Piers Bishop

PHECF-LPFASGR:FOD1K is an installation project realized for a three week class project.

 

I wanted to try myself at a game on a larger scale, with it being some kind of hybrid between a videogame and an interractive installation.

 

I needed an idea for a game that would be as easy to understrand when looking at it than when playing it, something easy so that most people would feel ok in trying it out... But also something that looks funky and seems fun to play !

 

I wanted this game to feel like it was designed and imagined by a kid. So you get to control a giant robot using a giant control-panel-like controller that's made out of cardboard and tin foil, as if a child had built it to fuel his imagination process while playing at giant robots.

 

The graphic style of the game also reflects this, with simple drawings stuuck on planes, looking like cardboard cutouts.

 

For the player to feel a bit more like he/she was controlling a giant robot, I had the game's visuals be projected on the wall in from of him/her. This also influenced a bit how the game was played, since the players had to frequently look down in order to know where to put their hands. But most importantly, that's how I thought the game should be played to look like a kid playng make-believe.

 

I actually used a Makey-Makey for the controller, and the user has to wear "imagination receptive" piece of headgear that's linked to the "ground" of the Makey-Makey.

 

It was a really interretsing experience to watch people try the thing out, gamers and non-gamers alike.

 

Gamers weren't necessarilly better at this than non-gamers. Most gamers kept one hand on the "Move" controlls and the other one on a weapon "key", completely ignoring one weapon in order to have a more familiar layout.

 

Non-gamers were usually panicky and cautious, but turned out to do better than gamers, overall, and ended up being more familiar with the layout of the controller, since they didn't hesitate to switch hands in order to cover the whole panel much more easily and swiftly.

 

Different people were intrigued by different aspects of the project, but most were surprised by the controller actually working, despite it looking like a kid made it in art class. And even more so by the fact that it only worked if the silly helmet-thing was worn !

 

Credits :

Me.

In-game musics from MapleStory.

Video music is Forest World's Pleasant Grove

 

Software :

Unity 3D

Krita