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ALT.CTRL

Experimental Game Interfaces Workshop

alt_ctrl_poster

Workshop description

Game controllers for digital games have been reduced down to ergonomic but very limited devices in capturing various human gestures let alone recognising object-based tangible interaction methods. Let’s get back to the early years of curious contraptions and precarious prototypes on human-computer interaction, with the latest software and hardware tools for holistic DIY interaction design.

Emphasis of the workshop is on the experimental physical controllers, how to use various sensors for gesture and object detection, how to process the input data and send it to computer and most importantly, how these unconventional interaction paradigms change game design process. The methodology follows learning-by-doing and co-learning practicies. We split in teams with minimum three participants in each and try to scatter existing skills in different teams. Existing working groups with game design ideas can be taking in to account.

The control prototypes will be platform agnostic - it will be up to participants on what platform they choose to use their new controllers on. This workshop does not teach how to develop games on platforms like Unity3D or Unreal Engine 4. However, we will provide one sandbox scene for both platforms ready to capture the controller data and guide game design process in general.

The learning outcomes of the workshop gives the participants required skills and knowledge for game design with self-made experimental game controllers, building prototypes of these controllers, programming the middleware with Arduino-based microcontrollers and formatting the data suitable for serial input on PC game engines.

  • Tuomo Tammenpää / funi.fi / hardware, building things
  • Daniel Blackburn / startle.fi / software, game design

Schedule

Day 1

  • introductions, team check, schedule tweak
  • presentation on haptic & tangible interactions with computers
  • Making DIY switches
  • lunch
  • Arduino code intro, digital read
  • Sensor experiments

Day 2

  • Ideation recap & insipirational examples
  • prototyping in SincoLab
  • lunch
  • testing and debugging in #2066
  • unity work starts

Day 3

  • Game ideas check, rules of play as design tool
  • prototyping in SincoLab
  • lunch
  • testing and debugging in #2066

Day 4 (holiday, optional)

  • buffer day for the hack heros

Day 5

  • setup demos
  • presentations / gaming
  • lunch
  • feedback discussion and pointers for next steps

Technology available for participants

Arduino

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Products/Compare

  • older models quite fine for our purposes
  • interfacing with Unity via serial

Button / DIY Button

button


Variable resistors, the POT & LDR

pot


Cheap (short-range) infrared proximity sensor

infrared http://www.bajdi.com/analogread-from-a-tcrt5000-sensor/


Piezo Knock sensor

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Knock


ADXL335 Accelerometer

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ADXL3xx https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9269


Bareconductive touch kit / touch breakout board

https://www.bareconductive.com/make/

  • touch breakout board
  • conductive paint

Workshop kits

http://medialappi.net/lab/equipment/ (some parts from lab resources)

  • Arduino (most models fine: Duemillanove, Uno, Leonardo …)
  • breadboard
  • set of jumper wires
  • 10KΩ resistors
  • 1KΩ resistors
  • 200Ω resistors

Resources

DIY sensor resources

Conductive yarn http://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=3175

DIY (optical) bend sensor http://www.instructables.com/id/Optical-Flex-Sensor/

DIY (resistive) bend sensor http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-a-Ridiculously-Cheap-Analog-Pressure-S/

Alt.Control examples

Tim Hunkin, the master of electromechanical interfaces and outputs http://timhunkin.com

PainStation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bm7fLcj5UI

Line Wobbler https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwTzxkWDwq8

GDC's Alt.ctrl 2018 listing http://www.gdconf.com/news/games-youll-play-gdc-2018s-alt-ctrl-gdc-showcase/

Article about GDC’s alternative game controllers https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/23/17154570/alt-ctrl-gdc-alternative-video-game-controller-showcase-2018

Parts & materials resources

Materials: Scavenge & upcycle, don't buy: trash, skips, fleemarkets, cutting-service leftovers (ask)

Components: https://mandu.fi/ https://www.partco.fi http://www.spelektroniikka.fi http://www.kouluelektroniikka.fi/ https://www.yeint.fi/ http://www.bebek.fi/

https://aliexpress.com/ https://www.ebay.co.uk/ https://fi.rsdelivers.com https://www.mouser.fi/ https://www.digikey.fi/

https://shop.pimoroni.com/ https://www.seeedstudio.io

Components & quality guides: https://learn.adafruit.com/ https://learn.sparkfun.com/

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