CheerUp - The shouting game
The CheerUp game required a player or, more usually, a group of players to cheer on the character of Phar Leap loudly enough to help him jump over a bar. The player/s needed to shout encouragement into a microphone that was encapsulated in a green ‘carnival box’ until a progress bar (which was projected along with the character animation onto a wall in front of the box) was filled. The amplitude (loudness) of the microphone input determined how rapidly the progress bar was filled. If the player/s managed to yell loudly and consistently enough to fill the progress bar before a ten second countdown timer expired, the character was animated to clear the jump and a solve to a clue in the greater LBG revealed. If the player/s failed to cheer sufficiently the character would not attempt the jump, and the player/s would have to try again.
Designers: Ben Gribbon, Deb Polson and Shu-Min Heng
Originally appeared in the wonderful Melbourne Museum
view SCOOT Agents start quiet until they finally CheerUp - video on YouTube
The Ghost Scanner - AR Toolkit Game
The Ghost Scanner device was one of the more elaborate amongst the installations. The spatial setup involved a wall to which were fixed a number of ‘marker’ icons. The handheld device was essentially a small, touch screen monitor which displayed the video feed from a webcam that was mounted at the rear. Computer Vision software allowed the game to recognise particular icons from the wall and overlay the webcam feed with 3D character animations in the manner of Augmented Reality (AR). To pass the game, a player was required to locate the characters of the ShardUp family who were hiding amongst the symbols on the wall. Once the appropriate symbol was located by the user aiming the webcam at it, the character would appear. At this point the player used the touch screen capability in order to ‘grab’ the character in a ‘tractor beam’ and drag him to the icon marked “trash can”. The player would repeat this process until all the ShardUps were captured, at which point the solve to a clue in the greater LBG would be revealed.
Designers: Tom Killen, Dean Loades, Deb Polson
The Ghost Scanner was spotted in the amazing State Library of Victoria and has travelled to China to participate in an exhibition for newish media artists
DrumBell and BarryBell - The Strength machine goes musical
Drumbell, along with its counterpart BarryBell originally drew conceptual inspiration from carnival-style strength testers (the type where a player has to hit a lever with enough force to raise a weight to a height where it will strike a bell; thus winning the player a prize). It also drew game play inspiration from the myriad of games which require a player to play along in time with a beat, such as Konami’s DrumMaster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drummania).
To get the Secret Agent Message, players need to beat the drums in perfect time with the music… the more accurate you drum, the quicker the book raises to Sir BarryBell (based on Sir Redman Barry, the founder of the Library). Once he gets the virtual book… he will call to read you the secret message from the Carnies of Scoot World.
The physical installation consisted, essentially of two input buttons (which were analogous to left and right drum pads), a projection of the character, speakers and a telephone. After ‘waking’ the character up by hitting either button, a randomly generated beat would play through the speakers. The character animation was synchronised to this beat – indicating that the player should drum along in time. If the player could drum along, consistently in time for long enough (roughly 30 seconds to one minute) the marker animation would raise to the top of the screen, ending the game. At this point the telephone would ring and, when answered, reveal the solve for a clue in the greater LBG.
Designers: Toby Gifford, Marcos Caceres, David Wallace and Andrew Brown
BarryBell was installed in the State Library of Victoria. DrumBell first appeared at the the Queensland Uni of Tech and then moved to the Australian Centre of the Moving Image (Melbourne)
view BarryBell video on YouTube
Across Town - networked game of speed and wit
Across Town was designed with the specific intention of exploiting the Cultural Broadband Network (CBN), which linked the physical sites of SCOOT, for creative purposes. Two teams of three players competed in several rounds of skill tests that involved all players hitting coloured buttons in a sequence mimicking that displayed on a projection. Players were rewarded for speed and timing in a fashion similar to Dance Dance Revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_dance_revolution). Web cam feeds of both teams were inset into the projection so players were visible to each other throughout game play. One team would be located at the Melbourne Museum, while the other played from ACMI, several kilometres away, with the game play data and camera feeds being synchronised across the CBN in real time.
Designers: Simon Joslin, Dave Wallace, Deb Polson
The first reported appearance of this machine was at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, The next one was spotted at the Melbourne Museum!!!
view a video of agent teams competing Across Town
view another video of the cutest boy being helped by other SCOOT Agents
Balloon Slam Game - bust the virtual balloons with a real ball
Balloon Slam is another carnival inspired game for SCOOT that requires a physical commitment from the players. They are to throw real balls at a virtual scene projected onto the wall to compete for points. We resolved this set-up by simply taping a web camera to the projector above that recorded a black shadow of the ball as it hit the walls surface. This acted as the cursor.
Designers: Matt Clarke, Simon Joslin and Deb Polson
It was difficult to find this one… it was hiding in the Melbourne Museum
view video on YouTube - two groups team up.
Alert Drones - touch screen card game
The Alert Drones were small, stand-alone puzzle nodes containing a ‘matching pairs’ style flip card game, which were styled based on characters relevant to the narrative at that node. A player was required to eliminate all the pairs of cards with a limited number of attempts in order for the character to reveal the solve to a clue in the greater LBG.