IoT Roadshow – Retrospective

In Mid-May, I had my first Hackathon with IoT Roadshow, where Intel touts their new Edison board.

Edison-Arduino board

With a 500Mhz dual-core, it is possible to have the Edison chipset integrated with an Arduino module. And while the Edison board can be used as a standalone Arduino board (which is what our team did, come to think of it). Another option is to use the Intel XDK IoT Edition with Eclipse to develop the program with C/C++, and according to another teammate who’s played around with that, the C++ API provided more functionality.

It’s still rather ambiguous as to how Edison compares to Raspberry Pi. Some of the participants said its predecessor, Galileo, crashes very easily compared to Raspberry Pi. On the other hand, Edison has a built-in Wifi module, which can make a difference when you are doing projects involving wireless/mobile devices.

Back to the Hackathon. Other than the Edison-Arduino board, we are also given the Grove Starter Kit from seeed, a sensor package which saves a lot of circuit-building time. For our team, we practically messed around with the different sensors to see what it can do.

I have wanted to go back into building my own drum kit after Divine Beats, so in those two days, using Edison to build a digital instruments was my main goal. Turns out me and Piezo still don’t get along that well, but we did end up using the 3-axis accelerometer to generate MIDI notes and play notes in GarageBand. The controls are such that the accelerometer will control the volume and pitch of the sound it plays.

Tilting front and back controls the volume of the note….

Tilt-BackFront

… and tilting right and left changes the pitch.

Tilt-sideways

Following this post, I had the Arduino translate the accelerameter readings into MIDI protocol messages, which is sent back to the PC via USB Serial port.

Edison to PC connectionI then setup Hairless MIDI to Serial Bridge to convert the serial inputs from the Edison into MIDI output. For Mac, the IAC driver needs to be enable to have a working MIDI output which can then be used by GarageBand. Once Hairless MIDI starts channeling the serial inputs to the MIDI output, the accelerometer can then play notes in GarageBand as a MIDI instruments.

Mac setup - hairless MIDI and GarageBandWell, that’s at least a preview of what I’m been up to with Edison. There’s still a few things that need to be done before I can really play music with the accelerometer, after which I might have a more detailed tutorial on it.

 

Molleindustria

A group that does what others might call “serious games” or “artgames”. Seems to enjoy poking on what is politically incorrect XD

Molleindustria Homepage

The Sound Walk

The Sound Walk on Newground

The game is made by cccplay.

It’s pretty similar with what I’m doing with “Divine Beats – Night at the Monastery” in that is takes the beatmap-roadmap concept from “Vib Ribbon”.

7 ways to ruin your resume

How uplifting….. Yet it’s true.

Read the article here.

Lost Garden

http://www.lostgarden.com/

I ran into Daniel Cook at GDC, who gave me some useful advice on my thesis. This is really just a personal blog, as it turns out, but still worth checking out.

The guys works in Seattle, Washington DC. I might drop a mail updating him about my thesis, and ask him questions on some of the game companies he might know.

He provides some free art for indie developers under the creative commons license. Sweet.

My New Blog…. for now

For now, I’ve decided to setup a fresh new blog. Whichever way I’m moving the content from my older blog, it will be a slow progress…..

Interview with Masaya Matsuura

Masaya Matsuura, creator of PaRappa the Rapper, talks about his newest game, Major Minor’s Majestic Marck, as well as his thoughts on music game.
Marching To His Own Drummer: Masaya Matsuura’s Thoughts

Article about HUD in Console Games

Here’s an article about games the attempts to reduce heads-up display. This is essentially what I have been trying to do….

Flash Game Designers on Music Games

I have came across a lot of music games done by Coolio Niato on Newground and Addicting Games. Some of the ideas are quite creative.

I haven’t been able to find his website, and it’s not until recently when I found an interview of him here:
Keeping the beat with Coolio Niato on Armor Blog

How I wish I found this earlier (Oh wait, it’s done at the beginning this year, huh?) It looks like he is into the idea of hybriding music games with other game genres as well. The one I remember most is Music In Motion, a musicial platformer game I’ve mentioned earlier.

I also found out that another game of his, Rhythmworld, allows users to use any song from Newground Audio portal and make a level for it. The beatmapping is done by handsyncing (manually tapping to the music).

Divine Beats – Night at the Monastery [Game Outline]

Stage Background
A group of people bands together to transverse an isolated mountain area, and decided to spend a night at an abandoned monastery. Amongst them, a young drummer and a Taoist monk shared a room, when suddenly they found themselves being assaulted by their fellow travelers. The monk pointed out that malicious spirits were dwelling near this area, and has now taken possession over most of the travelers. It might also have been their luck that the monk by then lacked the ingredients and tools to perform a proper exorcize ritual.

There is still a way, though. The monk currently has talismans that are meant to expel the spirits from their host but are functionally dormant. However, these talismans’ power can be reactivated with sonic energy, which is where the young drummer comes in.

The young drummer, however, is not completely unconcerned. The talismans can only be reactivated correctly by correctly drumming on this part. Last but not least, the monk appears to be perpetually drunk. Will this duo be able to save their fellow travelers and survive the night?

Gameplay
This is a music game where the stage last as long as the music duration. In this game, the player plays the drummer who works together with the monk to expel the evil spirits possessing the travelers. The goal of the game is to free as many travelers as possible until the music duration.

The core mechanic and gameplay involved includes:
Button 3 – Hit Drum

During the gameplay, the monk and drummer transverse the stage, where the monk runs in front with carefree attitude while the drummer tries to keep up with him. The enemies will appear on screen based on the music’s rhythm and charge towards the duo. The monk can dodge them with ease, but if the player fails to perform by the enemy’s associated beat mark (hitting the button in time), he will be injured by the enemy.

In order to save a possessed person:

  • The monk first places a talisman onto the possessed person that passes his way. A beat mark should then appear above the enemy.
  • The player activates the talisman by beating the drum as indicated by the beat mark when the possessed person comes into range.
  • If the player hits too early, the talisman is activated prematurely, fails to expel the evil spirit, and essentially becomes useless. That enemy will later on attack and injure the drummer.
  • On the other hand, if the player hits too late (or missed it all together), he also gets attacked.
  • Regardless of where a possessed person is successfully freed from possession or not, he/she exits the stage through the left.

Concept Sketch of Gameplay
The timing between possessed travelers being stuck with a talisman and when the drummer is suppose to hit the drum is meant to be setup in a call-and-response pattern; the call here is when the monk sticks a talisman onto an appearing enemy.

Health Bar
The drummer health bar is affected by the player’s performance during the gameplay. Hitting a beat mark/defeating an enemy increases the health bar while missing it decreases it.
If the health bar reaches 0, the game ends prematurely.

Beat Map Gauge
The beat map gauge is mainly there for debugging purpose for now, though it’s possible for it to be used in the future.
The gauges consists of a time bar that indicates and suggest when the drummer should be the drum in order to defeat the enemy associated with the gauge.

Current Status
Sceenshoot
Downloadable demo will be coming soon~

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