Category: games

Bubble Up and Go, aka B.U.G., is a single-player Start-of-2025-Empowering game. It has been a rocky start this year, negativities are around us! In this simulation, players have to navigate through negativities, learn to keep a safe distance to toxic influences, and purify them with positive energy! Hope all of us have a great rest of 2025. Bubble up and let’s go already!

This year’s them is bubble.

How convenient! Before attending the global game jam today at our site, I stopped by Michael’s. I went there to see if I could find a cheap snow globe kit for a summer project that I was working on. There were a few interesting things I found there but they were either two big or too fragile for the project. I eventually decided to go with a clear plastic 3-Part Mold that was on sale. It has the right size and super cheap. The universe was aligned that afternoon because when I arrived, I found out the theme for this year’s Global Game Jam was, guess what!?, bubble!

Okay, I have to make something to answer the calling!

I also relearned math in the process (in English!), for example, in a triangle, the line that goes from one angle to the middle of the line between two other angles is called a median. The other one I relearned was the circumcenter of a triangle which is the point where the triangle’s three perpendicular bisectors meet. It’s also the center of the circle that passes through all three vertices of the triangle, called the circumcircle.

Translating them into Visual Scripting was also very fun. I had done a similar experiment with C# in 2013 when those tablet toys were popular. The relation between the 3 angles is different for different triangles and, therefore in theory, can be used as identifier. The debugging is a little tricky because the multitouch feature can’t be tested directly inside of Unity editor.

With the bubbly controller in mind, the first few things that came to me was protection, activation, attraction and repeal. This probably came from my memory of playing WoW. Bubble up = 0 harm.

Here are an initial set of rules to situate the gameplay and most of them are based on the felt.

• the player (soul unit) can attract good energies and repeal negative ones
• negative energies (disaster clusters) will randomly pop up in proximity to the player
• bullets with positive energy will shoot out of the front of the soul unit to repeal any disaster cluster they hit.
• a successful hit with a bullet will generate points and enlarge the soul unity over time
• when points reach a threshold, the player can release a map attack that whips out all the disaster clusters nearby.

Global Game Jam 2025: https://globalgamejam.org/group/11573/games

Over the course this weekend, 21 students, 1 faculty, and 1 alum (my one and only Bryce!) made 7 games in total, super awesome!

We played each other’s games at the end, all of my overthinking and tech-savvy game mechanics were immediately humbled by other players. For example, the bubble controller can also control the rotation of the soul unit. I wanted to use the rotation for something so I added a mechanic which shoots out a energy bullet from the front to repeal disaster clusters. It was not very intuitive, and players had a hard figure out what’s going on there including where the front is. I should of just let the soul unit do what bubble do the best which is to bounce with other disaster clusters directly. I missed frequent playtesting so much!

I am planning to add a few more things:

• Soul unit can be hurt by nearby clusters – decrease points?
• Bounce instead of shooting energy?
• a better theme

After many years, I am coming back to get 3 RFID readers to work together again. Completely forgot how I did it , I started with Software serial. I couldn’t get two software serial ports to work. After reading the notes I left for myself in this post (https://www.ivadream.com/kyle/red/?p=4344). I found out from myself that in order to get 3 RFID readers working on 1 Arduino, I had to use 1 hardware serial, 1 software serial, and 1 altsoftware serial. It worked like charm!

Finally made some progress in the DIY vending machine, going to reactivate the Acorn Riders project. After building the coin dispenser, I have been looking for a capsule vending machine. My ideal vending machine was Bandai’s Capsule Station Mini (カプセルステーション ミニ). It looks very different than the regular size one and goes well with my coin dispenser setup (in my imagination). However, I’ve not able to find one in any of the market places all these years.

Over the years, I have encountered a couple of DIY vending machines. First one was VEND on Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:45347). My final version is eventually based on this build, I learned so much from taking its design apart. The second one was the Recycle Capsule Machine (循環ガチャ)(https://circular.yokohama/projects/circular-capsule-macine/). I first bumped into one when I visited the Fabcafe in Shibuya. It was made with laser cut and 3D print parts, very eye-catching. It made an impression of me when I found out it takes bottle caps as coins. Last year, when I was judging the Creative Discovery Challenge 2023 (https://awrd.com/award/cdc2023/result), I saw the same vending machine again. They now have multiple versions of the machines which is very encouraging.

I started to take notice of the mechanics of simple vending machine in this issue of TV magazine (テレビマガジン) in January 2016. It is basically using the same mechanic as the VEND where the handle connects directly to a drum that vends a capsule when rotates. On the other hand, the commercial ones like Bandai’s Capsule Stations has a more complex setup with multiple drums, which increases the chance of capsules falling into place correctly so that a capsule is always ready for vending.

