- Luke’s “Magic Brush” is a drawing machine for the one who does not have much prior art skill or training. People can control what they want to draw by moving the joystick and clicking the buttons. I suggested that he can refer to some projects which are designed for the disabled who are unable to draw, and they can input the signal using different gestures. Other group members suggested that body gestures can be used, and there should also be interactions between the user and the computer to change the genres of the painting, for example, the options of ink painting or oil painting. The interesting point about this project’s concept was that it is a useful tool to help people generate their art creativity, without being constrained by their ability to draw. This project reinforces the exploration of how we interact with technology by creating a language system for drawing, deciding which kind of pattern or genre to draw.
- Julia was going to make a maze game based on the change of the sound effect for the player, instead of simply by the visual guidance. For this project, we gave suggestion about making some backed-up plans since this project sounds really challenging for controlling the change of the music in a proper range, according to the player’s order. I think it is interesting that people use their judgment of the volume of the music and the direction in which the music came from to decide which way to go in that game. This project creates an interaction between people and technology that it combines the 3D visual signal and sound effect to give people experiences from various aspects.
- Linhui’s project is an interactive installation, combining the sound of traditional Chinese musical instrument, and the scenery of nature. The music can be played as the user interact with the flower. My advice was that they should make sure that the component to create the sound should be sensitive enough, and try to close the gap between the user’s action of interacting and the sound effect. Other groups members suggested that they should add more musical instruments so that this installation can create varied sounds. The concept of this project intrigued me because it is not simply a musical instrument, instead, it is an art installation which can give people a sense of happiness both visually and aurally. This project fosters the interaction between the humans and the technology by adopting the elements from nature, such as flowers, and from traditional Chinese culture, such as Bianzhong (a musical instrument).
- Eugene’s project is a game about Avengers. Players will play the role of Marvel superheroes and Thanos. Our group members suggested that he can add more fancy effects for the movements and attacks according to the specific role in this game.
After seeing their project proposals, I added something new to my definition of interaction. To get the audience fully involved, the process of interaction should contain different forms through vision, audio, or body gesture. This new definition gotten from my group members’ projects focuses more on the variability and possibilities of the interaction, while I simply paid attention to the content and the form of what the interaction should be like which is a qualitative thought and ignored the problem about the quantitative.
Feedback:
- Set the background of the game a dynamic one, which moves backward as the whale moves forward.
- The changes after the whale got touched with the garbage should be obvious. For example, the whale can get darker and darker or more and more swollen as it touches the garbage in the ocean.
- There should be a yardstick to judge whether the player has passed or failed, otherwise, the game would turn out to be an infinite loop.
- An informative end should be added to the game, such as showing people the picture of how the marine creatures got threatened by marine pollution.
Evaluation:
The most successful part: The concept of the game is good. Instead of merely being an entertaining game, it has educational significance for the audience. I agree with this because this is the fundamental inspiration which supports our game.
The least successful part: The way of how the players are going to interact with the computer was not clear. I agree with this as well, because we have not decided in which way would either the player 1 or player 2 interact with the computer in order to make the players get fully involved in the background of the game, and put themselves in the whale’s position.
The feedback above has a profound influence on my project that it makes me clarify and pay more attention to the details of the game, instead of simply coming up with a grand concept with a vague structure of the game.
Improvements:
- Changing the background from a planar graph of a maze into a dynamic one, which moves backwards as the whale moves forward.
- There should be a visible difference after the whale touches the garbage to show the negative effect from ocean pollution.
- The yardstick of judging whether the players passed or failed the game should be clear, and the game should not be an infinite loop.
- Pictures and data about marine pollution would be added at the end of the game, and the players would learn this information through an impressive and interactive way.