Inspired game idea: Stratastencil gameplay

A friend of Greg's just linked this to him: "My Paper Mind," an animation of paper stencil cut-outs, using a technique referred to as "Stratastencil." The interesting thing is that the stencils are layered on top of each other, and photographed and lit such that the previous frames are visible behind the current one, receding into space and shadow. The effect is mesmerizing. Visit Javan Ivey's My Paper Mind page to view the video.

Now obviously, if you're a game developer, you'll likely think "oo, I wanna make a game like that!" At least that's what I thought. The easiest thing design-wise would be to copy the same visual effect, where the game world is a stencil, with previous frames in the background. It might take some graphics trickery to do the lighting such that it looks realistic. Or you could just make a sheet for every possible combination of object locations. Heh.

But what if you made a game based on the abstract concept of this, instead of the literal visual effect? What if you could see your previous actions in the distance, and that affected your current choices? What if you could go back to those frames to alter the current one? How could you design interesting gameplay by showing the past and the present at the same time? One draws parallels to something like Braid, but let's think past that.

Imagine the space that exists from the front frame to the back frame. What happens if you collapse that space? What happens if you connect it, creating a 3-dimensional form from that space? How do you explore such a space?






I think exploring some of the later questions could lead to some interesting game ideas.

Oh what a long strange trip it's been. GDC 2008: day 0

Well, today was a work day, even though it was the Sabbath we worked just like Mike said. User stories, a little Orbit Room cafe, and so on. But that, was but the beginning. Awhile later we met up with Ted and we fumbled around San Francisco, going to two predetermined restaurants that ended up being closed. Blah blah blah, long story short, Mike made this vs. screen mockup that's probably going to change the way we think about gaming.



Soon after Mike's out-of-body inspiration his eyes went blank and he ran into the Moscone center stripping off his clothes. We were able to recover his clothes after finding him dripping with cold sweat in a fetal ball. We clothed him as best we could and decided he'd just sleep there. He kept spouting gibberish about Warren and his mother, we're not sure, but hopefully we'll see him there in the morning. We may have lost Mike, but we've gained a vs. screen beyond imagination.

The Professor preys on boats

Recently we nicknamed Prof. Porpoise, "The Professor" due to his extreme agility on the court as well as his radical dissertation on The Crossover: An Application of Metafluid Dynamics and Quantum Mechanics Subsystems to Underwater Basketballs. The Professor isn't all sneakers and snow globes. When he's not drainin' half-court PS-triples he's sinking sea-faring vessels in the name of the Almighty's Reckoning.



So I drew a few of those ships that he'll be snacking on. I'm going to illustrate them fairly soon based on these drawings. Right now we're just gathering ideas on the different types of boats and which would be funnier and more effective. For now this is a pretty good smattering of boats, ranging from early level rafts, to millionaire customized yachts. When I draw I use a ballpoint pen, preferably a Bic Cristal but normally it's just whatever is lying around. If enough people want tips, I'll post something about the technique in greater detail later on.