Within the Deep

(Two weeks, 4 person group)

Playmotion experience coded in Panda3D. Players swim by moving their arms in front of the Playmotion screen and try and find the sunken treasure.

My role was game designer and scripter. I especially enjoyed playing with the lighting and fog effects to create an underwater feel. Additionally, laying out the environment and the triggers for music/scene transitions was also a lot of fun for setting up the mood of the story.

Players move by making a casual 'breast-stroke' like motion in front of the screen. Turning is accomplished through leaning.

The goal of this project was indirect control. For testing, we had to bring in a naive user and predict the first three things they did. We tried to do this via vocal cues from an NPC, open cave mouths, fish directions, and coins. The coins were 'video-gamey' but they worked.

For a better experience, I would consider tightening up the admittedly long intro, clarifying the cryptic ending, and giving more instructions on how to swim to the player.