Translating Affordances
This assignment challenged us to recreate digital interactions that were originally designed to replicate physical affordances. This made me think of how some of the most popular video games try to emulate the physics of the real world and present them as challenges for the player to overcome. I wanted to experiment how the concepts of dynamics and kinetics used in the virtual world translated in reality. I wanted to answer the question –
“If we recreated the same conditions in the physical world, will the player observe the same results?’
Brainstorming:
At first I tried to think of all the games I played that utilized the concept of gravity. The digital world is not restricted by the rules of physics that govern our world. There was no reason for designers to incorporate Newtonian physics into the game other than to draw from the player’s intuitive understanding of how the game should be played without much instruction. The focus is on the ultimate goal and the rest of the simulated phenomenon is of not much importance to the player. I also considered if I could use animated movies as inspiration since the world of fiction created artificially can point to hidden affordances that might make the audience comfortable with the visual experience.
I tried to sketch out how each of these ideas could work and only managed to think of actual prototypes I could create from the first three.
Fruit Ninja: I considered using play dough to represent the fruits falling and using a pen or pencil or cut it up. However the mechanism proved to be complicated and had more flaws than apparent in the theory.
Cut the Rope: I wanted to create a reimagined version of this favorite game of mine with sliding panels to create a path for a ball to go into the character Om Nom’s mouth. But I realized I did not have the materials for how I designed the prototype.
Lastly, I thought of the game Where’s My Water and how I could use play dough to create paths where smalls beads representing water would fall through. However, I did not have access to enough play dough to make this.
So in the end, I went with the concept of the 3D Pinball game in the early windows PC. Of course, during research I found out that the actual pinball machine existed in various forms. However, since I grew up playing the PC version of the game using the a left and right arrow keys, I wanted to see if I could use just my fingers to play the game in the non-digital version. I also thought of how to bring the display into the real world and try playing with a board that I can manipulate.
The digital version (on the top left) was what I had in mind when creating my sketch. The actual pinball machine (on the right) I realized has a different feeling to it that the designers of the digital game translated very differently. My version would test whether the “bounciness” could be recreated under the conditions of the real world.
Creating the prototype:
At first I wanted to get the materials for creating the prototype and tried to think of places where I could find them. I ended up using the collection of recyclable materials I used for the Endangered Animal project. The basic construction was mostly done using:
- Cardboard,
- Rubber bands to simulate the dynamics,
- Plastic for the top cover,
- Bottlecaps for the scoring elements in the middle, and
- Lentils and chickpeas as the ball to play with because they matched in size and texture
I was quickly able to construct the basic mechanism of the bottom paddles and the base board. The paddles were held to the bottom with the red rubber bands so that their resting state is pointing downwards like the real pinball game.
Next, I created an entry tube on the side that simulated the ball entering the board with a push from a spring. Here I used the same rubber band material as a slingshot for the ball to enter the board. I added a failsafe entry point on top incase the slingshot failed.
The final look of my reimagined digital pinball is provided below:
Finally I added bottle caps on the board for the scoring details and closed off the board with plastic. I also added a little plastic container to catch the balls that fall through the middle when the paddles cannot catch it.
The game ended up showing me how the physics of the real world is manipulated in the virtual world to make it seem more easy and appealing to play with. A demo of me playing with the prototype can be found here:
Reflections:
I really wanted to use the NYU MakerSpace resources to create a better prototype. My initial idea was to salvage materials or the scarps and laser cut parts of the board and mechanism. However since I did not get an earlier reservation for the trainings I had to use the tools at hand.
I wanted to first see what my peers thought of this prototype. I was hoping to use their feedback from playing with it to complete my reflections. However, during the first test, the tape on the left paddle came off and rendered it unplayable. This made me recognize that if I want to test my designs with people I may need to present it at a better stage than the absolute low fidelity version. Maybe the MakerSpace resources could have helped me here?
My final thoughts were centered around how I took the idea to reuse the materials I collected previously, inspired by the way Bangladeshi rural children recreated popular games we know from what they have available. Since I went in trying to understand how the rules of physics translated from the digital to the real world, these design methods of translating affordances can be used for educational purposes in under resourced contexts.