Game Idea

I was wracking my brains trying to think of a simplistic game idea that I could try to create for my Double Project when I remembered this scene from the 2003 film Paycheck. Ben Affleck’s character is showing off his reaction skills by hitting which ever section has lit up. It got me thinking that this could be simplified into a manageable game idea. The idea of having a booth with a screen on the back wall and on the floor and surrounding walls have switches of various colours and designs. When the person enters the wall it activates a programme which brings a picture onto the screen that corresponds with one of the switches in the booth. The idea would be to find as many switched as you could in the fastest time with the time progressively decreasing the longer you participated.

December 13th, 2007 - Posted in Double Project | | 0 Comments

Labyrinth

While chatting with Nick today I was talking through my idea of creating an interactive game of sorts and the idea of using lots of different switches. Mark had already said that I didn’t have to limit myself to floor switches i could use all sorts of different types like light switches or using movement to activate things. Nick threw up the idea of labyrinths and my mind starting wandering instantly. Maybe not necessarily creating a proper labyrinth but maybe creating a kind of walk through where there are sensors which react to movement Apologies for the sketch it is very quick and rough!!!!

December 12th, 2007 - Posted in Double Project | | 0 Comments

Bluff Valley

While searching for alternate types of mazes I came across this site for a park of some sort in America http://www.bluffvalley.com/light_maze.htm. The pictures on there aren’t fantastic hence why I didn’t pop them up on here but they got me thinking of my double project and of an earlier sketch I did. The idea of maybe having a walk way that interacts with people moving through it rather than creating a maze which would end up being much to complex and problematic. I like the idea of a completely darkened corridor that depending on where you walk in it activates lights similar to those in that maze or possibly using sounds or projections. I think I need to do some doodling and possibly design some mock ups in cinema 4d of how i would want it to look. Mark showed me a site a while ago http://www.ultimarc.com

that provided arcade controls and if i remember right one of them was lots of LED lights that could prove really useful in re-creating the effect used on this maze.

December 5th, 2007 - Posted in Double Project | | 0 Comments

Divine Inspiration

I was sitting here at 2am mocking up a corridor in cinema 4d and was having a bit of a memory blank on how to create a nice arched corridor. I probably went about it the long route using a bezier spline and then the symmetry, which meant when i turned it into an object it still had the line down the middle. When I extruded it and deleted the end planes I ended up with in effect a corridor split into 2. The more I stared at it the more I liked it, it was as if it was clearing the fog in front of my idea. When it suddenly hit me what if I made the 2 sides interact with each other. So if I had one side dark and the other side light when someone were to walk through the dark side they would extinguish the lights on the light side and vice versa giving the effect of the lights switching on or off with the persons presence. It sounds a bit complicated when I type it like this but pictures are following shortly when I can use the nice high quality scanner at uni!!! I need to do a bit of research into whether this idea would work or not and if it would be possible to use images and sounds as well to heighten the experience

December 4th, 2007 - Posted in Double Project | | 0 Comments

Adrian Fisher

I was browsing through the online catalogue for my library for books on mazes or labyrinths hoping to find some artists who worked in this field to get some ideas when i cam across a book by a man called Adrian Fisher. There wasn’t much information about the book and I thought i would google it first to see if it was worth getting out. I soon realised Adrian Fisher was some what of a expert in building mazes. However everything that I found was mazes made of hedges and other natural materials not really what I was after. I then stumbled upon this site showcasing some of his best works and found this maze he designed for a Czech castle, It was exactly the kind of thing i was looking for.

It was designed using 343 separate up rising lights that created the shape of a maze and also illuminated the castle courtyard. The idea of creating a maze like this got my mind runing and I started thinking about the possibilities. Using lights like above or even sensors of some sort which activated with movement or sound. If I am going to create a maze size is going to be a very important aspect that I am going to have to keep in mind.
My first thoughts are of a virtual maze that could be shown in the first person perspective on a screen then on the floor are pads which you use to maneuver throughout the maze. It seems a bit basic and obvious at the moment I need to go away and give some thought of how I could make this a bit more complex or even interactive in different ways.

December 3rd, 2007 - Posted in Double Project | | 0 Comments

Mazes and Labyrinths

A while ago Nick mentioned maybe looking into artists who have used Labyrinths in their work. I kind of put the idea to the back of my mind because I wasn’t really sure how to go about searching artists.I had always thought that mazes and labyrinths were the same thing and while researching found out that they are 2 completely different things. I found this brilliant site that explained in great depth about labyrinths and the differences between them and mazes. A Labyrinth has no exit it is one way, it is meant to represent a journey to our own centre and back out again and it has often been used in prayers and meditation. Mazes on the other hand are a puzzle designed to be solved with twists turns and blind alleys meant to trick and fool the participant. The idea of a maze is the choice of which direction you go in when the only choice you make in a labyrinth is whether or not to enter.

It had never occured to me that there was a deeper meaning behind labyrinths i always took them at face value. I quite like the idea of a journey into something and finding your way back out again. I can’t quite seem to pin down an idea at the moment it’s like the idea is there but behind frosted glass.

December 3rd, 2007 - Posted in Double Project | | 0 Comments