When prompted to “Make anything you want, as long as it’s totally awesome” for a final project, the ensuing week-long whirlwind of art, code and testing resulted in this game. Drawing inspiration from Monty Python and the Holy Grail as well as the amazing graphics of the Metal Slug video game franchise, this simple Kinect game puts the player in the role of Tim the Enchanter, master of fiery theatrics.

Never having worked with the Kinect, I sought the aid of classmates both for coding and testing how users interact with the device. While peoples’ interest in the core mechanic of destroying killer rabbits with huge, fiery explosions was gratifying, even more interesting were the clever ways they found to subvert the intended trigger mechanism for shooting the fireballs.

Concept Sketching

Attempts at adapting Tim to the Metal Slug aesthetic I adopted for the game. The version in the top-right was the basis for the finished sprite.

Motion Testing

The most technically challenging aspect was fine-tuning the activation motion. Here, a classmate helps by "aiming" at targets while the Kinect registers the movement.

Setting the Stage

Once the code was in order, graphics and audio had to be assembled. Here, you can see my original sprite for Tim and other assets acquired from the Metal Slug games.

The Serendipitous Joys of Usability Testing

The final product! Though it was great to see people enjoying the game, it was even more fun to observe the ways they found to subvert the default activation motion.