imadethisthing

If my thesis is making a game that is bad on a computer, and fun with the proper interface, then it should make sense that prototyping it is a total bitch.  I can tell something’s going right for a few reasons.  By making a controller tooled in parallel with the experience, I’m trying to show the poverty of the basic game controller meant to work with everything.  What I’m discovering is a real pleasure.  I’m coming up with many interface elements (and formats) and physical tools for control in my cockpit that I haven’t heard of, or seen in current games.  A reason these ideas are unused is that it would be impossible to control a game in this way with any dexterity using a regular controller or mouse.  The fact that I am thinking up unused (they probably aren’t new for interface, but still new in games) ways of interfacing means that there are creative benefits to making a controller in parallel.

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Just a quick thing to put up: a simple webcam visualizer written in open frameworks called Invariable.  It was created for a college event I ended up disk jockeying (which I am told is very high school of me).  We needed something cool on the projector!

So what is it doing?  It grabs video and employs differencing on each color channel, and if the pixel’s change is over whatever threshold I’ve set, it shows up as a pure color from whatever channel.  I’m pretty bad at describing this sort of thing…  Let me try again.  Imagine, you are a pixel.  Not a whole pixel, but just the red part of a pixel (so if you and blue where hanging out the pixel would be purple).  Now let’s say that the camera isn’t picking up red at all, you won’t have to be too bright, let’s say around 40.  But all of a sudden red shows up, about 200′s worth!  Now, because of the visualizer, you won’t turn 200, you’ll be 255!  SUPER BRIGHT!  PURE RED!  Other colors on the same pixel can do this, because the process is worked out per channel, so mixes can show up, allowing for cardinal colors, and black or white.

The thing looks pretty cool, so check the break for a video and a download link!

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The other week I had my first big thesis presentation – It didn’t have to be, but at 2 in the morning the night before I decided it was important.  In the end, with the help of my lab partner, I had made my most badass presentation ever.  Hit the break for more.

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In any interaction with a system, the users input is meaningful.  Due to the complexity of systems (especially with the current tech-convergence fad in digital interface), solutions like the touch-screen seem necessary.   A form of input that works for everything won’t be perfect for any one of those things; it’s a zero sum game.  My thesis will explore meaningful input in systems, with a focus on digital games and the way the player interfaces with them.  But the rules and terms I’ll be exploring are by no means solely game related, or even strictly digital.

What form will my thesis take?  The project itself will end up being a game, due to my interest in games, and their respective (and respectable) industry.  In games, the input is governed by the controller; for video games this means a game controller, for PC games this means a keyboard and mouse – and with more and more platforms showing up, there are more and more ways for input.  But a boom in platforms does not mean a boom in variety, like it might imply.  All of these new devices tend to strive to do the same few things (internet, music, native download store), the form of input for each is becoming less and less unique.

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My name is Sam Strick, and I am a compulsive creator.  Somehow announcing my problem like this feels like the first step of an AA meeting, but I could have predicted this as well.

I have made things since I had the motor skill to craft, mom always said she could lock me in a closet and I could keep busy for weeks with the lint and paperclips hidden within.

I never could understand why I’d want to document any of my things.  The act of making the thing is the fun part for me; but with my life as a student coming to a close I feel like it will benefit me, and the internet, if I catalog some of my more complete things – and that is what this site is for.

At first this means me racking my brain to the whereabouts of any photos or documentation I might have produced by accident.  And figuring out what I want to show.  But hopefully within a few months I’ll be able to post real time what I’m up to.

I’ll throw up a brief bio so you can get to know me later.