Project Statement

Project Statement

“Creature Bash” is an augmented reality game that allows the player to interact with 3D creatures moving around the table top. The purpose of this project is to create a fun interaction using virtual characters in a physical space.
ARToolKit is the motion tracking software used that allows the 3D models to be tracked and placed in the real world space. It was originally developed by Hirokazu Kato of Nara Institute of Science and Technology in 1999 and was released by the University of Washington HIT Lab. Today it remains as an open source project. The main features of this software allows the tracking of specific black squares that contain black and white patterns on the inside. These squares are also known as ’markers’. With the use of a camera and computer, the coordinates of these markers are tracked and allow a model with the same coordinates to be rendered out on screen where the marker is located. There are many forms of this technology in use today ranging from commercial products to custom built applications. My use of the software involves the ARToolKit plug-in for Virtools, which is a 3D building program that allows visual programming to create applications.
My game is a combination between the classic “Whack-A-Mole” game, which encourages players to hit various moles that pop up and down from holes with a mallet, and “Hungry Hungry Hippos”, a game that has players trying to collect as many pellets as they can with their respective hippo controller. Taking these two elements of violence against creatures and the need to compete to collect things, my game involves collecting points by destroying creatures, either by dropping them down a pit, whacking them with a mallet, or setting them on fire. The creatures wonder about on the table and the players must eliminate as many as they can using any of the aforementioned techniques, and all of this is accomplished by the markers the players will be using.
Each player has their own appointed marker that, when rendered on the screen, will transform into a hole in the ground. The player can position this marker anywhere on the table and hope for the creature to walk over it and fall to their demise. The player is also equipped with a wooden stick that has a marker on both sides. One has a virtual representation of a mallet and the other is a flaming torch. If the creature is struck be the mallet he will be squished. Likewise, if he is touched by the torch he will burst into flames. This is a much more modern take to whacking a mole.
While the game development is my main focus, my underlining goal of this project is to provide proper animation to the character when they are interacted by the player. In my research on the topic of augmented reality I found few to no real interactions of character and people. Everything seemed static and all the people could do was move the character or object around by moving the marker. This game is to provide real feedback though the players movements and animate the characters accordingly.