Building SOT part 6: the switch

Changing perspective 

I'll be moving to a side scroller, 2.5d point & click game, which will still use the gyroscope to execute the world-switch mechanic, but in a much more comfortable and accessible way.

I've talked to some people.

Basically I've hit a point where I'm noticing that, after playing for longer than 2 minutes, the player becomes uncomfortable. The strain of having to stand up and move the phone around is not contributing to the game.

To check this I went and talked to some people who were hanging round about their gaming habits in mobile games. These people include Master students in game design and interaction design, as well as some first-year game students.

Notes from the first year discussion. Impressive, I know.

Here are the results:
There are two types:

• The people who play games for a longer time, 30+ min/session.
• These people like games that offer a more intense experience. They are usually home when playing.
• The people who play while waiting for something else to happen, +- 10 min/session. 
• These people prefer a "no-brainer" experience, as a distraction. Examples were waiting for the bus, being on the toilet, while the pc or console is experiencing difficulties.

The use of gyroscope controls as intensive as what SoT would have been is not desired and breaks with the environments in which mobile games are being played.

Building SOT part 5

Building SOT part 5: Graphical Upgrades 

 

A test with sunbeams and one with a spherical edge to the upper world view.

The circular window is achieved by making a sphere, inverting the normals and cutting a hole. The camera then sees and renders the inside of the sphere as the skybox, and looks through the hole to display the other character.

The sphere then gets rendered by the second camera, but not the first one. Also, it's upside-down because of how the camera is oriented and mirrored, so that's fun.