Idea #1: Video game
My first idea isn’t very wild but i have always had a love of fighting games from all types of genres of it. The problem with most fighting games for people that don’t play them is that they are not made for casual players. Though smash is a game that does have fighting in it, I would not consider smash to be a fighting game because it involves to much random elements to the game play and how the victor is decided. My fighting game would be more centered around a 3d concept instead of 2d and would be fun for not experienced players but could have a high skill cap to it.
Idea #2: Action figure
I have always loved designing new and interesting characters in my drawings and giving them their own flare and personality. I have also been taking the digital fabrication class so i am becoming well acquainted with everything they have to offer. From 3d printing and laser cutting to the cnc machine and printing out stickers. So i could design and draw a character of something i have made up and then proceed to model them in 3d to be printed out. They would be able to stand and pose with joints that i have experimented on in the past to make and would function pretty fluidly. Then i would take extra care to make them as detailed and interesting as possible by laser engraving specific things on to the character and adding stickers in some areas to make them stand out, they would also be painted.
Idea #3: Combing the real world and games
So in this crazy idea i want to combine both of my passions to create a totally new and interesting fighting game experience. This would involve the most research out of all the ideas because it would be a dream project. In a normal game the controller you are using is a normal hand held controller or a keyboard but this would be a totally different experience. The controller that you would be using wouldn’t even have buttons on it. You would be using the action figure of your character to fight the other opponent. I would have a camera set up to capture the motions of the action figures being controlled and on the joints and fists and feet would be stickers that the camera would recognized for points of interest just like how it can be used in AR examples and games. I have not totally thought out the game play of the characters and how it would work but i think it would be extremely interesting to combine toys and video games.
VIDEO GAME
Sounds like an interesting direction, but there aren’t a lot of specifics for me to grab onto at the moment. How would this game stand out from all the other existing fighting games? Seems to me that most people would describe Smash as a fighting game for casual players. It’s the non-fighting stuff that makes it more casual and accessible. Big question… do you have any experience with game development? I know you’ve got the graphics experience. And I know I’ve asked you to challenge yourself on this project and do something you’re not currently able to do… but how confident are you that you can get up-to-speed on custom building the necessary logic and mechanics of a fighting game? What tools would you use?
ACTION FIGURE
This idea has a lot of potential and it sounds like one you’ll find personally motivating. I’d encourage you to consider how there might be some back-and-forth between a physical character and its on-screen counterpart. You could show off some of your illustration and animation skills on-screen, but maybe trigger those animations through manipulation of the physical figure and maybe some accompanying props. Reminds me a little of the hybrid physical/screen game you talked about last week, where the movement of the physical pieces impacts what’s happening on the screen.
COMBINING REAL WORLD AND GAMES
Hah! I wrote my comments on your previous idea before reading this one. I think there’s something really interesting and innovative here. I’m not sure that the mo-cap / sticker / computer vision approach is the only way to go. There are probably other approaches that are technically easier. I’d encourage you to investigate that — what are some of the ways you might use the position / pose / props of a physical character and its environment as input to a computer? Rather than posing a single figure, for example, you might have several versions of that figure in different poses — doing different actions — and you just swap those figures out on some kind of reader (reminds me of Skylanders).
The third idea is incredibly interesting in itself. The thought of combining the virtual space with the physical reality is an idea that many have attempted to create and till this day are still in the midst of discovering the capabilities if Augmented reality. I’m curious as to what programs your going to use for this thesis if you decided to go with it. I would recommend delving into so programs like Unity or Unreal as they both have AR capabilities. If you would like some extra help, I would highly recommend surfing the web or youtube for any tutorials that could help with this endeavor. Good luck Jared 🙂