Life is a...Table
From EQUIS Lab Wiki
Group Name: The Greatest American Hero
Title: Life is a...Table (working title)
Members: Joey Pape
My project will involve making the changes necessary to run Life is a Village as a multitouch tabletop game. The game will run on the FTIR table in the EQUIS lab. The first priority is to create a port of LIAV on the table, with similar gameplay, but which will utilize multitouch pointing, dragging and gestures to control the game. The tabletop version will also use a top-down camera angle, more appropriate for the tabletop. Time permitting, changes to the gameplay of LIAV will be made to make an experience which is unique to the tabletop version.
In case the project doesn't move forward as hoped, the following stages will be implemented in order. Each stage will produce a playable demo, and will offer an incomplete stopping point for the project.
Stage 1: Implement an input handler for LIAV to receive touch, release and drag events from EquisFTIR (the multitouch image processing framework developed in the Equis lab). Use these events to implement movement using multitouch controls. This will be the oppurtunity to make sure the tabletop runs LIAV at a reasonable framerate, or to make reasonable changes to the game to make sure that it does so. This will also be the opportunity to explore options for a camera angle.
Stage 2: Implement simple gesture recognition into the input handler. Use these gestures to zoom the camera (or possibly even change the camera angle, depending on what is decided in Stage 1), and to replace whatever keyboard controls are still present from the original version of LIAV. The plan, as it stands, is to develop the tools necessary to recognize the required gestures. As I'm not sure what this would entail however, it might become more desirable to find an existing tool for gesture recognition.
Stage 3: Expand on LIAV. What this involves will be decided as the project progresses. The following are some initial ideas: (1) Use multitouch controls to give commands to the AI characters, introducing RTS elements to the game. (2) Abandon the gameplay of LIAV, and use the tools developed in the project to create a small skirmish game between ninjas and robots.
As the project develops, more details of how the game will look and play, and of the different technological issues that will arise, will become clearer.