After study VENT, I started to modify the design to suit my needs. I first modified the faceplate (VEND-CoinFace.stl) by removing the extended coin track. I tried to create a simpler look and feel so I can add my own narrative elements to the surface later on. I also modified the drum so it can handle bigger capsules while keeping the same form factor if not a little bit smaller. I then broke parts into smaller ones for easy printing and assembling. After all the specialty parts are modified, I designed a new casing for them with a detachable coin compartment. There are a few places needed to be improved, but I am pretty happy with the outcome.

For the capsule container, it has to be from the legendry pork sung jar. I redesigned the top so I can screw the jar in securely. It’s perfect in every way.

Put it together:

Interesting Cardboard Capsule Vending Machine:

NEW REMOTE WORKING OPPORTUNITY AVAILABE IN HELL!

Hell sure has become the popular destination in afterlife recently. In order to improve the overcrowded working condition, the bureau of labor in the underworld has open up to the idea of remote working. This is a pilot program for monster walkers in hell which is similar to dog walkers here. If you have received one of these kits at your doorstep, congratulations, you are going to hell soon, and you better set it up and start working, those hell hounds won’t walk themselves!

This is a single player experience made possible with a custom alternative controller which allows the player to walk a hellhound on a leash. People who work remotely as a hell hound walker will receive a remote working kit. Inside the kit, there is some kind of a monitor, a specialty controller (the Leash), manual, power adaptors, and some AV cables.

The Leash controller is made of a repurposed Gametrak 2 joystick module. I have been wanted to upcycle Gametrak 2 controllers for something fun since it came out. It is essentially a physical motion tracker. It is a brilliant idea from other side of the pond. It is a wonderful controller, especially the 2nd version with modular joysticks which I incorporated in my controller. I also loaned it to my students from time to time just to see what came up. Here are two fun examples:

Echo Rift by Yi-Ning Huang, Clover Paradise, Pierce Wolcott, and Hang Ye, 2014.
This experience puts players into the shoes of a bat navigating a virtual cave. By tilting and turning the oculus, users could control their trajectory as they glide past stalactites and stalagmites. Using a Gametrak controller modified to be wearable, players could also influence their altitude by flapping their arms. This resulted in surprisingly immersive experience, that was also lots of fun to watch.
https://piercewolcott.com/portfolio/echo-rift/

Group Project Assignment 1 by Luca Jeha Civita and Krystal Huang, 2023.
We decided to create an instrument using the Gametrak string sensors Kyle showed us in class. We pictured something that allowed for rhythm, harmony, and melody.
https://new-arcade.tumblr.com/post/732013080328929280/luca-krystal-progress-report

Since this is supposed to be an tool sent from hell, I am trying to make the alternative controller looks like an ancient religious artifact from a sci-fi movie or Warhammer 40K — that dark, gothic, and futuristic look and feel. Most of parts are connected or glued together with Lego Technic friction pins (#2780). The base are hold together securely with a hair loop which is a technique I used frequently with my builds.

The enclosure for the Gametrak 2 module has gone through many iterations. The original design was meant to work with M5Stack Fire and its sensor units, so I designed thicker wall to accommodate the Lego Technic pins. I moved on to a simpler Arduino setup because the analog data are more reliable for what I am doing. I am able to reduce about 5mm (back plate) + 3mm (front plate) of the thickness which helps the controller and the leash align with the hook on top better.

For the aesthetics, I am imagining each level is a park in hell. There will be lost souls, ghosts, monsters, magma everywhere, typical hell stuff. The first park is an abundant race track that I modified from a Synty game asset that I own and remixed it with all the hell elements above.

The missing piece:
https://www.frathwiki.com/Parseltongue-inspired

List of Game assets used in this prototype:
Mix of Synty Game Assets
https://syntystore.com/
Demon Dog
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/characters/creatures/demon-dog-122346#publisher
Simple Racer – Cartoon Assets
https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/vehicles/land/simple-racer-cartoon-assets-37490
Oak Forest (Tree Pack)
https://skfb.ly/oOrvE
The ambience sound 1 was a loop sampled from
-D&D Ambience | Hell | Cries, Agony, Despair, Demons, Devils, Magma, Avernus
https://youtu.be/JzVIkY5tKcE
The ambience sound 2 was a loop sampled from
10 Hours Lava Flow, Kilauea Hawaii
https://youtu.be/kTpglKDyn4s