APD Week 11 - Play and Stillness

In response to the theme of Play and Stillness, I produced a video game that requires players to stay perfectly still to keep a plane from falling from the sky.

Context

Returning to an earlier desire to use the Xbox Kinect, I finally managed to obtain the appropriate hardware and explore the device’s capabilities. Taking some slight inspiration from motion control interactions in the video game Until Dawn, I wanted to explore a gameplay system where all the player has to do to succeed is simply stay still.

Method

The process of developing this piece was complex. Using numerous online resources and development kits I was able to install Kinect functionality into Unity and take advantage of a handful of prefabricated scripts.

One demo included a tool that could read the user’s body and draw a tracked skeleton, complete with joints. The demo also had the ability to attach a 3D object to any of these joints and have it track dynamically in 3D space. I borrowed this asset and attached a custom airplane asset.

Response

Steady Plane Video: https://youtu.be/3LyM_7_n6LQ

This is a simple experience where the plane is attached to the player’s shoulders. If they stay still and keep the plane on course everything will be fine. If they shift around the plane will go outside of its safety zone and the player will be alerted.

The player can stay still for as long as they like, there is no endpoint. Alternatively, they can reject the goal and play with the interactivity by turning the plane around, upside down, or just messing with it.

Reflection

Like previous pieces I have produced this semester, I would have ideally been able to make this game more feature-complete with more defined goals and fail states. However, I am extremely happy having created a game using the Kinect tech, and in a way that makes novel use of its motion-tracking capabilities.

References

• Until Dawn, Supermassive Games, 2015.

Downloads:

Download File: steadyplane.mp4