Battle Pods
September 20, 2005 04:53 PM
Assignment:
Create a switch from scratch.
Solution:
I was really intrigued by Amit’s idea about a game that could recognize which physical controller was being used (regarding the Ice Cream Parlor game). I also like the idea of having game controllers that can be interesting physical objects apart from the game. When I combined these two ideas, Battle Pods was born.
Game Play:
The Battle Pods game is based on trading card/role-playing games like Pokemon or Magic. In these games players collect cards that represent some kind of creature that can be used as a game piece. Each creature has different strengths and weaknesses, special characteristics, and moves that become more powerful when combined with other game pieces. By playing strategic combinations of cards, a player can weaken and defeat his opponents cards. Battle Pods uses the same basic idea, but with physical three-dimensional game pieces instead of cards. Players decide which pieces to play, and place them in the docking bays on the game controller. The game software recognizes which piece has been plugged in and displays that character on screen. Game play is conducted on screen with the computer keeping track of hit points, strength meters, and so on.
The game at this point is not playable, but is merely a proof of concept. The software can recognize which pod is inserted and display its character with strength meters, but I need to think through how the game will be played more and possibly redesign the controller (to allow more pods at once) before I do more programming.
Technical Stuff:
Metal contacts on the pods identify them to the software.
The pods are just simple plastic pods from a vending machine. I sliced little slits in them and ran strips of aluminum foil through to create metal contacts on the outside of each pod. The controller itself uses an IPac2 keyboard emulator to send key commands to a computer via USB. The leads from the IPac all lead to the pod bays but are left unconnected. When a pod is inserted it connects two leads, closing a circuit, and sending a key command to the computer. The pods are designed so that each one connects different leads, thus sending different commands to the computer so the software can recognize which pod has been inserted.
The software was created with Processing.
Files:
Download Source Code
Download Zip File with Graphics + Code
Project: Battle Pods | link
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