Squidball: An Experiment in Large-Scale Motion Capture and Game Design

• Published in: Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment pp. 23 - 33
• Main Authors: Bregler, Christoph, Castiglia, Clothilde, DeVincezo, Jessica, DuBois, Roger Luke, Feeley, Kevin, Igoe, Tom, Meyer, Jonathan, Naimark, Michael, Postelnicu, Alexandru, Rabinovich, Michael, Rosenthal, Sally, Salen, Katie, Sudol, Jeremi, Wright, Bo
• Format: Book Chapter Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin, Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2005; Springer
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Artificial intelligence; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Electronic Theater; Exact sciences and technology; Game Design; Game Engine; Motion Capture; Motion Capture Data; Software; Energetics; Graphics; Motion estimation; Rebound; Large displacement; Real time; Artificial intelligence; Cooperative game; Interactive system
• ISBN: 3540305092; 9783540305095
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/11590323_3

This paper describes Squidball, a new large-scale motion capture based game. It was tested on up to 4000 player audiences last summer at SIGGRAPH 2004. It required the construction of the world’s largest motion capture space at the time, and many other challenges in technology, production, game play, and study of group behavior. Our aim was to entertain the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater audience with a cooperative and energetic game that is played by the entire audience together, controlling real-time graphics and audio by bouncing and batting multiple large helium-filled balloons across the entire theater space. We detail in this paper the lessons learned.