Week 11

Hi everyone. Welcome to week 11 of our project. This week we worked on mostly polishing two of our board games, brainstorming two new game ideas and fixing bugs on previous prototypes based on last week’s Playtest observations.

SDK Update (v0.8.1):

Midweek we got an update of Cozmo sdk and the mobile app. In the new SDK, there wasn’t any major change but mostly improvements to existing sdk features.

Projector Setup 

 

We decided to use projector for our upcoming games and also to make digital version of our board games. We setup projector in our room with flat white surface to project and PS4 controller for input.

Development:

During playtest last week we noticed few small issues with board games,

• Kids often play with Makey Makey cables and cubes during game play which sometimes break the board game experience and we had to restart again to fix.
• Also it’s very hard to give player clear visual feedback whether the move is valid or not after placing or moving cubes around on the board.
• We also found issues with Makey Makey input which sometimes doesn’t trigger due to loose contact with the ground

To address some of the these problems we decided make following changes

• Make solid wooden board(prop) for Horseshoe
• Use a projector to display digital board games
• User a PS4 controller to take player touch inputs

Here are the tow new board game versions we developed this week with Projector, PyGame, Unity, PS4 controller

a) Tapatan (Version 2) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z7o4H-kFDY&t=2s

b) Horseshoe (Version 2) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQB6w91Ov14

 

Design

Apart from these board games, this week we brainstormed few ideas for our next experiences. We are planning to make two more polished experiences.

a) Dating Cozmo Story Game

We have taken help of some first year students who have writing background and they came up with a nice story based interaction. Wait till next week to see the story in action with Cozmo. Meanwhile you can read the script from following link.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9ackRMoOK7TTFgtYVAzUnI2aWs

b) Platform/Engine Game

We listed few design ideas for simple videogame with Cozmo using:

• Cozmo
• Projector (*)
• Potentially a game engine
• Potentially additional input methods

Title	Gameplay Description What are the game mechanics? How are Cozmo and the other tech incorporated?	Tech Requirements Platform + Engine + What degree of engine integration is required (just Cozmo, cube tapping, pose tracking–or whatever…)
1. Unblock Me	It’s this game: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kiragames.unblockmefree&hl=en The player directly moves non-red blocks using their controller. The player can request Cozmo (the red block) to move forward or back. “Character moments” occur as Cozmo is scared, courageous, etc. throughout the process.	-Unity could work, as moment-to-moment pose tracking isn’t necessary for a tile-based game.
2. Cozmo in the Clouds	Cozmo floating on a cloud “above” a scene projected onto a table. “Thunderbolt” pickup items placed in the sky by the player serve as bait for Cozmo (allow for “control” of Cozmo without breaking design pillar). When Cozmo picks up enough thunderbolts, his cloud rains onto the scene below, and flowers grow. Possible additional complexity:-Some character that you need to periodically shade from the sun (this requires balancing pursuit of pickup items with providing shade).	-Unreal is necessary for constant tracking of Cozmo’s pose. -No cubes are necessary. -Control requires just a cursor and a click. This could be accomplished with PS4 controller (possibly using built-in trackpad), or with PSMove/Wiimote/whatever.
3. Cozmo Paint	This would be a drawing game, where Cozmo traces paths using various tools (paint, pencil, stickers, etc.). As with Cozmo in the Clouds, we could place “bait” for Cozmo in order to get him to follow a path. Additionally, moments when Cozmo consumes bait would serve as “character moments.” The game could possibly record your drawing (screen capture) for export to social media. We *might* allow for multiple Cozmos drawing at once, if the tech isn’t too hard.	-Unreal is necessary for constant tracking of Cozmo’s pose. -No cubes are necessary. -Control requires just a cursor and a click. This could be accomplished with PS4 controller (possibly using built-in trackpad), or with PSMove/Wiimote/whatever.
4. Ghost in the Cubes	In this game, the player sees the cubes and Cozmo on PC screen. Clicking a cube causes it to flash and attract Cozmo’s attention. The player can choose to place a ghost inside one of the cubes so that Cozmo will be scared when he picks up the cube–or place Cozmo Snacks™ so he’ll be happy.	–(*) This game would use PC and Cozmo–not a projector (because Cozmo should be unaware of the ghosts and snacks). ***It might be possible to use iPad instead of PC***
5. Buried Treasure	A beach is projected onto the table, and the player can bury treasure on it. Cozmo will act like a metal detector and find the treasure. Alternatively, the treasure is already there and Cozmo must look for it. The player can place bait to get Cozmo to search an area. And you can exchange your treasure for money to upgrade Cozmo’s sand castle home (or something…). As a third alternative, one player places the treasure, and another looks for it.	-Unreal is necessary for constant tracking of Cozmo’s pose. -No cubes are necessary. -Control requires just a cursor and a click. This could be accomplished with PS4 controller (possibly using built-in trackpad), or with PSMove/Wiimote/whatever.
6. Flappy Bird with Cozmo	Flappy bird scrolls across the projection screen. The player and Cozmo both play using a single bird. A countdown periodically occurs that causes control to be swapped between the player and Cozmo. While Cozmo is playing, the player must encourage him (triggered via same press as bird control). Cozmo will similarly encourage the player while they’re playing.	-Unity could work -The player and Cozmo each use a cube for tapping. Alternatively, the player uses a less finicky control scheme (controller, or phone screen with a single button on it). -Requires both Cozmo and cubes but no pose tracking.

What Next? 

We decided to deliver 4 final polished deliverables which are long engaging experiences and not just small prototypes which we made till halves.

1. Tapatan (Finished)
2. Horseshoe (Finished)
3. Dating Cozmo Story Game (In Progress)
4. Platform/Engine Game (Starting next week)

We have already started working on story game and for platform game, we will decide one of the ideas listed above and start working on that early next week.

That’s it for this week. Thanks for checking in! Do drop by next week for more updates!