Role | Installation/Experience Designer
Team Size | 5
Duration | 2 weeks
Class | Building Virtual Worlds, ETC, Fall 2017
Challenge | Create a world that can make it into ETC Fall Festival
Platform | Omni/Fove/Makey Makey
Overview
Out of Your Mind is a 1970’s themed game show experience that allows for two teams of two people to compete for a chance to enter the Mastermind: a fun, virtual experience that wins the “grand” prize. However, there are several twists and turns of reality throughout the show that make it hard for the cast of the show to get along, ultimately giving the audience a comedic experience.
The actual game show itself was modeled off of $25,000 Pyramid, a word-guessing game show based off of certain categories. Halfway through the experience, a disgruntled member of the team hijacks the game show and runs his maze project in the Omni/Fove world. After the maze is complete, the other team members try to shift back into the game show world, but everything starts to unfold and it becomes apparent that the cast is a BVW team who snuck their way into the ETC festival to try and put on their failed world.
Design Process
In order to create a successful live performance, several props had to be made to create a convincing setting for the audience. A game show wheel was constructed and wired to the Makey Makey. At first, the wheel was just used to spin to a category for each team to try and score points to. Halfway through the experience, the wheel became a way to unlock doors in the virtual maze in the Omni/Fove world. The challenge in creating the wheel was to make something robust enough to be wired to the Makey Makey and satisfying to spin. We also faced a challenge in making the wheel have only one degree of freedom; this element was important for wiring and consistent connectivity, so it was necessary in making our wheel successful.
Two theatre walls were constructed to contribute to the 1970’s themed world and also to create a reveal halfway through our experience. In our experience, our disgruntled member ran up and pulled the curtains down to reveal his own cyber themed curtains to add to our storyline. We attempted to implement an automated curtain drop using linear actuators found in car door locks, but struggled to get them to work due to current loss through our wiring. Had we had more time, we would have had our disgruntled team member press a button to reveal his own curtains to gain a greater reaction from the audience.
Lastly, a logo for Out of your Mind was designed and fabricated to pull together the game show setting. The logo text was designed by hand and transferred to vector lines using Adobe Illustrator and the actual shape of the logo was designed in SolidWorks. Everything was cut on the lasercutter using ¼” plywood and constructed using wood glue.