During our visit to the see the Igloo Dome on Avenue Campus, we were also lucky enough to be presented with the other exciting technology held by the digital scholarship team. This included some really interesting creations which could influence the design of our interactions we create in the game experience.
All of the technology we were introduced to, as well as some other exciting pieces of equipment, that could potentially be used for our project can be found under this link:
Makey Makey
The Makey Makey is a piece of technology that allows you to design your own controller with everyday materials like play-dough or graphite pencils. All you have to do is connect the computer with an alligator clip to an object. When you touch that object, the computer thinks you're pressing the keyboard. By mimicking a keyboard and mouse the Makey Makey lets you control any computer program with everyday objects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfQqh7iCcOU
This video shows a load of examples of objects that are conductive and can be used as controller such as a banana piano, a play-dough game pad for Super Mario Bros and using buckets of water to play Dance Revolution.
Here is a step by step method to show how Makey Makey works, taken from their own educators guide. It is an incredibly simple set up and easy to use as it was primarily developed for young students to use in their science classes
This could be really interesting if we were to apply it to our own game experience as it provides a unique method for the player to interact. As we could use absolutely any object to provide any function we wanted, there are limitless possibilities. It could be as simple as the object that the player chooses to interact with within the space triggers a specific visual or audio to play. It would provide the player with the element of exploration and discovery which would be enriching to the immersion.