I’m ready to start rolling the game out to more public events. This includes entering it in game festivals like GDC alt.ctrl and Indiecade. To do that I need some kickass footage of the game in action for demo videos. I invited some of my past students and their friends over for free food and […]
playtests
Party!
The game made it’s semi-public non-playtesting debut at a birthday party. Due to some space limitations, the batters were positioned on a flagstone patio in a garden, and the LED strip was wrapped around a tree. The distance from the batting stands to the tree was about 15′, so there was time to see the […]
Playtest #3
Playtest #3 was at ETC’s Soft Open on Wednesday night with about 65 guests at Microsoft’s Reactor space in SF. I set up the game at the far end of the room and let it run itself. I wasn’t monitoring the game the whole time, but I would estimate that at least 15 or 20 […]
Playtest #2
Time to test the changes from last time. Playtest on Friday 4/14 during the afternoon in a hallway at work. My Goals Try out next rev on setting up and breaking down the system. Compare bat vs. tennis racket. Does one feel better than the other? Does the racket change the way people play? Test […]
Changes for Next Playtest
I’ve been fixing problems, tuning software, and laser cutting as I prep for my next playtest. Software Changes Fixed swing timing. The biggest issue from Playtest #1 was with players swinging late. The game allowed you to swing a bit early, but never late. Fixing a couple lines of code was all it took to […]
Playtest #1
For my first official playtest I set the game up in a hallway at work and invited my students to give it a try. My Goals Learn what’s involved in installing and breaking down the hardware. Use just the basic one and two player rally game to see if people understand it enough to play, […]
First Working Demos
After a long weekend of debugging I got the whole system to work reliably with one controller. To commemorate that I shot a couple of demo videos. First Game Demo Showing a simple single-player rally game on 30 meters of LED strips (900 LEDs). Hardware Tour Quick overview of all the individual elements involved.