• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Computation Arts Julieta Gueorguieva Concordia University id: 6378420 CART434: Advanced 3D Studio Secluded Final Project Documentation & Class Presentation Abstract Secluded is a Game Project in the Horror/Suspense genre that uses biometrics as his primary way of navigation and input. It works with the Microsoft Kinect Sensor, attempting to eliminate handheld controllers and the Pulse Sensor Amped in conjunction with the Arduino microcontroller, to track Heart Rate and use it to alter the game environment and conditions. The goal is to use these input systems to enhance the game experience and immerse the player further into the world of the game, in addition to personalizing the experience through biometric data. The story of the game is about a character that is trapped in a room that seems to loop back in itself and constantly changing, scarring and confusing him. After playing the game both with and without the biofeedback system, I can say that playing with the system makes it feel more real and exciting and also adds a level of difficulty as the player has to get used to the controls. 1 Index ● Abstract p.1 ● Project Description p.3 ● Context p.3 ○ Nevermind p.3 ○ Silent Hill p.3 ○ Rise of Nightmares p.4 ● Pre­Production Summary p.4 ○ Kinect and Arduino in Unity p.4 ○ Programming controls in Unity p.5 ● Production Steps p.6 ○ Week 1 ■ The Game Concept p.6 ■ Level Design p.7 ■ Concept Art p.9 ■ Finalize Controls and Mechanics p.10 ○ Week 2 ■ Modelling Proxies p.11 ■ Level Setup p.12 ○ Week 3 ■ Make Cutscenes p.13 ■ Hud p.13 ○ Week 4 ■ Playtest p.14 ■ Polish Graphics p.14 ■ Lights p.16 ■ Sound p.16 ● Conclusion p.17 ● References p.18 2 Project description This project is about using biometric data to enhance user experience during game play. The goal is to get a character control set up using Kinect and Heart rate data input to influence the state of the Console. The Project targets gaming and more precisely the horror game genre. In the future, I see this project developing into a full and polished horror game where the player needs to control his emotional state to play the game properly and have a full user experience. The Result is a Game where the player wakes up in a bed in a small room not knowing who he is, where he is and how he got there. The room has two doors but neither lead to an exit, but rather bring him back to the same room. Only things keep changing, appearing and disappearing and the room itself transforms into a nightmare, wrecked and covered in blood as if in some other parallel dimension. As the player tries to escape from this irrational place, he gets bits and pieces of flashbacks that will make sense of who he is, where he is and why at the end. Context The gaming industry has been changed a lot by the current technological advancements. Graphics, processing power, control innovations and lately Biometrics. Games seek to be more immersive and more personalized to each player seeking to create a unique experience. Based on the success of the Microsoft Kinect Sensor I believe that the future holds near reality simulations where the boundary between game and real emotions and experience is blurred. This belief motivates me to research the subject of biometrics applied to games and contribute to the direction that I believe the future of games is going in. Here are some inspiration examples of other games related to my Project: Nevermind “Nevermind is – at its core – an adventure game (in the spirit of classic games like Myst), where you must explore strange worlds and solve puzzles to unlock the terrifying mystery that lurks within each patient’s inner psyche”1 The context of the game is quite interesting and in addition to that it uses biofeedback to detect the level of fear of the player and make the game harder as the player gets more scared and thus making it a goal for the player to keep his calm, a sort of a journey in which he need to learn to be in control of his emotions. This is my main inspiration as i believe that in the future biofeedback will become part of the everyday gaming experience. in fact, Kinect uses biometrics to detect player movement so in a way it has already been present in the gaming industry. 3 Silent Hill 4: The Room “Silent Hill 4: The Room is the fourth installment in the Silent Hill psychological horror series, published by Konami and developed byTeam Silent, a production group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo [...] Unlike the previous installments, which were set primarily in the town of Silent Hill, this game is set in the fictional town of South Ashfield, and follows Henry Townshend as he attempts to escape from his locked­down apartment.” 2 Since my childhood I have always been interested in horror games and movies. Silent Hill is one of my favorite game series. The Room was an inspiration for this project as it helped me envision a game that could be made in a short period of time due to the fact that it is constrained in a small room. A room could be the safest place in the world and yet the scariest if it is compromised and there is no escape. Rise of Nightmares “Rise Of Nightmares is a survival horror video game developed and published by Sega for the Xbox 360. The game was revealed at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, and is designed specifically for Kinect. It is the first M­rated Kinect game released.” 3 This is a game that I have not had the chance to play, but it is the first example that I have seen of a horror game designed for the kinect. It made me wonder of what great immersive experience it would be if it is paired with the arduino microcontroller. It gave me an idea how to approach my controls and navigation in the game. Summarize the pre­production Research & Development stage Can Kinect and Arduino function properly with Unity simultaneously? First I had to get the Kinect Working and after extensive reading and research i found the Center for Simulations and Virtual Environment Research 4 article that walked me through connecting my Sensor to Unity3D. Then, I wanted to make sure that Arduino and Kinect can be running simultaneously on Unity, as I was afraid that there might be some serial communication interference. Using the Uniduino Library 5 I had a blinking light and a moving 4 skeleton driven by the kinect working at the same time. Later, I decided to omit the Uniduino Plug­in and write a script to do the serial communication, as it was more suitable for working with the Pulse Sensor. I read some forums 6, watched some videos 7 and read the sensor’s code walkthrough 8 to be able to write a code that will suit my purposes. That worked well and i was able to get my heart rate. 2. Will I be able to program the kinect so that it controls the game the way i want it? Forward and Backward Walking I used a trigger placed in front of the skeleton provided with the sample kinect files from the kinect wrapper for unity provided in the Kinect tutorial mentioned above. I placed colliders in the feet that moved when the player moved. When there was a right_leg collision, that meant that the right foot was extended forward and I made my character go forward. When the same foot was retracted towards the back, that made the left_foot collider go into the trigger as the torso of the skeleton moves forward to be in the center of the skeleton object at all times. 5 Detail the Production steps of the final project. Week 1 (2­8) The Game Concept I had a general idea of the feel of my game but not a clear idea of what it would be like. I wanted a small environment that would require less assets, so that I could concentrate on the Kinect, the Pulse Sensor, the programming in unity and the quality of the assets and my final product. Inspired by Silent Hill series and especially the 4th one “The Room“ I decided that having everything happening in the same room, would require few assets, be scary as it will give the player the feeling of being trapped and would require some smart level design.To integrate the pulse data, I decided that after a certain time, just like in the Silent Hill MOVIES (not the games) the room will turn all crazy on the player, and the calmer the player is the more time he will have before that occures. 6 Level design map In my case, level design meant making the puzzle and the story of the game. On a piece of paper, I drafted the levels and their solutions and what that meant to the story. After i did my proxies, and basic concept art, I rendered a series of images, illustrating the state of the room and made a storyboard that Illustrated the story, the puzzles and their solutions, the logic of the navigation and the objects that i needed to model. level 1: establishing the logic of the rooms, which door leads where. 7 During that process I also did some nCloth exploration and testing for my real assets. I needed to get make a realistic bedsheet and a broken mirror, and be able to import them into unity.

Load more

  18

Copy Link