Team 14: Final Controller Concepts

For our final project, our team chose between Excitebike and original PunchOut!! arcade games. We chose these games because the arcade era around the time of these games’ creation was full of interesting and unique controller designs outside of a standard “joystick and buttons” approach, and we thought it'd be fun to create a controller that reflected the innovation of these times. Creating a unique controller for these games would also add a layer of immersion that games in this era strived for, due to low graphical fidelity.

Excitebike’s core mechanics revolve around controlling a motorbike to get the best times and to qualify for the next race. It has the following controls:

- leaning forwards and backwards ( A and D, “Left Arrow” and “Right Arrow”)

- changing lanes (W and S, “up arrow” and “Down Arrow”)

- accelerating at a slow and fast speed (Z and X)

Link: https://www.retrogames.cz/play_055-NES.php

Punchout!! core mechanics revolve around fighting unique individuals in a boxing match, dodging attacks and punching to lower the enemy's HP bar. It has the following controls:

- left and right punch (Z, X)

- left and right uppercut (Z and X while holding W or “Up Arrow”)

- left and right dodge (A and D, “Left Arrow” and “Right Arrow”)

- block (Down Arrow, S)

- super-punch (ENTER)

Link: https://www.retrogames.cz/play_771-NES.php

One major inspiration to some of these design ideas was trying to create a controller that reflected an equivalent action in game, both to add to immersion and to better reflect some of the more fun aspects of old-school arcades.

Questions:

How well does the arduino accept rotational input, such as turning while its flat?

How extreme can inputs be for the motion sensor? How fine does it “detect” motion?

Final Team 9 Concepts

 Our motivation for creating Duck Duck Clicker alt controller comes from our personal enjoyment of clicker-style games. The core mechanic is simple: click the duck as much as possible to earn points, which can then be spent on upgrades in the item shop. After upgrading, players return to clicking the duck with enhanced effects.

We believe this straightforward mechanic could become much more entertaining when combined with alternative controllers, making it fun in the silliest ways. Clicking the duck on a screen alone isn't engaging enough—when people play clicker games, they want to click as fast as possible, maybe even finding ways to "cheese" the system with auto-clicking features.

The designs we've created aim to assist players in achieving fast-clicking, auto-like behavior in creative and enjoyable ways.

The key questions we'd like to explore are: How would you approach mouse movement to enhance gameplay? And do these designs feel more engaging compared to simply clicking the duck on the screen?

https://www.coolmathgames.com/0-duck-duck-clicker#immersiveModal

Our motivation for working with Dr.Mario (NES) is that we love the game. The goal of the game is to eliminate the viruses by landing directly 3 halves of a pill in a row of the same color matching the virus. Vertically or horizontally. You can rotate the pill, move it left and right, drop it softly or hard. If you fill the board to the top with pills you lose. Clear the board of viruses to win. I think the game could benefit from fun and novelty with our themed controllers. The game relies on two inputs and the other two are optional as they speed up the game so many of the controllers for dropping the pill may not have full functionality for those two. Are these controllers fun or too clunky and literal? Is it intuitive?

https://arcadespot.com/game/dr-mario-nes/

Team 21 Concept Review

Chicory: A Colorful Tale

Chicory is a game with very tactile controls, painting and swimming through the actual landscape of the world. It also has a generally silly and fun tone, making it a good candidate to interface with a silly controller. 

The core mechanics (and keyboard controls) are:

• Directional movement (Hold WASD keys)
• Painting on the world (Hold left mouse button + mouse movement)
• Jump (Press spacebar)
• Swim (Hold shift key)

Inspired initially by the idea of controlling the game with a paint brush and palette, the painting mechanic is practically begging for motion controls. The other controls are more standard fare for puzzle platforming, where thinking carefully about your interactions with the digital world lends itself well to thinking about your interactions with a controller in the physical world too.

Would it be feasible to successfully control both mouse and character movements with tilt controls in each hand, or would that scheme be overly difficult/frustrating?

Here's the idea that inspired it all! Not pictured on the diagram are LEDs in the brush and palette that light up with the current paint colors, updating based on player input.

Expanding on the idea of drawing, an Etch-a-Sketch is a well known way of combining play and drawing!

The main character of Chicory is this cute little dog, so it maps well into being made into a marketable plushie (controller guts and batteries sold separately).

This concept initially had a maze inside the tilt platform, but was removed for the sake of being less evil.

All the characters in Chicory are named for foods, so this left field theme was inspired by the idea of playing with the characters is like playing with your food!

WEBFISHING

WEBFISHING is a fairly simple fishing-centric game, with a focus on silliness and community interaction. Fishing games are generally a good candidate for alternate controls, as fishing is a real world activity with a number of tangible objects associated.

The core mechanics (and keyboard controls) are:

• Directional movement (Hold WASD keys)
• Cast line (Click left mouse button)
• Reel in line (Hold left mouse button/Spam click left mouse button)
• Open menu (Tab key)
• Move cursor in menu (Mouse movement)
• Select menu items (Click left mouse button)
  

Inspired initially by the obvious idea of a fishing rod controller, we hit a roadblock on realizing we'd need mouse cursor controls for the menus. This quickly resolved itself when we realized tabbing in and out of the menus can also switch the same set of inputs from controlling movement and fishing to controlling the mouse.

