Beat-The-Freak

My final project is finally complete! Here's the link:

Beat-The-Freak

Project Abstract

What is the easiest way to solve any sort of dispute without physical conflict? Clearly the answer to this question is the age-old game of "Rock Paper Scissors". This simple, yet influential game is the basis of my final project for Advanced Interaction. I have created a Rock Paper Scissors game that was influenced by the Coney Island Sideshow. You will be able to select your freak, and engage in an intense Rock Paper Scissor battle as your unique character. As you play the game, if you win, you are rewarded with a fact about your freak. This allows you to learn about your character as you play. On the other hand, if you lose, you must submit a fact about yourself to the "Freak Selection Committee". All of these facts are saved in a database, which can be accessed by anybody. This interaction takes a well known game, and puts an intriguing and fun spin on it.

Progress... slowly

I'm making progress, slowly but surely. I have been working on a lot of character sketches. Below are a few of the sketches that I've done. The first one is a really rough sketch of Inked Inga, for the character selection screen. The second one is the same thing, just of The Amazing Gorilla Man. The third one is of Lobster Claw Larry. This is how his hand will appear in the RPS interface. When LCL throws out any symbol (be it rock, paper, or scissors) this is what his hand will look like. The symbol that he threw out will still hold its value, but it will always be this deformed hand. This will be a simple joke within the RPS game. Also, I've integrated the RPS Database into the interation as well. Now i just have to continue to design my characters and the interface as well. Here's the link to the updated RPS game. RPS Still a lot to go...

Freak Show

I've made a lot of progress on my final. This past weekend I took a trip to Coney Island to get a feel for the whole aesthetic that I am striving to achieve. It was pretty eerie seeing Coney Island during the winter time. The whole place was abandoned, and it was getting dark. After my trip, I went on www.flickr.com and found a bunch of really good photos from the Coney Island Sideshow.

I also began designing my character selection screen, as you can see in the image above. I've determined who my three freaks are going to be, and began to lay out facts about their backgrounds and their lives.

Inked Inga-
1. She got her first tattoo at the age of 6. It was a ___(TBD)____.
2. Currently she has 371 tattoos covering her whole body.
3. While pregnant her heroin-addicted mother accidentally injected a tattoo needle into her vein.

The Amazing Gorilla Man-
1. He was born with a coat of black hair covering his whole body.
2. In his high school yearbook he was voted "most likely to discover a cure for baldness."
3. In his youth he once attempted to shave his whole body, but he spent the next week with a hellish case of itchy stubble.

Lobster Claw Larry-
1. He was born with deformed hands that strikingly resembled lobster claws.
2. His deformity was exploited since an early age, he was a child star on multiple sit-coms including: ___(TBD)___, & ___(TBD)___.
3. Ironically, he is allergic to shellfish.

These facts are subject to change, but I am currently working on their backstories, and random facts about these tragic yet intriguing characters. I chose these characters because they will each have an interesting hand (which will be the only part of them that you see in the game, besides on the character selection screen.

I've also completed the code for the database portion of my Rock Paper Scissors game. While it is not designed to fit the style yet, it is fully functional as a database. Here's the link to it: Test Freak Database The concept behind the database will be that if you lose, you are forced to submit something about yourself to the "Freak Selection Committee".

I am continuing to design my characters, the interface, and the stories surrounding the characters.