Theme: Play and Force
Context: Observing the works on class, I understood the "force" definition in these works is the changing of input that propells the system into generating various outcomes. I think the process is clear, and usually is recording the input into sets of data that can be processed, then find a logic between the numbers and final visual/audio output that can based on the number of inputs. That is certainly one good way of interpreting force, and in fact, shows a interesting relationship between force and time, since individual inputs can not show the relationship. But why is it force afterall? Is there a difference between totally random sets of data and the input that make the art work art?
Go on a step further, what if the inputs does not have the physical or material form that they have like sound and shapes or wind or humidity, but just sets of data that happens to be generated according to the nature of the change? I have been thinking about these questions, after the guest lecture of Pierre, whose works made me think that what if it is actually a human being after all his works and operating the things accordingly instead of huge amount of investment in the machines? But that I guess is why his work is beautiful, with the sensitivity and an illusion of subjectivity in the movement or the relationships, in this input-output system.
I originally planned to do something physical again, since I have barely any knowledge in programming, but the idea came to me that, what if I do not show the force in the input, but make it part of the function? And the best way to achieve that seems to be using the physical engine in Unity. I had an idea of the game, but itself is not fun at all. Thus I go check the essays and according to Costello &Edmonds(2007), the joy of gaming has multiple aspects that I can utilize. Since the mechanic is going to be tedious and clunky, I find there are still many aspects to improve on. I want the game to be sensational and provoke the emotional feeling of the gamer, which will surely be people from the studio, by having game objects something they are all familiar with, our fellow studio members. Thus I made the game.
Method: Unity C# coding.
Response: I made a game entirely rely on the physical engine of unity. By offsetting the parameters of the Gameobjects, I try to create difference in reactions of the limbs in the game by pressing the same buttons. It was not very successful since it usually turns chaotic when too many things are interacting with each other on the screen. But due to it's a game related with people I knew, and the objects are actually human body, I find the result amusing regardless.
If given enough time, I want to further test out the best set up/ landscape/ collider to increase the variation of responds, and also make the mechanic less ambiguous(for example, lock the limbs in place after they drop into the sockets) or make the result more related to the user's expectation after some attempts( find a way to display the result in a human form).
It has been a long time since I coded the last time, and I've spent way more time on this than I should at this point of the semester so end of the line here.