Current Context

This week I took the liberty to explore more “state of the art” projects in a similar field as my project is going to be in. Since I have already looked at trailblazing games such as the Old School playstation 2 classic Rez and the more recent Beat Saber I decided to expand to more platforms and research some rhythm games that could help inspire my project. On IOS I actually found a game that was pretty cool called Geometry Dash. The game designed by Robtop features a 2D environment where the user plays as a box moving from the left to right, with geometry shaped obstacles that have to be jumped over as you approach them. Each level of this game has it’s own theme song and although the game could be played without sound, the sound definitely aids the gameplay as there are jumps every time there is a note change in the music. Every time the user hits an obstacle they simply start over. However I believe that the sound is the appeal in this game. It features catchy music that once you’ve heard a couple of times can actually memorize and help time your jumps as you progress through the game. I would like implore a similar strategy in the making of my project and have the music be about 1 to 2 minutes long and be simple enough to be able to catch on to and recognize when changes will be happening in order to make the movements necessary to progress through the level.

In terms of the movements the player would be making, I took what Professor Ault said to me about trying to utilize the kinect movements as much as I can to create a more immersive gaming experience seriously and started researching some kinect rhythm games. I thought a game that does this very well was Dance Central 3. I had not been exposed to the game because as a Playstation fan I felt like I can’t cheat on my system. However after watching people play online I quickly saw the appeal to the game. This game actually uses pre-existing songs and lets the player choose a character to perform the song with. It features the users actual kinect signature on the top right while the screen is filled with a dance environment depending on the song that is chosen and the character performing the moves that go along with the song. Depending on how well the kinect signature matches the movements on screen the game grades the user on how well they are dancing. This is actaully a lot of movement and I don’t know if I would be able to execute anything as flawless as this but it definitely inspired me to add more elements to the game other than just turning left and right. I think I could use this in a way that the player would have to do more basic movements such as raising their arms or jumping/ ducking over or under obstacles in the way. Combining that with the moving environment, I think I could create a very immersive and exciting environment for the user in VR.