We are building the ‘SRB2 Kart Radio.’ Instead of a standard
steering wheel, it’s a car radio. The idea is built on the irony that the user
is ‘distracted driving’ by ‘playing’ with the radio. It’s a joke about how
playing with a radio is a part of the fun, especially in a racing videogame
where the music a massive part of the vibe.
Mechanically, the ‘Volume’ knob is mapped to the player
speed and the ‘Tuning’ knob to the steering. A slide potentiometer is used to
control the item usage and drift. By actually sliding the potentiometer, it feels
like you are forcing the kart sideways, making it a satisfying experience. The middle
zones for all 3 analog inputs are currently neutral zones to help clearly
distinguish between states.
Our prototype is designed like a map for the game Hidden Folks (think of it like iSpy). Since you want to find people or things within the levels, a map made sense as a design choice as a map leads you to the treasure, or in this case, the hidden folks. You can tilt it to move around the level, the pressure pad arrows are used for moving the mouse on where you was to click, the potentiometer zooms in/out, and the light sensor X confirms a click with the mouse.
Questions: How could our design or layout of the controller be improved? Do you think we are missing anything?
Our prototype controller is for the GBA port of the arcade game Mario Bros. We decided to focus on the plumbing and pipe aspect of the game, allowing players to connect to the role of the characters and the game world. The main design is a large curved pipe, with a turning water valve, hex nuts, and a POW block on top. Players will control the aspects of the pipe to influence the game mechanics. The valve wheel is connected to a potentiometer that controls the player’s left and right movement, while a second potentiometer controls the player’s jumping and crouching, turned by a wrench. A sound sensor is hidden in the POW block that will pause the game. Clicking the POW block on the top of the controller will instead toggle the running movement of the game. All of these aspects aim to immerse the player and satisfy them from a artistic and gameplay standpoint.
Feedback Prompts:
Would you rather have the wrench as a separate piece or a fixed attachment?
Would you want to use the crouch control in the game?
Our controller is a glove modeled after Sonic's glove that uses color sensors and simple circuits to play the first Sonic the Hedgehog Game. Within the palm of our glove is a color sensor that performs specific actions based on the color it sees. The controller will come with a set of chaos emeralds, powerful items within the world of Sonic, each a different color of the rainbow. Players will reach for these emeralds to interact with and send inputs to the game. On the thumb and pointer finger are two bands, designed after the golden rings that Sonic collects in the game. By bringing these two rings together, it completes a circuit, allowing the player to send inputs to trigger jumping in the game
we have the 2 gloves the rings are for jumping and we cut the hole in the other glove for the color sensor, the emeralds we used paper but we will make real ones for the final
Our circuit has a bread board, the playground, 2 tinfoil rings to be the rings, and a tcs3200 color sensing board which is using the paper for the colors in this prototype.
From prototyping I learned that I definitely need more secure wiring and longer wires I will have to get, The emeralds we make will need rubber bottoms to prevent them from moving around as that caused a lot of problems too.
2 questions to ask is using 2 gloves at ones hard, are we putting to much on the color sensing glove. And did the clicking the fingers together to jump look like it would be comfortable.
In the video you can see me playing, using the color sensor to change directions and pressing my fingers together to jump.
The game we chose was the original Final Fantasy, and our controller is a tome. Our cardboard prototype has our breadboard and circuit playground in the seem of the book, with our different sensors being connected through various parts of the board.
On the inside of the tome, light sensors are placed under two of the pages, and when the page is lifted, the appropriate menu is opened (sensor on left page is party menu, sensor on right page is main menu).
In the book, there are two bookmarks attached. When the front most bookmark is moved up, there's a up input. The bookmark in the back controls the down input.
The front cover features two buttons, one button moves left, one moves right.
The back cover features a potentiometer, which controls left/right movements.
Our controller is for the game Fireboy and Watergirl, and its design is a split hand held controller for two players. One controller is meant for Fireboy controls, which is using a potentiometer for left and right movement, and an accelerometer to detect shaking for jumping. The accelerometer is the one built into the Circuit Playground Express. The other half is meant for Watergirl controls, which also uses a potentiometer for left and right movement, and has a sound sensor for jumping. There is also another part of the controller that uses potentiometers for mouse movement, and a photoresistor for left-click. To distinguish which control is which, we colored Watergirls blue and Fireboys red.
Questions:
Do you think it would be better to have the mouse controls be integrated with either Watergirl or Fireboy’s controller? Or is it being a separate controller better?
Do you think the controllers being in the shape of a diamond would be uncomfortable to hold?
