On 05/01/2008, AlgoMantra <algomantra_at_gmail.com> wrote:
>
> *Kung-Foo Bar: Unconventional Interfaces for LiveCoding
> ---------------------------- Jan 5-10,
> 2008---------------------------------
> ** Moderated by Dave Griffiths and 1/f )))**
> *I also request Kassen and Desoumal to delight us with
> their perspectives on this field.
As I start typing it looks like I'm getting the first round and since it's
not yet clear how large the party is I'll just bring a few glasses of
whatever comes to mind and see if there are any takers.
Once I got started properly abusing game devices for music and discovered
the joys of learning to play a instrument that's hot off the compiler as
quickly as one gets to grips with a new game (as opposed to -say- the
accordion which took a bit longer) I started to wonder how I could take this
further.
Now, I like "twitch" gaming, very fast and hectic games with more or less
simple mechanics where rapid responses ban most conscious thought beyond
simple tactics (Street Fighter, Bullet Hell type SHMUPS...). These tend to
come from Japanese arcades and typically get played on digital joysticks
with large buttons that sense the lightest tap yet can withstand a solid
blow (a good property for a instrument!).
So, next up was a combination of steal^h^h^h^h^h borrowing Dave's circular
menus and realizing a arcade stick has 8 corners and house loops have 8
counts.
Presto; muscle memory linked to the loop, in a circle no-less, much better
then this neck-strain-inducing left to right business.
Nice about this is that opposites on the circle are meaningful (count 1 and
5 are up and down, for example) which is nice for twich-gamers as that
equates to shaking the joystick. Intervals of time turn into angles, also
nice, and I'm far more used to bad repercussions if I don't find the "bomb"
button fast enough then I'm if I forget where the "close square bracket" key
is.
Perhaps just as interesting as how quickly my brain adjusted to the new
interface was how this new mapping of rhythm to space (or direction, if you
wish) started to intrude on my daily life. Looking at a group around a
circular table would make me analyze the groups "rhythm".
This may be "live programing" but it's not (yet...) livecoding but it does
place me in a position to come up with some guidelines I found to work.
*Spacial opposites or groupings like to be meaningful, the brain likes these
a lot.
*It's a good idea to take a (type of) controller you already used a lot.
*It's a good idea to borrow control schemes from games you played a lot.
*Top quality game controllers (in my case a Hori Real Arcade Pro modified
with "Sanwa" buttons) are about as expensive as low-budget music keyboards
and a lot more fun. They can take more violence as well and I think they
look better.
*Don't give a single button multiple functions unless this makes a lot of
sense, whatever you do; don't use a double assignment for loading stuff that
overwrites your current situation. I tried this, no need for anybody else to
reproduce my findings as doing so is particularly unpleasant. On stage.
Multiple times.
*visual feedback is quite over-rated.
*Interface sonification for musical instruments is under-rated and a good
idea if done while taking the musical context into account. In case of
emergency you can always play the interface by itself ;¬).
Potential good idea that may or may not work;
Games like 3d fighting games or those snowboard games tend to use button
combinations that depend on where one is in a chain of events to determine
what will happen. For example;
push up and A to jump, down and A in mid-jump to somersault, sideways and B
to spin while in the somersault (for lots of combo points unless you hit a
wall halfway through). Sideways and B while on the ground may instead result
in a quick turn or similar move. This is not that unlike function calls that
take a array location as a argument which may in turn depend on a variable,
etc.
Those games tend to stick to your muscle memory rather quickly. They also
tend to involve spectacular crashes if muscle-memory accidentally takes
precedence over looking at the context carefully.
Cheers!
Kas.
(as we are holding a virtual bar, imaginary glass in hand I take it I can
make some bold statements while omitting lots and lots of "IMHO's")
Received on Sat Jan 05 2008 - 02:02:37 GMT