How much practical functionality are you willing to sacrifice for absurdity? Which of these designs cross the line?

It wouldn't be a fishing game without a fishing rod controller!

When thinking of fishing objects outside of the pole, my next thought will always go towards a bucket hat. Similar gear can be obtained and worn in the game, so you can match!

While a guitar might first seem out of place for a fishing game, WEBFISHING does in fact have playable guitars in game!

We lovingly call this one "Oops! All Foot Pedals" in a tribute to the absurdism inherent in WEBFISHING.

When we asked ourselves "what would be the most fun thing to retrofit into a controller?", well, the design speaks for itself.

Final project team 8

Mike Tyson's Punch Out 

This is Mike Tyson's Punch Out, which is a sports game where you fight other NPCs. The motivation to work with this game is that it is a fun game to play. It also works very well with alternate controllers, and we thought that this would be an interesting challenge to make happen. The core mechanics of the game are punching and avoiding hits while trying to build up your meter with star punches in order to knock out your opponents. The mechanics can be best expressed through the use of an alternate controller by mimicking the movements in real life in order to feel more immersed in the game itself. What physical gestures are present motivated us the most since we thought it would be fun to include real life actions to play the game. How would you make the block/duck more intuitive? Is the controller overly complicated or difficult to use?

Mortal Kombat 1

Mortal Kombat is an old game where you fight other players or NPCs. The motivation for working with this game is similar to the previous game we linked. It seemed like a fun game to play that would provide a good challenge for us controller-wise. The core mechanics of the game include kicking, punching, blocking, and grabbing. Same as our other game, an alternate controller can help immerse the player in the game as you begin mimicking the movements and motions to carry out an action. Mimicking the punches and kicks in our designs helped us realize just how difficult it would be to be a character in this game. All the movement makes you realize how fit and in tune with your movements you need to be to win a fight. Do you think our controllers are too complicated? What would you change if you made one of these controllers?

Mike Tyson's Punch Out controllers

Controller 1

Controller 2

Controller 3

Controller 4

Controller 5

Mortal Kombat controllers

Controller 1

Controller 2

Controller 3

Controller 4

Controller 5

Team 19: Concept Review

 One of the games we’re considering is the online two player Test Subject Arena. Test Subject Arena 2 - A Free Multiplayer Game by Nitrome We chose this, and our other game hosted on Nitrome because we believe that the control scheme is simple enough to make a reasonable project based on and the games are hosted online so it’s easy for anyone to access them. The main mechanics of this game include moving around the screen with either WASD or the arrow keys based on which player you are and shooting with either “Q” or “?” which translates simply into a controller. I think the game will be enhanced with a fun shaped device that allows the player to be more immersed in the game than hunching over a keyboard together, we would appreciate feedback on our designs and which ones seem to be the most player-friendly and feedback on which one seems the most plausible. 

Knuckleheads Knuckleheads - A Free Game by Nitrome The motivation for working on this game is the unique way of controlling the character, since the different ways of controlling the length and orientation of the knuckleheads can create some interesting controllers. The game at its core is a platformer with a unique movement system where the left and right movement keys control the length of the chain between the two knucklehead balls and the up and down movement keys control if the knuckleheads rotate up or down. These mechanics could be used in a very unique alternative controller because we could leverage the movement mechanics into gyroscope-based controllers that can be represented in a unique way. The main gestures we’ll be using for the controllers are the different motions with gyroscopes up, down, left and right to mimic the knucklehead motions. The main questions I have for peers are: does the spherical design look unique enough? Would there anything you’d add to this design to make it stand out more?

Concept Review: Final Team 6

 

The Stanley Parable

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1703340/The_Stanley_Parable_Ultra_Deluxe/

This game is influential and is one of the best examples of a walking simulator.  As a walking simulator, the mechanics are limited to looking around and moving, with the occasional jump or interaction button. With these simple controls, it allows a lot of freedom in designing unique controllers, and said controllers can make the mechanics feel more interesting. Some controllers, like the Bucket, are references to the game, while others were focused on mechanics.

Questions: Would this controller make the game more mechanically interesting for people who would not normally play a walking simulator? How would this controller affect your ability to focus on the game’s narrative.

Crypt of the NecroDancer https://store.steampowered.com/app/247080/Crypt_of_the_NecroDancer/ This game is a rhythm game, which requires you to put in all your inputs on beat. This could be fun when mixed in tandem with some real-life things that require rhythm, like drumming your hands or nodding your head to the music. All inputs are mapped to four directions, or some combination of them. You move in the four cardinal directions, place bombs, and attack enemies, all with four buttons. The mechanics might feel more natural when using something physically instead of needing to tap a keyboard or controller. Simple controls and having to keep rhythm with a controller inspired many of the ideas.

Questions: Are there ways to make keeping rhythm with a controller more natural or satisfying? How would the game’s difficulty be affected by this controller?