APD Week 8 - Play and Body

In response to this week’s theme of Play and Body, I designed an interactive game that uses the movement of the player’s head as the sole form of input.

Context

The spark for this project came from the Xbox Kinect, a camera system that detects and tracks players’ bodies and faces for unique video game experiences.

I wanted to harness this type of technology and develop an experience that restricts players’ input to the movement of one limb or body part and design some form of constant force that exudes from the controlled appendage. For simplicity and immediacy’s sake, I chose a laser beam as this force, inspired by the character of Cyclops from the X-Men franchise. Cyclops holds the power to shoot energy beams from his eyes but can only control these beams using a special visor he must wear at all times. I wanted to explore an interaction where this safeguard is removed, and the player is forced to direct an unstoppable tirade of energy protruding from their face.

Aesthetically, I took inspiration from Cold War-era military testing facilities, including secret Soviet cities that were designed to replicate American towns. Combining this aesthetic with the design of the player character and their abilities I have formed a simple narrative, depicting a Soviet weapons facility testing the player, a super-abled person, to fight foreign powers as a sleeper agent.

Method

Upon realising I lacked the necessary hardware to use my Xbox Kinect, I decided to explore gyroscopic functionality in the PlayStation DualShock 4 controller.

The process for accessing these systems was pretty simple, after downloading some open-source assets and following a few tutorials. After a few hours, I had a system in Unity set up that allowed me to rotate an object using the real-world rotation of my controller. The issue from this point was adjusting the rotational axes for the controller and finding a way to attach it to my head. With some trial and error, I managed to accomplish my goal, with the help of an elastic strap that could hold the controller against my forehead.

Response

What I have produced is a proof of concept that demonstrates the possibilities for this kind of input. The interaction is both limited and free; the player is restricted to controlling the game with the movement of their head, yet the immediacy of this motion and its range offer focus rather than frustration.

Acting as a crude stand-in for virtual reality technology, a PlayStation 4 controller is attached to the player’s face and used to direct a constant laser beam. As the player rotates their head the first-person camera follows, as does the origin point and rotation of the in-game laser. The scene includes a handful of dynamic objects that the camera can knock over or push around with their abilities.

Reflection

Having constructed my own interaction system and designed an experience to accompany it, I would say I am very proud of my performance this week. Ideally, this project would be more feature-complete, with clear objectives and fail states, and potentially multiple levels. Had I accomplished that level of development the form of play explored would be very much goal-oriented, in line with most puzzle video games. Players would complete each level with the reward of unlocking new levels, like the progression of games like Hitman or Portal.

As it exists now, however, the form that play takes is somewhat vague. I have spent a lot of time simply messing around in this little sandbox, shooting my lasers at everything I can and seeing how each object reacts. Despite the sinister narrative surrounding the experience, and the fact that you are knocking over plywood cutouts of school children, the experience of aiming this force is quite meditative. It reminds me of playing with water, either directing the flow of droplets in the shower or playing with water guns. The act of controlling a force like this and seeing what it can do is engaging in itself.

Reflection

• X-Men, Marvel Comics, 1963.
• Hitman, IO Interactive, 2016.
• Portal, Valve, 2007.

Downloads:

Download File: 2021-10-28-16-11-49.mp4
Download File: 1635408364_2021-10-28-16-10-35.mp4