#computationalarts

[sunnymothman200]

Ghostboi in the Land of the Dead: Reflections on the Work in Progress Show

I recently had a work in progress show for my latest game, "Ghostboi in the Land of the Dead". The game uses a controller made out of pink, silicone rubber which is in the shape of a pixellated Ghost. The ghost controller was made by 3D printing a mold, placing sensors inside of it, and then pouring dyed silicone rubber into the mold. Each of the arms contains a single tilt switch, while the eyes and teeth contain a capacitive touch sensor. Players move the arms to move the Ghost and press on its eyes or teeth to perform other actions in the game.

Watching people interact with the controller during the show provided very useful data on how I could improve the game. Players were first confused by how to move Ghostboi and had trouble moving him using the arms. They also had trouble pressing his teeth, while moving the arms in order to eat the burgers. They also did not really know what the difference was between pressing his eyes and his teeth.

As a game designer, guaging the difficulty of a game is challenging because I spend months developing the controls and playing the game. Therefore, I'm an "expert" player while the people I show it to will be playing it for the first time and do not know how everything works. I think that this iteration of Ghostboi proved to be too difficult for the public at large, although some experienced gamers were able to figure out how to use it pretty quickly.

As I work on further iterations, I would like to keep the jankiness and the difficulty of the controls. The game is about a ghost who is struggling to stay out of the afterlife, therefore the way in which the player interacts with Ghostboi should mirror that struggle. The difficulty of the controller adds to the narrative. However, I think the interaction is too complex and I am thinking of simplifying it to either one or zero capacitive touch inputs. If the players only have to focus on moving the arms, the controller still has the "janky" and difficult feeling, while still being accessible to most players.

I also received some very interesting feedback in terms of the materiality of the controller and the interaction as a whole. One visiting lecturer commented on how the interaction was too reminiscent of a joystick and push controller. She asked "As someone who is making an alternative controller game, you have an infinite amount of possibilities, why have you chosen to stick to an input that is so reminiscent of a traditional controller?". Another lecturer mentioned that he liked that the interactions resembled a traditional input such as a joystick. The shape of the controller is so alien, therefore he believed it was helpful if the interaction was familiar. Finally, one of my classmates felt that the interactions I had in place were completely overlooking the enjoyable and interesting aspects of interacting with the flesh-like silicone material. The appeal of this material was that she was able to stretch it and bend it, but the interaction was only localised to areas such as the arms, eyes and teeth.

The above reactions have shaped how I would like to think about the Ghostboi controller as I work towards the final show and beyond. In regards to the final show, I have a limited amount of time and in additioning to having a functioning game, I need to have a polished installation, as well. Therefore, I would like to keep the current inputs. The inputs are closely tied to the arcade-style game and I do not have enough time to revise the whole game. i will place the inputs in a way that encourages the player to stretch and contort the controller, thus maximizing the experience of interacting with the silicone rubber.

In future iterations that go beyond the final degree show, I would like to introduce mechanics that focus on the elasticity of the controller and that are tied to contorting it and moving it around. I would also like to move away from the screen as a visual output on focus on bringing audio-visual outputs into the larger environment.

[sunnymothman200]

Ghostboi: Progress notes

Last year, I created a very short narrative game called Ghostboi in the Land of the Dead using Openframeworks. The game used a joystick to move a small, pink ghost within a space. If the ghost intersected with certain objects, story text would appear. Although the game was quite simple, I enjoyed the ghost character that I had come up with and the strange afterlife he lived in. I wanted to see whether I could make a mechanics-heavy game that took place in this world. I also wanted to challenge myself with layering another level of meaning to the mechanics. I was really interested in experimenting with touch-based controllers and capacitive sensors. I was wondering how touch-based mechanics could be imbued with narrative meaning in the Ghostboi universe. Because this was to be shown as a work in progress and was largely an experiment, I chose to focus on functionality and mechanics and did not focus as much on aesthetics and artistry. Therefore, I used a simple exposed wire as my touch controller. The player would have to touch the wire in order to generate an effect on the screen. I carried the element of ghostburgers from the previous game into the new iteration. Ghostboi moves back and forth across the screen and tries to eat ghostburgers. However, the ghostburgers come in three different colors and the player has to make Ghostboi match the color of the burger. The player changes the color of Ghostboi by squeezing the wire very tightly, moderately, or very lightly. The intensity of the squeeze is mapped to a particular color. The prototype was a successful first pass despite there being a lag in registering changes in squeeze strength. This iteration was a strong proof of concept, however, I felt that the connection between the squeezing mechanic and the narrative context of the game was weak and lacked meaning. The experience of the game would not have been much more different had it used a traditional set of controls. The next step in the development of this project is to figure out how to use the mechanic of touch as a narrative tool in the game. I spent some time looking at various examples of alternative controller games in order to see how tactility, touch and materiality could be used as mechanics. One game which resonated with me was Bot Party, a game where each player holds a square “bot” which lights up. There are a total of three bots, but the number of people that can play is unlimited. If the bots light up, the respective players need to hold hands. If all of the bots light up, all of the players need to hold hands. If they do not, they lose points in the game. Many people can join the game and use their hands to connect the players. By making the act of holding hands one of the key mechanics, the game pushes our understanding of boundaries,and the role that touch plays in how we relate to others. Bot Party also provides a valuable case study of how players choose to incorporate touch into gameplay, whether it is incorporated through holding hands, hugging, kissing, high-fiving, fist-bumping and in some cases even punching. Although, I envision Ghostboi as a single-player game for now, I would like to explore the role of tactility and how it can frame a player’s connection to the game. I would like to experiment with creating a fleshy controller, in the shape of a ghost that players have to contort, move and bend in order to control the ghost character on the screen. By twisting his body, the player serves as a human, living conduit, through the act of holding his earthly remains, they allow him to feel what it was like to be alive.