Defenestration Game Jam

Programmed an X-BOX Kinect as our controller for a 1 week game jam.

Project Description

You play as a moving company that throws the objects out the window. An X-Box Kinect is used to track the player's hand movements including an open and closed grip, and their x,y,z position to move the virtual hands. We had to design this game around an uncommon verb, so our group chose defenestration. This was my first time working with the X-box Kinect.

🔵 Roles: Tools Programmer, Gameplay Programmer, Game Designer

🔵 Collaborators: Carlton, Kye-Ting, Nishan, Maika, Mitchel

🔵 Year: March 2023

🔵 Timeline: 1 week

Task

Figure out how to connect the X-Box Kinect to Unity through Microsoft's Unity Kinect SDK
Figure out how to get the hand data (position and open/closed state) in Unity and translate that to the virtual hands.
Program grabbing objects if players close their hands, and throwing them forward if they let go.

Prototypes

PlayTest Videos

Lessons Learned and Skills Gained

Don't Add New Features Without Testing Right Before the Deadline!!

On the last night before submission, I stayed up implementing a new system to the game, where if the players put their hands close together for 3 seconds they go to the Hub. I was only testing this on my home computer, but the next day when I displayed our game on my laptop, it ran poorly and the new feature ended up being a common complaint as many bugs were introduced because of it.

Experimentation with New Technology

After using the Kinect, a device I had no prior experience with, I developed a new passion for experimenting with technology I am unfamiliar with. This has gotten me interested in how we can connect rigs to virtual spaces, in machine learning algorithms, and so much more!

Google Sites

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