By: Philip Figiel

The first part of the trip we looked at the relationship between food, robotics and people interaction with one another. I found the robotic arm feeding you was an interesting idea. Because humans are so use to feeding themselves when they grow up, that having someone else try to feed them seems weird and uncomfortable. Also the fact that the robotic arm was always moving around while trying to feed you, it was hard for the person to pick up visual cues that would notify them that they can lean forward and take the bite. When I tried the robotic arm. I found it hard to trust it to find my mouth, it was always moving around not certain of where to put the spoon. Also I was in a vulnerable state, I had my face right in front of the arm, for all I known it could of poked the spoon into my eye, if it wanted. People and robots always seem to have this disconnection from one another. You can never trust a robot as much as you can trust a person. Because in your mind you know when something goes wrong the person will think fast enough to find a solution to the problem. While a robot can only think as much as it’s code. This sprung the idea for our alcohol spray tasting game that Oliver and I made (taste the rainbow). The notion of not knowing what’s inside the bottles combined with finding a way to describe the taste was an interesting thought to us. Because when it comes to taste we usually tend to describe a taste by mentioning other general tastes like something being sweet or sour. Once you remove that ability to talk about the taste, it gives the player another handy cap. It’s like describing a rainbow to a blind person.

I also found the amount of sugar inside a coke can was pretty crazy. Just with the sugar itself you can fill at least 1/3 of the can. The 3d printer that was making candy was also interesting. I feel like these 3d printers will one day print pretty much anything. I found it funny that the person who was printing the candy hasn’t even tried to taste one of them. I guess it’s because it takes such a long time to create one of them it seems useless if you eat it in 3 seconds for 3 hours of work.

One of the things I found the most interesting was the breathing jellyfish type game. How it work was; you went inside this room with 4 people and each person would sit on the 4 sides of this blue screen that was on the floor. Everyone had a type of breathing mask that was connected to the screen. As the show began there was jellyfish that would appear on the blue screen. And each person was able to control the movement of 4 jellyfish each, with only their breathing. That’s when I really felt like it became a game. I started to set my own goals and try to keep my jellyfish on the other side of the screen, by blowing into the mask really hard. I noticed that everyone else was trying to do the same. It became like a tug of war with breathing. After the jellyfish experience, it really got me thinking of how to incorporate that breathing control scheme into another type of game. Also how we can use other input to make a simple controller more interesting to play and preform. I guess an example of this would be using something like a super Mario game and replace the jumping with a breathing control, so depending on how hard you blow in it the higher you jump.

My experience at Hedonistika was fun and I learned a lot from it. When it comes to development, I think we need to get inspired by other peoples work. Or else your projects would never see newer ideas.

The edge of sanity is a proprioception/kinesthetic game that forbids players from using their fingers. However, players are allowed to use their hands in a fist form. The game was inspired by our trips to “Allez Up” and  “O noir””

The trip to “allez up” required the rock climbers to be analytical and use their physical strength in order to reach their goals. The importance of being analytical is to allow the climbers to think of a strategy that will allow them to reach the goal without breaking a sweat. However, by going to allez up, even though players are able to come up with a strategy, it would require players that has practice often in order to allow them to climb the way they planned.

In O Noir, the clients would experience a sense of disability, which is, to eat their 3 course meals in a full-pitched dark area. To eat in the dark is not always part of our daily lives. By attending this restaurant, it forces the players to eat outside of their comfort zone.

The way we designed the game was to push the players to be out of their comfort zone. We mainly built the game to force players to physically achieve their goal without the use of their hands. At present, the use of the finger touch is often used and one of our main rules for the game is that the players are restricted to use their fingers in order to allow them to experience a sense of disability. Our way of displaying the idea of disability is to flip the cup or carry the tennis ball without the use of fingers while following the current rule that the player has chosen. Players are given a decision to either do the rule or bring a cup along to the enemy side in order to slow down the other team, however, players must be aware that if they drop the cup on the floor, they will have to restart. Therefore it allows the players to think twice whether it is currently doable or not.

The cups were another idea that would allow the players to not achieves a sense of comfort. The cups were randomized and each cups has different rules inside. Once the player finishes the first rule, he must pick the next cup on the line which would then lead the players to feel a sense of discomfort. As we’re aware that we’re going to play on the school floor, we decide to bring some kneepads. It should allow the players to feel less pain while playing the game

As we playtest the game, we found the game quite exhausting which lead us to put tag mode in the game. It becomes a 2 v 2 game that allows the players to switch turns in order to allow one another to catch a breath and not get extremely exhausted. Cups with black tape will reveal that the next rule is a tough one and by doing a tag team, this allows the players to plan strategically and see which player should go next

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Overall, the game tends to be pretty physical which increases the players to think who should take turns and who are able to do the rules without being too exhausted. The unchangeable rule in this game is that players are not allowed to use their fingers, but are allowed to use their hand in a fist form only. In order to get the next rules, the cups became an essential tool that can allow the player to flip it without too much trouble. The players can either decide to slow the other team down by bring the cup along or just complete their own rule, however, once it drops, players must restart from the start until they manage to overcome the rule. On other hand, the team that completes the most rules will be declared winner. The main goal of this game was to force players to be out of their comfort zone, as the players first complete the first rule and move to the next rule, they must accomplish what it is written which allows the players to not get comfortable.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/x9qol25xhl1b815/AABWHcKNcpfs1Z1uNyabxyyia

https://vimeo.com/99558064

Documentation by : Wilson Qhang, Hope Erin, Shaun Celestrial, Kevin Ip and Philip Figiel