Wednesday 30 March 2011

It's technical

So long time no post, or rather a lot going on to prevent a post being released.

You see I don't wish to release a rather dull post with out any pretty graphics for readers, and most of my work has been graphic free.
Well that's not true but unless you wish to see version four of the silver path released as individual trees and dirt there isn't that much for you.

But how about a progress update to tide you over and to keep this place looking lively.

TIME

This project has changed alot of late.
I purchased myself my Arduino UNO board (I can't believe how tiny it really is) and finished building a DIY pulse meter to patch it into.
Now if my camera behaves you can have some photos.


That little rat tale like bit covered in white tack? That's the infra-red LED.
This is quite a cheep little board (not the Arduino sitting on top , the thing hidden in the black box of mystery), so it works by sending infra-red light through the thumb, and receiving it as it exits. It will then register as a binary on or off depending on the amount of resistance from the blood in the finger.
This activates one of the most annoying little buzzers I've had the misfortune of working with.

Now the plan is that this will feed into my Silver path project, which is being expanded to take the used on a journey following the path and exploring the environment.
But with a twist, the value from the pulse meter will dictate the pace of the journey and, if Flash will allow, the volume of the sound.
This will terminate at a certain point, when the pace is too fast with a dramatic and sudden stop, flash and eventual reset.

The idea is to show case a new element for interactive programs. Take a horror game such as the recently released Dead Space 2 by EA, or Amnesia dark decent.
These games try to induce a state of panic, to horrify and startle. For this they have to rely on pre-scripted content, or in Amnesia a 'sanity metre'.
But this could be dictated instead by the users condition, a fast pulse meaning a peak of terror has been reached, or optimum suspense.
Then events and in game effects would be in direct response to the user instead of an arbitrary value or being forced onto a user.

All this from a simple USB device.
And the best part?
All this is possible with none specialised kits at a current total of £20 (not including batteries and fancy black box). An official piece made for games consoles or gaming computers can be churned out easily.

Marx

Its done.
There's nothing else to be said on this one, I'm going to put together a little flash demo but its just a slide-show for the most part.

Well OK, there's two new elements in it now.
Conflict sections are the equivalent of the final boss fight, or rather the closing curtains for each segment.
A little bit of a Hegalian reference.

Next there's now storyboards for small side animations, going on in the background of the program to create a more living environment.

In closing

Well that's it for a status update, I'll post as soon as I have a new visual for you all.

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Still soldiering on

Karl Marx


Nope I haven't forgotten this project, in fact its been a key focus of late.

An opening screen, seeing as we're working with the original Icon books series, what better cover could there be?


Dun dun dudun. du dun dudun. Hmmm? Oh right. Segment two of Marx's life is his wedding to dear Jenny.
note the organ pipes, the copy of the Rhenish on the floor of the isle and the flowers by the alter.


Ahh the desk job. One of the more miserable parts of Marx's life, his time in Paris where he worked in  job he could not stand.

The Silver Path


Well I didn't expect this one to go on for so long, but no matter how close to an end it seems to get I just don't want to put it down.

With the code all finished and the new animated segments edited in I could call it a day here with this project but I think I'll just keep dropping in the occasional thing here and there.
Fingers crossed this LINK works.