Dancinator or crazynator? I don't know what I was thinking when I was thinking over and over about this crazy combination of Simon, Twister and Dance Dance Revolution. For the people that are not sure what I am talking about, I will first explain this different games. I will also maybe include a (crazy) video game that I found entertaining and very fun to memorise with rhythm and music: Space Channel 5.
Before I explain the influences on where I got this ideas, and then putting toguether this exertion project, I think it will be unlikely that the group will like it, It would be a very expensive project to produce and really really hard to program and come up with the hardware needed to pull and put all this toguether. Still... I think its a great idea and id like to share what I had in mind in the last week just after the first Lecture with Floyd.
Simon.
This is a computer game where it repeats a secuence of colours and sounds by starting by one, and then complicating the sequence of colors/notes until the player finds a dificulty to remember the whole sequence and then he loses. How the sequence is created is by randomly choosing a color for every added note of the sequence. If the player presses the wrong button/color in the sequence it plays a error sound and it restarts.
In my project idea, the buttons would be place around the player in diferent 3 diferent levels and in 4 diferent directions (front, back, right and left)
The picture I suplied has 12 colours and its suposed to be a funny Photoshoped version, but its the one I have uploaded because I wanted my Project to be challenging and I thought that twelf buttons would to for the final project.
To try a virtual form of Simon: Play here
Twister
I supose that most of you have heard about Twister.
Twister is a large plastic mat that is placed on the floor. The Plastic Mat has four diferent colours and the users must touch the colours corresponding at what colour and feet or arm the spinner was randomly selected. The fact that the user must touch the colours with either hands or feet it is what I want to highlight.
Dance Dance Revolution
The player in DDR must dance on the keypads when the arrows on the screen meet the line. This is a physical exertion game because the Player has to dance in order to touch the arrows in time instead of pressing buttons.
Space Channel 5
Using a similar concept than Simon, but using a virtual on rails enviroment where the player (Ulala) needs to press the buttons in other that the aliens specify (the character dances when you press the buttons in correct order) in order to save the captured civilians and to shoot the Aliens. The game offered amazing soundtrack with a 70s sytle in the distance future. The game was very strange for most of my friends and could not capture what I felt when playing this game. It was very challenging because you had to press the buttons not only in order, but also in rhythm with the music.To have a look on how Space Channel 5 was Look here
In this introduction video of Space Channel five the player presses all the buttons perfectly, but if the player does the wrong moves or loses the hears the music goes slower and less people you saved followed you. I would easily buy a re-realesed version
Now for the project I had in mind.
Dancinator
For now it looks like a set of lights or speakers. But the sketch idea is based on four poles/sticks that hold big enough to touch/kick/hit balls with lights and sounds and stands around in a circle. The Main Function of the device is to light up a color with rhythm and adding a secuence with time (like simon) The originatily (if you want to call that) with this Exertion Game idea, is that the player has to move up, down and with his/her legs and hands locate and press the diferent sensors in order. If the player presses the a button/ball in wrong order then the game system restarts with only a one sequence, and then adding up just how Simon works, but with having the buttons positioned in a 3d enviroment where it would cause great exercise, the players can practice some form of dance where the users have to repeat a sequence. Other people around can look at the players to groove and do moves while they rememember the other that they have to press the buttons/lights.I also wanted to have Blind people and Deaf people in mind, So I had lights and individual speakers in each button. Also if the players want to take a diferent mode and challenge the player and self blind with a cloth to press the buttons in order without seeing.
This seems like a very big project but I am happy that I came up with this. Now I can concentrate to see the ideas that the rest of the team has and comment on what Project looks more realistic and easier to produce.
I also created a colored version of the Draft Sketch. I would be very happy if people had a look on the full version and gave me some constructive criticism! -Over and out ;)
At the moment it looks like a set of speakers, but its suposed to be semi transparent balls/buttons with lights and speakers inside, that sound for the sequence that the player must touch, and sounds when the player touches.Note: I have been writing this up until really late and I think I am going to collapse. There must be a lot of grammatical/spelling errors. I would apreciate if anyone from my team can have a look! If not I shall edit this post sometime soon! Thx.
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Hey Paco.
ReplyDeleteThis is great work! I really appreciated the visuals and links you provided. In fact, playing Simon online got me back in touch with how I felt when playing it as a child. To be honest, I was never really captivated by Simon as a kid. I think the game works primarily on the basis of 'easy fun', yet the reward for my curiosity was predictable, so I found myself getting bored quickly. (I.E. Pressing the lights correctly just led to more of the same.)
So, with that in mind, I believe The Dancinator could work, provided we provide something more rewarding for the player along with the increased difficulty. Like different lighting effects or more exciting music.
In fact, this makes me think of an artwork that was on exhibition at Experimenta: Utopia Now. It is titled 'International Dance Party', and basically, it was a jukebox that responded to movement. The more you danced, the more it pumped up the music and played an awesome light show.
What do you think of a game that would have a touch sensitive 'Twister' style mat on the floor, and a sound and visual system that is informed by the player's performance on the mat? This may be cheaper and easier, and rather than touching the semi-transparent balls, the player could dance where a light pops up on the mat. This point would move around and the player would need to touch/step on it to win, much like in Twister. The game would start out easy, with one shifting light on the floor, leading up to two. When three and four points appear, they player would need to use his or her hands to keep playing. This could be fun, because the player would need to 'breakdance' in order to get a high score, and to keep the spectacular light and sound show rolling.
Anyway, I think the Dancinator concept has potential. Let me know what you think.