New Article on Additive Blending Effects

Now that Jorge at IsoInteractive has teased out how to use additive blending in Shockwave3D, I figured I'd put up a page in my Shockwave3D Developer's Center (sorry, I've taken the site down - do not use Adobe Director) showing how additive blending techniques can really enhance the look of a Shockwave3D piece.

Here's a screenshot of what the featured effect (called "FireJet") looks like:

Special Effects using Additive and Multiplicative Blending includes a discussion of what additive blending is, and includes exposition, details, and the source code to recreate the above FireJet effect.

It also has a demo that lets you click between several particle textures to see their effects in an additive context, which might give you some ideas for spell effects for your next Director-based RPG game. (Hint, hint!)

Frosty Demo Available

Okay, I've just uploaded the demo version of Frosty to the ImaginEERIEing site. Frosty is our new Christmas-themed digital puppet, for all you home haunters who start putting up animated reindeer and Santas after you tear down your animated zombies and witches.

The puppet is not for purchase yet, since I want to get some testing done on it before I start charging. I'd appreciate it if you'd try it out and let me know whether you experience any bugs or problems with him. Thanks, and enjoy!

Strange Eons adds Arkham Investigations support

For those of you that play Arkham Horror, Chris Jennings' excellent Strange Eons, a Java program for creating custom Arkham Horror material, has a new alpha build available which adds support for Arkham Investigations casebooks and foldable tomes. Ia! Ia! Chris Jennings fthagn!

Gordo for charity, other testimonials

I've put up some testimonials on the ImaginEERIEing site which tell some good stories.

One is the story of a home haunter who charmed everyone from toddlers to parents, including some college girls in between, with the Magic Mirror.

But even more gratifying was the story of Gordo being used for a charity event for children and adults with severe disabilities. When we first built the Magic Mirror and offered it as a free download, we hadn't anticipated its use outside of the context of a home haunt, or possibly a haunted house attraction. But this was a great use of the puppet, because it was engaging and spooky enough to connect with the kids, but (thanks to Gordo's "happy face") not so intimidating that it put them off. Having an adjustable level of friendliness with moods really does come in handy for managing your performance to be appropriate for your visitors, on the fly if need be.

As stories come in about people using our digital puppets, I have to say: it's really great to know that our creations have spread smiles all over the country and beyond. It's a great feeling.

Shockwave Additive & Subtractive Blending

Oh, happy day! Jorge Rodríguez at isointeractive has figured out how to do Additive and Subtractive Blending in Shockwave.

Video of the Madame Sarita Game for 2007

Okay, I got some video of kids playing the Madame Sarita game up on YouTube. Here it is:



All in all, it turned out pretty well - most of the kids seemed to really enjoy the custom controllers. The fact that they didn't have any wires, and that you didn't even touch them (except for the skull, which could be picked up off the table and still work), gave them a really mystical feel.

We did have a few technical difficulties during the night, but once we got through the first few sets of visitors, it ran smoothly for the remainder of the night.

Digital Puppet Fun for 2007

It looks like ImaginEERIEing's digital puppets really contributed to some fun for kids outside of our own little home haunt this year. There have been a lot more downloads of the puppets this year than in 2006, and the reports are starting to come in about how they worked for people.

Dez, who lives in a not-very-Halloween-oriented town up in Canada, decided to get the ball rolling in his community by using the Magic Mirror to get kids interested in a spooky, fun tradtiion. He's wwritten a really good blog post with his mirror implementation and response, complete with video and photos. The facade he built looks great, and he describes how he built it. He had some interesting ideas on keeping the cost low for it - it's worth a read.

And Brent used our Yorick puppet to greet his guests with a really big pirate skull. The facade he constructed carried the theme through, complete with a treasure chest and iron sconces. Very nice!

As for our own haunt, the Magic Mirror remained an audience favorite, with people lining up all down our sidewalk to have a chance to talk to it. My buddy Rich provided the entertaining and engaging voice for it, and parents were telling us nonstop all night how their kids wouldn't miss the mirror on Halloween.

If you used the Magic Mirror or one of our "pro" puppets in your haunt this year, be sure to send us a note!

Haunted Mansion Interior for Madame Sarita's Spirit Parlour

Well, I have the second of two vignettes pretty much modeled out and ready for non-programmer art to be dropped in for the Madame Sarita's Spirit Parlour video game for Halloween. It's looking pretty nice. If I have time, I'm going to go back into all the environments and add spiderwebs and debris, but I'll be happy with this if I don't have time.

Moreover, this vignette is now fully playable. You enter the foyer, and a chill wafts over you. Suddenly, two ghosts come screaming out of the dark corners at you!

Dispatching them with your abjuration cards, you proceed towards the staircase, where the spirits offer to let you choose your fate.

As you tentatively select one of the fate cards, you hear a horrible scuttling from behind! Spinning around, you gasp in horror as a swarm of spiders come skittering out of an open doorway! Your valor casting had better be up to snuff!

Was the other fate card a better choice? I guess you'll never know. Such are the vagaries of fate. (Or perhaps this will prompt you to strike up some conversations with other visitors to see what their experience in the Spirit Parlour was like...)

More Progress on Madame Sarita's Spirit Parlour

Today, the crew came over and we did a lot of work on the Spirit Parlour. We got more walls made and hung up in the garage, we got a good start on the window frame, we got the crown moulding put over the window box, and we got the "casting cards" finalized for the game. Moreover, we managed to get in a test of the interface, and it revealed some problems which I have fixed tonight. The game now has very fine configuration controls that allow much more crisp responses to the players' actions, far better than before. This thing is really coming together well. I can't wait to get it in front of some kids.

The "casting cards" are:

Valour

The card shows a knight vanquishing a terrible foe. When the Mage player places his or her hand over it, it casts a spell that smites your foes with fire and steel.

Abjuration

The card depicts an undead specter cowering in fear from the light beaming forth from a man's hands. When selected, it casts a spell that banishes the spirits of the undead.

Sinister Knight and Dexter Knight

These paired cards show skeletal knights facing left and right. They are used to communicate your wishes to the spirits of the dead.

The cards themselves were drawn by local artist Bob Diven, and look spectacular close-up. They are in the style of old Tarot cards from the dark ages, but are completely original, since we didn't want to actually use the Tarot, in case someone objects. You can get an impression of them in the photo above. They sit in small boxes, back-lit by small utility lights. Also in the photo above, you can see the new configuration screen, showing the current configuration of the system. It now has readouts of the current settings, ways to adjust thresholds and sensitivities, and feedback icons so that all game systems can be tested within the configuration screen. (You can see the circular targeter, the palantir HUD, and icons for the four cards.)

Spirit Parlour game coming along nicely

Tonight, I did my first complete test of the controllers for this year's Madame Sarita's Spirit Parlour, and it works. It works! Yes!

All three control types for the game are now prototyped and working smoothly:

• The Palantir of Abyssinia, a crystal ball filled with water from the river Styx, sits on the right, where the "Mystic" player waves his or her hands over it to generate mana.
• Four Casting Cards that once belonged to Marie Laveau sit on the left, so rife with power that they glow of their own accord. The "Mage" player need only pass a hand over them to access their magical energies.
• The Skull of Rasputin grins horribly in the center, where the "Medium" player will lay hands upon it to draw the team into the dark nightmare of the spirit world.

Now, all I have to do is make the game which uses the controllers. Erm...