Hello! I made a series of games inspired by Unity's Tanks! game. Each of these is no longer the original Tanks game, but an experiment within conceptual bounds, aesthetic abilities, sonic manipulations and technical means that could be revised from the original Tanks game.
In Watch Out!, the player battles a tall ominous opponent with a menacing human-like silhouette of a shadow. I thought about how the human driving the tank, scares me more than the Tank itself. Once the player grows near to this mysterious opponent there is a sense of supernatural or menacing intervention based on the behaviours of the camera and lighting. Despite the rather malignant appearance, the current large shadow tank possesses no ability to shoot, but can take damage and affect the nearby player's visibility and camera orientation.
What's the News?
This game sources dialogue from many a news cast report regarding missile firings, war related destruction and death in association with tanks and missiles. As the shells are fired, a tone meant to mimic that of a game referenced bomb shell begins and is soon followed by news cast dialogue. In addition to the sound, a spectrograph coloured trail travels with the sound and is intended to represent the projection path lines of those in the background scene. The background is a projectile map illustrating the math behind targeting. With each new shell fired, the sound layers upon itself to an extent that is overwhelming and causes the words to garble one another. My intention for this was to simulate the saturation of news, especially in regards to matters related to war and missiles. With every source reporting at once and with all saying one thing or another based on their own bias, one can grow easily overwhelmed. If players make the decision not to shoot, the catastrophic news will cease and the players will begin to hear the sound of their heartbeat once more.
One in the Same
After thinking about dependencies between objects, I was lead to think of the relationship between humans and bees as well as pollination and consumption of produce. Bees are responsible for the pollination of much of the produce in the supermarkets today, their decline in population directly effects the amount of produce we see on the shelves. In order for the produce to appear, the bee must pollinate the corresponding plant, but not without your help...
FEATURES
Watch Out!
▪ Single-player combat (Controls: Arrow keys to move ENTER to shoot.)
▪ Flashing lights (epilepsy warning)
▪ Original spooky electroacoustic music
▪ Responsive light and camera actions
What's the News?
▪ Two-player combat (Controls: Player 1 WASD to move SPACE to shoot. Player 2 Arrow keys to move ENTER to shoot.)
▪ Authentic news cast dialogue
▪ Layers of sound
▪ Sound visualization
One in the Same.
▪ Single-Player (Controls: WASD to move)
▪ Immersive soundscape
▪ Lots of colourful 3D models
▪ Relative movement
▪ Produce dependent on bees
VIDEOS
PHOTOS
Watch Out!
What's the News?
One in the Same.
HISTORY
Watch Out!
Watch Out! evolved from the desire to make an eerie and disorienting game. What began as a rotating camera, eventually became a trembling camera, to shake in relation to the appearence and location of the AI tank. I thought about It Follows a film by David Robert Mitchell, I thought about long disorienting shadows, I thought about anthropomorphisizing the tank. What were originally strobe lights, became flicking lights and the landscape itself eventually transformed into monochromatic figment of devastated landscape. In this game I began with research, proceeded to code, focussed on effect and dealt with landscape and setting last.
What's the News?
I began exploring eerie soundscapes and producing what I thought would be the music for this piece, but I ended up scouring youtube for links on news cast segments. The initial prototype utilized the trail render attribute which eventually illustrated travelling news cast reports. I thought about the playfulness and the toylike presentation of tanks, and how that contradicted the reality. This juxtaposition between subjects such as war, destruction and death, within the context of a bright and prompting game led me to push for emphasis on the stark cotrast between the game's playfullness and the reality of war.
One in the Same
After thinking about dependencies between objects, I was lead to think of the relationship between humans and bees as well as pollination and consumption of produce. Bees are responsible for the pollination of much of the produce in the supermarkets today, their decline in population directly effects the amount of produce we see on the shelves. In order for the produce to appear, the bee must pollinate the corresponding plant, but not without your help...
▪ References that inspired Watch Out! (See "Laura Hirsh's Lights, Camera References")
▪ References that inspired What's the News? (See "Laura Hirsh's Sound References")
▪ References that inspired One in the Same (See "Laura Hirsh's 3d Object References")
▪ Class Presentation that inspired all three games
ABOUT THE DEVELOPER
Laura goes to school at Concordia University in Montreal and has begun to make games. Laura loves sensor application and data. Laura has been coding in C# in Unity for the past while, in an attempt to make games such as the ones you find here. Laura loves computer programs and making art with them and has been doing so for a very long time. When she's not using Unity she's using Max 7, Arduino, Processing, and brainstorming projects in the shower.
● Christoph Peters et al., Unity Technologies: the TANKS! tutorial
● Music
In One in the Same - Found in the public domain at https://freesound.org/
- The bee https://freesound.org/people/sofajoe/sounds/73371/
- The garden music https://freesound.org/people/mham05/sounds/395131/
- Grocery Store Music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj0ChLVTpaA
● News Cast Reports:
What's the News - The use of journalism and news cast segments without the permissions of the organization is illegal, so I'm not going to list the videos unless absolutely necessary.
● 3D Models:
One in the Same - Found in the public domain at https://www.blendswap.com/
- Shopping Cart by jabril
https://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/89537
- Bee by Ruckrova
https://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/89946
- Tree by PA3D
https://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/62459
- Low Poly Foliage by EugeneKiver
https://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/59269
- Watermelon by winbrookhouse
https://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/20782
- Cucumber by Miramontes
https://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/77211
- Kiwis by luis
https://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/51451
