Meet the Pest Controllers -- Week Ending 26 Nov

The fourth and final prototype for this semester is under way! We have a fantastic and unique opportunity this time around: we are the first developers in the world to take a shot at creating games with skin-stretch haptic output technology! We are working with a new type of game controller under development by Dr. William Provancher from our own university. The controller has a grippy nub embedded in each thumbstick that slightly stretches the skin in different directions as a form of haptic feedback. Our task is to produce a game prototype that utilizes this feedback as a primary form of output to the player.

Luckily, we have an excellent team that is more than up to the challenge. Let's meet them!

The Team
- Team/Developer Name: The Pest Controllers
- Members
     - Christine Olinquevitch
          - Job: Artist
          - Status: Locked 'n' loaded
          - Skills: Adobe Illustrator wonderkid; also Portuguese

     - Jorge Elola
          - Job: Engineer
          - Status: 110% (for him, it actually IS possible)
          - Skills: Maya wiz, level design, and Super Smash Bros. dominator; also Spanish and some Mandarin
     - Derek Higgs
          - Job: Game Designer and Engineer
          - Status: Caught 'em all!
          - Skills: Incredible work ethic, problem solving, and Super Smash Bros. master; also incredible generosity (Would you let a fellow student borrow your brand new copy of Skyward Sword over Thanksgiving Break? This guy did.)
     - Troy Johnson
          - Job: Producer
          - Status: FIGHT!
          - Skills: Supplying candy and Super Smash Bros. contender; also Swedish

The Prototype (or, what we hope turns into the beginning of a legitimate game)
- Title: Critters (We found out our original working title, "Critter Crunch," is already a game title, so we've trimmed it to infringe on a movie series trademark for the time being, instead)
- Status: On the trail to glory
- Skills: Giving players a new kind of sensory experience than has never been felt before

So here's the skinny: Derek came up with the fantastic concept of pinning down creepy-crawlies and then actually feeling them squirm underneath your thumb as you "wrestle" them into submission. With that as the hook mechanic of our game, we decided to wrap it up in a Space Invaders scenario. Instead of blasting space creatures, players must pin the invading critters into submission one at a time, then finally take on their captains and generals to ensure freedom from bug domination.

Derek and Jorge are hard at work engineering input and output systems based on the new technology as well as laying out the framework of this real-time action game. Christine, under the direction of Derek, is creating fantastic concept art for the various enemies, all based on the charming style of LocoRoco (that way, players won't get too squeamish…we hope). Troy keeps himself busy as Scrum master, art and tech researcher, and process facilitator (trust me, he does actual work on occasion).

Check back often for development updates and new art! With our razor clearly defined (use the haptic device to simulate a bug squirming) and a unified end goal, we are all pumped to show what we can do in the next 3 weeks!

- Troy

H2Outcome? Successful! -- Week Ending 19 Nov

H2Outcome is a success! We completed a running version of the game in time for our presentation to Becky Menlove, Director of Exhibits at the Utah Museum of Natural History. Despite a few technical hiccups in getting the game working on their system, the pitch was well received. We'll be honored to have our game cycle along with a few others in the Utah Futures installation!

Creating this game in under a month has been a wild ride, but our team pulled together to make it happen in fine fashion. The multiplayer vision we invested in payed off, and we ended up with a product perfect for the 5-touchscreens-1-collective-projection installation. Make selections, see their results, receive rewards based on your decisions, and learn something while you're at it--that's been the goal of our project, and the team pulled it off.

We're excited for the opportunity to optimize the program a bit, and then to finally see it in action once it's officially installed for public use.

Many thanks to Becky Menlove and her staff at the Museum; to Boston Productions, Inc. for the research and resources they readily provided us; to the administration and faculty of the Master Games Studio at the University of Utah; and to our awesome team who pulled together under incredibly stressful circumstances to make this game a reality.

Check out the trailer below, then be sure to go play it at the Museum within a few weeks!

- Troy

Home Stretch and Due Credit -- Week Ending 12 Nov

With only one week of development and presenting left, our project has reached critical mass. With 90% of the pieces finalized, it's now simply a matter of fitting the puzzle together into a playable game.

For this post, we want to recognize the fantastic contributions of the individual team members.

- Kamron dominated the network coding and laid out overall tasks of the engineers.
- George implemented the ActionScript and Flash functionality of the player stations and how the clients communicated their individual effects to the game server.
- Eric scripted the animations that reflect player choices on the valley and implemented the list of choices and their effects.
- Ashley created the touchscreen art and layout, as well as the valley backdrop projection and its various states.
- Adam created icons to represent valley resources and awards given for distinct choices.
- Jesse acted as designer, blog creator, Flash mentor, and technical producer.
- Troy acted as designer, facilitated client communication, wrote game text, and worked as art producer.
- Our powers combined, we've nearly completed H2Outcome!

We're excited to refine the game until it's as fun as possible! We're officially presenting it to our client, the Utah Museum of Natural History, this Wednesday. Wish us luck!

- Troy

Managing Resources -- Week Ending 5 Nov

The game is coming along! Our engineers have the network and gameplay framework nailed down, so now it's all about plugging in the researched ecosystem data. With that step, the system reactions and game flow should fall into place, and our game will be on its way to technical completion!

Of course, I'd be doing a disservice to everyone if I didn't mention the artists' work. Without their efforts, the engineers' labor could never be seen or experienced. Luckily, our art team has created a slick, user-friendly interface through which to interact with the game. The gameplay is all about making smart water management choices, and their vision has made this process clean, simple, and efficient. Of course, they're also hard at work a gorgeous backdrop of the Salt Lake Valley as the main visual set piece. It's looking fantastic, and we're excited with the progress that's been made.

We've got one more week of hard work on development, and we can't wait to see the results as all the pieces fit together in the coming days. Check back again soon, but here's a shot of the touchscreen interface in the meantime!

- Troy