. Please reply with any times that you might be available.

"The two truly excellent games demonstrated this year [at EGW], were, interestingly enough, both created by Matt Korba. If someone doesn't send this boy a Town Car to get him out of Soho soon, I'll do it myself."

"With flying saucers on strings and a boss battle (against another invisible monster), Transparentor is easily the most crazy cool game I've seen all year. I look forward to enjoying it in a fine gallery showing uptown."

In RTH 321 on December 18th, several projects will be presented and YOU ARE INVITED!

The Advanced Game Projects & Serious Games will be presented from 11:15a - 12:45p, but the whole event is from 9a - 2p.

Go here for more information.

Congrats to thatgamecompany for winning the 2007 USC Stevens Institute for Innovation's Student Innovator Showcase and The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom for making it to the finals! Congrats should also be given to all of the entrants to it as well!

IMD was wonderfully represented at the showcase, with Matt Korba and Paul Bellezza showing off The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom, Mike Stein presenting Empire, Ben Sherman and Max Geiger with Errantry, and Kellee Santiago, Jenova Chen and Vincent Diamante representing thatgamecompany.

link (click on Gamers take on politics)

oh yeah... that redistricting game and a couple other people are there too...

An Interactive Guitar Stand

Project: Valkyrie started off as a joke. I was trying to think what would be the most over-the-top thing I can do for the thesis show next year to show off my project. Something that would be most likely at the same booth in E3 that would be showing off my project. My first thought, obviously, was to have a booth babe dressed to look like a rock-inspired valkyrie or some other Norse-type. After thinking more about it and speaking with Diana, I remembered that, within the game, the player receives his magical axe at the feet of the statue of a valkyrie. I thought it would be funny to actually make that statue. It would be a guitar stand with a statue of a valkyrie. When approached, a spotlight would shine down upon the statue and the person approaching with a rock-inspired heavenly choir playing, getting brighter and louder as they got closer.

When Perry then asked about what we wanted to do for our final projects, saying that it was preferably if it had something to do with our thesis, the idea of the stand came back to me and I mentioned it. I said that I could use what I had learned in the semester towards it, as well as needing to learn how to manipulate an outside light. When he said it was possible, I realized that it had to be done.

So I went about talking with Perry and trying to figure out what I needed to get it done. I had to learn how to use a distance sensor (slightly different than the other sensors I had used earlier), a servo (something I've never touched before) and have it turn a belt to manipulate an external dimmer.

As you can see by the above picture, I was able to mount everything to some wood I found in my parents' garage. This is only a prototype of the final FINAL project that I plan to have at the thesis show. As such, I won't be using an actual valkyrie statue (but maybe a printout of one will make an appearance) and the part of the heavenly choir will be played by Moonsorrow's Pakanajuhla. The components are mounted in such a way that they can be removed later, just in case I need to put them into something more visually appealing.

So, how does it work? The distance sensor registers the distance to the nearest object in front of it, and sends that information to the arduino. The arduino calculates the position the servo should have and sends that to the servo, which turns to the appropriate spot. As it turns, it moves the belt which turns the dimmer for the light. In addition, the position is printed out and caught by a Max/MSP patch to change the volume of a piece of music.

In operation (all distances approx.):

From about 6 feet away.

From about 4.5 feet away.

From about 3 feet away.

From about 1.5 feet away.

From about 0.5 a foot away.

The part of the statue will be played by a picture of the character Valkyrie from Marvel Comics.

Hopefully I'll be able to find someone that can craft a statue of some sort for the final show.

The purpose of Project: Valkyrie is to bring the player into the magic circle before they even begin playing the actual game. Their first interaction with the world within RagnaRokk will be to interact with a live action version of something actually within the game. Picking up the magical ax/guitar from the statue will be their first step into the game in order to help promote their suspension of disbelief.

12:00 - 12:20:	Mike Brazil

12:25 - 12:45:	Matt Korba

12:50 - 1:10:	Jesse Vigil

1:15 - 1:35:	Garrett Rodrigue

1:40 - 2:00:	Paul Belleza

2:05 - 2:25:	Victoria Moran

12:00 - 12:20:	Jorge Fernandez

12:25 - 12:45:	Mike Stein

12:50 - 1:10:	Scott Gillies

1:15 - 1:35:	Ken Leung

1:40 - 2:00:	Anthony Ko

2:05 - 2:25:	Marc Tuters

THESIS COMMITTEE

A Thesis Committee consists of three members: in most cases two CTIN faculty members and one outside advisor. The outside advisor may be from industry or from another USC department. Each thesis student will designate, from their thesis committee, one key faculty member and one key outside advisor who will, along with the CTIN555 instructor, be responsible for signing a Thesis Gating Sheet (TGS) four times throughout the year.

GATE ONE

Proposal

Research

By the beginning of the fall semester at the latest, thesis students will begin to keep a running bibliography of research and prior art to be posted on the division website.

Presentations

Over the course of the fall semester, several CTIN511 seminars may be devoted to presentations by thesis students of their project's progress. Thesis committee members are expected to attend at least one of these presentations. Wednesday, September 13 has been set-aside for the first presentation by the 555 class.

GATE TWO

Presentation: Exhibition

At the end of the fall semester (Thursday, December 7th) , students will mount a one-day 'work-in-progress' exhibition at the 555 space, and will present a verbal defense of their project, in which they will outline their project goals, progress to date (including user feedback), and their plan for completion of their project. Thesis committee members will be expected to attend both of these events, which will be open to the IMD community. At this time, students will secure the second signatures on their TGS, passing through the Second Gate.

Research

Students are expected to keep their research bibliographies current and submit them for review to their thesis committee.

GATE THREE

Presentation: Defense & Paper

Midway through the spring semester, students will present their final verbal defense, and will submit their final Thesis Paper. Rather than a retrospective account of the thesis project, the Thesis Paper should focus on the ideas and processes behind it, as well as highlighting the results of the work thus far. Based on their defense and paper, students can secure the third signatures on their TGS. After passing through this Third Gate, the goal will be for students to feel comfortable pushing the boundaries of their project, and to focus their energies entirely on the final exhibition.

GATE FOUR

Presentation: Exhibition & Documentation

At the end of the spring semester, students will be responsible for designing and mounting a Thesis Exhibition of their projects. They will participate in a short video documentation of their projects and the exhibition, to be incorporated into a presentation for friends, family, and the IMD community during Graduation Week. Following the exhibition opening, students will secure the final signatures on their TGS, thus passing through the Fourth Gate.

NOTES:

Every effort should be made to have outside thesis advisors attend 555a functions. Should this not be possible, then students should make arrangements for video and/or audio teleconferencing with their advisors during presentations, as well as making sure that their outside advisors have all necessary paperwork and presentation materials well before the presentation time. If your outside advisors will not be making presentations, ideally, they will have already signed-off on your presentation (if appropriate at that step), and will be able to take questions by phone or email from other committee members if needed. Also, be prepared to describe them to other committee members, having a copy of thier CV or resume would help in this regard.

While the Gate Two exhibition (and presentation) is scheduled for Thursday, December 7th, there is a good chance we will want to have the exhibiiton up on Friday, December 8th as well - so it might be nice to keep this day available for a Friday exhibition that more people could come to. This is not currently scheduled, however.

Beat Box is a unique mixing tool that allows the user to mix drum, bass, and a collection of other random samples to produce a variety of musical experiences. The more a door is open, the louder the individual track is, and when a door is closed, a new track is randomly selected. As decoration for Beat Box, each section contains various objects that led to an alternate interpretation of the title of the project.