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Games Idle

Kinect Based Whole Building Breakout 46

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the blinken-blinken-lights dept.
mikejuk writes with a light piece in I Programmer about a neat Kinect and gigantic projector hack. From the article: "If you remember Breakout — rows of blocks a the top of the screen and a paddle to bounce a ball into them to destroy a block — then you might not feel nostalgic about it. After all, it was a very limited sort of game. However, take one Kinect and one building and you have something quite different when you use it to create a Breakout game. The bricks, ball and paddle all projected onto an old building and the player moves from side-to-side to control the paddle. The player's position is being detected by a Kinect, is there no end to the fun you can have with this gadget. The really clever bit, and you might not notice it unless you look closely at the video, is that the ball bounces off real architectural features of the building — like the windows, for example."

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Kinect Based Whole Building Breakout More

Kinect Based Whole Building Breakout

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  • Maybe we could clean up that headline with a couple of dashes?

  • Stupid (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kamapuaa ( 555446 ) on Tuesday September 06, 2011 @03:18PM (#37319274) Homepage

    Thought it might have incorporated the building architecture or something sort of cool. Instead, this is just a 80s video game projected against a blank wall at night. Instead of pressing the button to go left, you lean to the left to go left, the same as every other Kinect game but much simpler. Totally unimpressive.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Lazy. Should've made the player run to where they want the paddle to be.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by denaje ( 1170715 )
      Did you even read the summary or watch the video? "The really clever bit, and you might not notice it unless you look closely at the video, is that the ball bounces off real architectural features of the building — like the windows, for example." Maybe you think it's unimpressive, but many people would find this really cool. And face it...if you walked by a building that was playing a giant version of breakout, you wouldn't walk by without looking twice.

      • There was a dark spot on the wall that the ball went right through. Aside from the dimensions of the playing field corresponding to the dimensions of the building, there wasn't a building-game correspondence. Even if there was, it still wouldn't be impressive, but the story summary and the website talk like this 80s video game projected against a wall is really something amazing, when it simply isn't.

        This isn't nearly as impressive as those displays on the ground where there's a projected soccer ball fiel

        • There was a dark spot on the wall that the ball went right through. Aside from the dimensions of the playing field corresponding to the dimensions of the building, there wasn't a building-game correspondence. Even if there was, it still wouldn't be impressive, but the story summary and the website talk like this 80s video game projected against a wall is really something amazing, when it simply isn't.

          This isn't nearly as impressive as those displays on the ground where there's a projected soccer ball field where the ball can be kicked. And that is cheesy shit that has been around for five or ten years.

          Maybe the video didn't help, with the focus problems and the music video feel.

          The ball bounced off the circular window at the top. I dare say that is what it was supposed to do.
          If they wanted it to bounce off every "dark spot" they could but it'd get pretty ridiculous.

          Are you always this negative?

      • Sorry, I gotta agree with kamapuaa, I didn't see it bounce off a damned think, yet saw it pass through numerous obvious windows and such. This seemed to be more about their fancy projector than the actual game. The guy barely leaned form left to right to move it. I'd rather have seen the padded EXACTLY where the player stood, and the player having to run from one side of the building to the other in order to move the paddle.

    • Thought it might have incorporated the building architecture or something sort of cool. Instead, this is just a 80s video game projected against a blank wall at night. Instead of pressing the button to go left, you lean to the left to go left, the same as every other Kinect game but much simpler. Totally unimpressive.

      I can see how moving might be a turnoff for you. Rest assured, there are many other people who like to move around.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nialin ( 570647 )
      Like you, I had hoped for more. Despite the summary and any visual proof, I still find the whole "bouncing off the architecture" less than exhilarating. Walking past it, I would likely have a double take and watch for maybe a few minutes.

      What I had in mind was something like a crossover over of 2 different games:

      * Ricochet [youtube.com] - Breakout style game play with a better aesthetic
      * Curve Ball [funny-games.biz] - 3D-styled Pong      .

      Those two ideas combined with the idea of destroying a building would be kind of cool.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jovius ( 974690 )

      Exactly. The building should be the target. How about a kinect game where you control the ball of a demolition machine by swaying around? Or better yet a pong implementation for two players, where one tries to knock out the building of the other player. Although it would just be a 70s video game in essence. Maybe we should have some birds there to modernize it.

    • Jesus Christ, I could not agree more how underwhelming this video was. The intro credits took 20 seconds, there was probably only 30 seconds of actual "game" video and the whole thing has a really annoying soundtrack.

      For anybody who hasn't watched it yet, skip it, or at least turn down the volume and crank up the contrast because I could barely make anything out. The last minute or so was just pointless artsy animation. Meh.

      ...grumpy because I'm working late

  • "The player's position is being detected by a Kinect, is there no end to the fun you can have with this gadget." There is a definate limit when playing on an XBox.
  • The only way they could have made this less fun is by using Solitaire instead of Breakout. Both rank very very low on the gameplay meters.

    I really hope someone comes along in a few months and does this properly; using a decent game and at least a little imagination thrown in!
    • What, the original Breakout involved Steve Jobs, and you know everything he ever touched is absolutely perfectly designed... *rolls eyes*
  • I was really hoping that the "bricks" where the office lights turning on/off. Having control of the buildings lights would have made for a much cooler display.

  • If you remember Breakout ... then you might not feel nostalgic about it

    Spot on. I DO remember Breakout, and I absolutely feel NO nostalgia for it.

  • If you've never heard of Breakout [wikipedia.org], you might have heard of its more well-known clone, Arkanoid [wikipedia.org].

  • I was hoping the paddle would be more directly controlled. Say, with a glowing fluorescent tube. Bonus points if it showed the movements of the person as well, so you could end up with a pretty awesome shadowdancing display.

  • If you're going to play a whole-building game, I still prefer Blackout Fire Alarm Beancounter Pinball.

    The classics are, well, classic!

  • Why would Kinect construct a building just to base the whole thing off a game of "Breakout"? Won't the building just be demolished? Why did Microsoft create an entire venture out of Kinect, anyway, when it was doing just fine as a product? God, corporate suicide is all over the news, these days. What's wrong with people?!

  • Lol...that is cool. How do they do all that? Wow.

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