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DRUMS OF WAR! - Interactive Demo

Live performances or exported movies created with Magic.
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artnik
Posts: 268
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 5:33 pm

DRUMS OF WAR! - Interactive Demo

Post by artnik »



This is an interactive piece I've been working on for several weeks. It's for an apocalypse-themed event.

This demo uses canned audio, but in the live performance only the intermission sequences will have that. Otherwise, audience members will be drumming on two physical drums to drive the visuals.

Each scene has two main elements that are each driven by a drum, and using a gaming metaphor, players can choose to cooperate, compete, or abstain depending on the context. Kind of like a bunch of mini-games.

Magic comes pretty close to actually being able to be a simple game-development environment. Right now, the main thing I missed when making this was comparing multiple variables and using the result to trigger events, audio clips or scene changes. The scene lengths are currently fixed, but it would have been nice to be able to step through the playlist based on score values. I did try to do it with an Input selector, nesting the scenes, but then I ran into the issue of not being able to synch the audio for the intermissions.

The intermissions were added based on play-test feedback, as it was too dark. Having said that, it's really about playing with emotions around participating in horrific things, and the game-like nature of political posturing.

Constructive criticism welcome. There's still time before the event to tweak.

Cheers!
D1gits
Posts: 99
Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2016 11:49 am
Location: Stockholm

Re: DRUMS OF WAR! - Interactive Demo

Post by D1gits »

Super inpressive Artnik!

I can't even figure out whats made in Magic and what parts are pre rendered. Or is it all live rendered and made in Magic?
First of all congrats : )
The things I'm missing would be to add some parallax in the parts where you hava a "still image". And a tiny bit of movement to enhance the experience in my opinion.

Also the women are a bit strange in the video. Dancing and walking quite stiff... Whats your idea with them?


/Erik
artnik
Posts: 268
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 5:33 pm

Re: DRUMS OF WAR! - Interactive Demo

Post by artnik »

The women and soldiers (and the fire video) are the only pre-rendered videos. The motion is stiff because those videos only advance frames based on the audio, so if someone refuses to drum they are static. Slow if they drum soft, fast if they drum loud.

Everything else is animated in Magic.

A lot of the time was figuring out how to simplify the elements to keep the frame rate high and setup manageable. For instance, in the "Launch detected "part, all the missile trajectories are just 3D semi-circles placed below the map, and are animated just by rotating them on one axis so they poke through the ground. :-)

I like the idea of adding some subtle motion. The backgrounds could definitely use it.

Thanks for the feedback!
Sadler
Posts: 1139
Joined: Sat Aug 02, 2014 7:10 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: DRUMS OF WAR! - Interactive Demo

Post by Sadler »

Funny yet not. Congratulations on achieving a cohesive aesthetic throughout but with plenty of scene changes. Nice to see some good use of MagicaVoxel in there.
artnik
Posts: 268
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 5:33 pm

Re: DRUMS OF WAR! - Interactive Demo

Post by artnik »

Hey Sadler,

MagicaVoxel really is top notch, wish it was more widely known.

I'm glad to hear the piece is ambiguous – that's definitely what I'm shooting for. (No pun intended).

When I've play-tested the interactive version it's been interesting to see how people engage with it emotionally. I know it's working when people start out gleeful, then hit a turn, and their faces get serious. Really looking forward to seeing how that works with a crowd.
skarabee
Posts: 130
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 3:11 am

Re: DRUMS OF WAR! - Interactive Demo

Post by skarabee »

Great work! and emotionnal challenge too. Really like the idea of interraction with the audience.
visuality
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 9:04 pm

Re: DRUMS OF WAR! - Interactive Demo

Post by visuality »

Work of art dude, this a cartoon with a message and the message is you rock! :D
artnik
Posts: 268
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2016 5:33 pm

Re: DRUMS OF WAR! - Interactive Demo

Post by artnik »

Thanks visuality!

I'm starting in on a rework of this right now to push the gamification aspects further. Basically, converting more of the cooperative parts into competitive ones.

I've had the chance to test this out with a crowd now, and the responses are really interesting. Part of the rework is based on people asking together, "Did we win?" and my response is always, "Does anyone win in a nuclear war?"

Because people seem to need to have a win state, that's the impetus for adding more clearly competitive stages.

It's fascinating to watch the internal debates of players. The reactions to it are varied. In general, when someone has a strong response, it's the disconnect between the fun of playing, and the horrific nature of the subject matter. Some participants are happy to nuke cities but they often, individually or as a pair, have cultural biases that make them stop nuking some cities, while they are happy to blast others. It's as much fun to watch people play as it is to play.

The crowd I built it for was mature, but next month I'm volunteering to mount it for "Project Play" (https://www.projectplay.ca/), so I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays with a more diverse age range.
visuality
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 9:04 pm

Re: DRUMS OF WAR! - Interactive Demo

Post by visuality »

Interactive experiences are the best. If your work provokes thought and is effecting people, you have already succeeded :D
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