Thesis: digital game progression [obstacle engine]

thesis: digital game demo 2 from Thomas Kearns on Vimeo.

This video is demonstrating basic character control, camera logic, and obstacle generation.

The character control is built upon the bullet library and integrated with irrlicht based graphics and input. For the time being walking, running, and jumping are the only required character control mechanics.
most importantly what we see here is the base functionality of the obstacle engine, which manages the dynamic creation of obstacles for an ever expanding game space. The engine is overseeing the instantiation of new obstacles based on active zones within the physical game space.

Abstractly the engine allows for unique obstacles, in this case represented by simple planes or floors. each obstacle can have a number of connectors associated with it, which parametrically define the possible relationships with future obstacles, effectively controlling the location and dimensions of the gap. While subtle, in the video you can see a growing number of obstacles with their orientation being determined by the orientation of the obstacle it is connected to and on which side. Each obstacle can also define an ideal view point, which we see in the video as the camera is controlled entirely by which obstacle the player is currently engaged with. While still requiring some finessing, the camera’s dynamic quaternion based control is functional.

The engine is also managing the state of the obstacle whether its untouched, yellow, or conquered by the player green. To win in the digital game players will be racing to conquer, similar to qbert, each obstacle in the system. With the space expanding with more and more obstacles the players will be racing to be faster than the generation. The rate of generation is also tied to the status of players in the physical game.

Future additions to this system will be the telepresence representation of physical players, and what I am currently working on now, the ability for designers to create custom, animated, obstacles in 3dsmax with the ability to define connection points, conquer triggers, and ideal view angles, these custom obstacles will replace these simple boxes with creative spatial obstacles for procedural combination into an interesting, dynamic landscape for players to navigate