Another way into Space (Lamb)
Multiple modes of delivery and control in video games, inspired by Global Game Jam 2017’s diversifiers
This year’s Global Game Jam had a super interesting diversifier, Another way in. Its description reads, “Allow players to choose which input method they want to use, e.g. choice between mouse or keyboard, choice between tilt, virtual stick or tap, choice between controller or voice.”
The Why?
Designing an intuitive control system for a game sounds difficult enough, why spend time and energy into creating other control systems? Well:
- the control system that you think works best for you, might not be the best for someone else.
- It might be more fun playing the game with a mouse than the arrow keys.
- Another reason for having multiple control systems is to increase replayability (to a little extent).
Creating alternative control systems makes you analyze the gameplay in ways you would not necessarily think, if you stick to one system.
Space Lamb
A browser based adventure, of a jet-propelled Lamb cruising through space debris. Try here.
Space Lamb is a super lightweight browser based game, which has the player control a, you guessed it Space Lamb. The character is an astronaut lamb navigating an asteroid field using a jetpack.
The art style of the game is low poly, and the color palette is very trippy (for the lack of a better world). And the only objective is to collect mushrooms, and bottles of alcohol, while dodging debris. The gameplay is straightforward and you can finish the game in a couple of minutes.
The part where the game scores the most point however, is it’s plethora of control systems.
Controls
You can choose to play with a webcam, a mouse, or a smartphone. The webcam detects head movements and steers the Lamb, the mouse movements are directly converted into the translation, and the cellphone control uses the gyroscope.
The controls are intuitive and fit perfectly with the flying theme of the game. But the most surprising part is using the webcam for headtracking and gauging player emotions.
Most of the head-tracking is done with keeping nose as a point of reference and calculating the deviation of the peripheral parts of the face. The clmtrakr library used for headtracking allows for tracking emotions and the Lamb mirrors the player’s expressions.
How can a super lightweight game, do all this, that too in the browser?!!
Wait there’s more…
Virtual Reality
Combined with the gyroscope, you can control the game using the movements of your head. This is something that wins the First Penguin Award. The developers of the game didn’t stop at delivering a robust experience on mobile devices, they nailed the intuitive gameplay in VR as well.
This game can be an inspiration when we try to build games that can benefit from alternative control systems and multiple modes of delivery. The web can be leveraged as a mode of delivery to almost all devices, and games like Space Lamb prove that it can be done efficiently.
