Space Vectors
Fall 07For the Principles of Interaction Design final project, a tabletop touch-screen game/interactiave narrative, my group and I decided to make a space based tactics game. I was put in charge of art and took part in much of the design process. What makes it unique is the interface it is designed for, the tangable surface computer. Potentially someone can create programs that allow the user to directly interact with their picures, documents, etc. using their hands or, as in our case, tangable objects. There are three types of tangable pieces in Space Vectors: the turret, the ship builder and the range extender. With these three pieces it is possible to create rather sophisticated strategies.We were especially happy with how this project turned out because of how similar visually it was to the original design and for how different (and better) a game it actually became on the gameplay design level. Originally we fought with the notion that the user would be able to move their pieces at any time. We tried very hard to figure out a good way to discourage this and to make the players work within our rules. Eventually, however, we realized that rather than try to make the surface game more like the computer games we're familiar with we should make use of the unique properties tangable objects afford. This became especially apparent when we were just playing with it and someone blocked a bullet with a turret by moving it, something we were trying to eliminate, and we realized how amazing it was to be able to do that. Spring 08In the spring the gamewell project was formed, under the guidance of faculty member Ali Mazalek, to make use of the unique affordances of the surface computing interface. During that semester three projects were attempted: a color based twister style game, a menu system to manage games on a surface system, and Space Vectors. I was responsible for porting Space Vectors from its original Processing environment to C# with the XNA libraries. The port was successful but we discovered that at the current level of sophistication of tabletop interfaces something that requires as many pieces as Space Vectors is infeasable. Until the technology is stronger a true port of Space Vectors will remain on hiatus.back |
Screenshots  
 
Game |