INDN 212: Featured!

So, my team and I today got featured on the awesome design blog Yanko Design today! I'm so stoked! Check out the link on Yanko to see more!

INDN 212: Videographical!

We created a video to show how our design worked, as well as the research behind the sizes. I think it's neato. That, plus Cole does an excellent job of playing the subtle star, while Ash and I did all the work behind camera. You should definitely check out Cole's blog here: http://coleholyoakedesign.tumblr.com/ and Ash's blog here: http://amsdesign-indn212.tumblr.com/

INDN 212: Vertical Garden Design Presentation Slides

These were the final presentation slides for our group project Urb-Garden, a project based around bringing herb gardening into the home in a sculptural, aesthetic way. The primary focus of the project was centred on making something that would alleviate back pain in avid urban gardeners. The design was developed extensively over a 3-week period, whereupon we began the production phase, which lasted 3 weeks. The final design is something we're really proud of, as it fulfils the function we set out to devise, as well as being a very aesthetic piece that speaks of simplicity, but upon closer inspection, reveals a far more extensive development in production and assembly techniques.

The final piece consisted of three iterations that fit together in a puzzle-like fashion. Designed as modular pieces, the design would allow users to choose as many as they felt were necessary. The base and attached pots were made in fibrous concrete, to ensure the best strength to weight ratio, while the stems were made of steam-bent laminated strips of Ash, an extremely strong and beautiful yet labour-intensive solution. We then had aluminium pots spun by a professional metal spinner that would fit into the concrete pots.

We wanted to create a highlight on the design itself, so we spray painted the very edges of the metal pots red, a colour we also duplicated in the felt we used on the base of the concrete. This colour is both striking as well as beautifully contrasting with the green of the plants, an effect we chose intentionally.

What we ended up creating was a piece that was quite dynamic and had a good flow of usage, as well as a really quirky motion that made the whole feel quite lively. This, combined with the red accents, made the Urb-Garden a really satisfying design.

The last element that we wanted to include in the presentation was the idea of there potentially being a "collection" of different types of Urb-Gardens. This particular variant that we designed was all about being free-standing as well as providingeasy access. We had ideas for alternate variants that could be plays on the original, with one idea being a smaller version that could sit on a table or bench if the user had limited floor space. Alternatively, if the user wanted a more permanent installation, we devised a wall-hanging variant, whereby if the user had a more permanent residence, they could make a more permanent change.

INDN 212: Urb Garden Final Photos

MDDN 242: Sky Climber

So, my game is complete! And it proved to be a lot of fun. Even though a horrible atrocity befell me three nights before the hand-in (I lost all my code due to my losing my hard drive), I managed to pull through with a little help from a stiff drink and some pumping tunes.

One of the simplest aspects of the game that I find the most compelling is the parallax effect that I generated for the various layers of the game. I wanted to give the game a much more interesting depth to it than is normally possible in a 2D game.

The entire experience was designed to be dynamic. The instructions fall away as you master the mechanics of the game, and the sun drifts down in the sky as you travel higher. Soon you grasp how quickly you're moving vertically as you hit the clouds though.

Most of the clouds are in the distance, while others are in between the viewer and where the game takes place, occasionally briefly obscuring the game, making things harder for the player. The clouds all move at different speeds, highlighting the sense of depth.

The game gets progressively harder, as the gravity constant begins to skew. It starts to make the ball fall faster, while the ball's rebound gets stronger, ensuring that the height the ball bounces stays constant.

I went for a very minimal aesthetic with the game, letting strong colours and shapes do the talking more than anything.

If there was one thing I wish I could have done to add to the game, it would have been to add a high score recorder, as the game actually got taken quite competitively in the in-class test. I loved this project, and I'm actually fairly disappointed that there isn't going to be a third-year coding class. Oh well, that's what free time is for, right?