Evil Super Grandma Final Report – Human-Machine Virtuosity

In this project, Group A (Ophelie Tousignant, Timothy Nelson-Pyne, and Elizabeth Lister) developed a social game about making a quilt together to perform a summoning ritual.

Abstract

The primary goal of this project was to develop a lighthearted game to connect friends over a distance. We also aimed to make creative use of AR and emphasize communication challenges and collaboration among the players.
We created a small game intended to be played by a group of friends over a video call. One player, the group leader, actually runs the software and communicates playful instructions to the other players, who then sew quilting tiles and send photos of them to the group leader, who assembles them virtually using AR technology to “complete the ritual”.
We intended for the physical appearance of the tiles (such as the colors and whether they are constructed “correctly”) to have a physical impact on the summoning that occurs at the end, but ultimately abandoned this goal in light of the technical challenges it would pose.

Implementation

Our group used Unity to create the game; this option made the most sense to us given that it’s a free, versatile tool with a wide range of support resources.
We assume that the players will be on a group video call using software such as Skype, Discord, or Zoom to play together. This is a reasonable assumption given that present circumstances practically mandate widespread use of group video call tools anyway.
The players are assumed to have access to sewing supplies and scrap fabric. The act of sewing while making conversation with friends can be fun and relaxing. Group activities such as this also help to pave the way for comfortable conversation.
The group leader is assumed to have some familiarity with Unity. This was unavoidable given that it’s necessary for them to prepare and upload photos of the sewn tiles to be used in-game.
Given that some tiles are more laborious to sew than others, we utilize silly penalty rules, such as speaking in fake Australian accents, for players who find themselves with idle time on their hands. This is so they stay engaged.

Outcomes

Shortcomings: using AR in Unity resulted in a somewhat clunkier experience than intended when considering that the game leader has to upload photos, use an additional webcam, etc. This, unfortunately, somewhat limits the accessibility of our game. We also regret that we were unable to include some way of using the quilt’s construction to affect the summoning at the end.
Successes: we felt that we were able to incorporate the “grandma” theme and narrative in a way that augments the experience for the players, and that the AR aspect of the game was cleverly executed. Additionally, Tim in particular was able to learn a lot about Unity in the process of making this game, and Elizabeth and Ophelie really enjoyed giggling about evil grandmas.

Contributions

Tim is responsible for the technical implementation of the game.
Ophelie is responsible for the scripting of the game and made the test tiles.
Elizabeth is responsible for the animated assets of the game.

Description of the Process

A designated game leader with the game installed and some number of players are all on a group video call.

The group leader relays instructions from the helper grandma to the other players to guide them through sewing quilt tiles. The players are encouraged to discuss instructions amongst themselves and coordinate colors and designs.

However, there is a catch — the instructions are vague, and include silly penalty games and challenges. For example, a player with little to do during one step of the process might be asked to perform a coin trick to appeal to the dark forces they serve.
After all quilt squares are complete, the players take photos of their respective squares and send them to the group leader, who gives them a quick glance-over and doles out penalties for bad tiles accordingly.
The group leader uploads the photos to the program and uses AR tracking to arrange the tiles and choose embroidery in a design the players agree on.
The summoning is complete! Witness the reunion of your grandma friend and her bingo buddy or buddies.