Black Bottom Parade is an experimental multiplayer game designed for the Hong Kong Campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design. BBP was selected as an IndieCade Finalist in 2011. The recently departed ride a tilting platform on a 1920's New Orleans version of the River Styx. Players control the Reapers disguised as jazz musicians with their custom controllers designed specifically for the game. The deceased dancers will follow the musicians like rats following the pied piper. If the Dancers fall off the platform their souls are forever lost to the abyss.
My Role on Black Bottom Parade:
I was the Game Designer and Technical Artist. I designed and tuned the game systems. I created a test rig for the artists so they could see what their animations would look like bypassing the need for importing into the engine and building a new executable. I imported assets into the game engine and optimized and rigged them.
Awards and Accomplishments:
- IndieCade 2011 Finalist
- On permanent exhibition at the Savannah College of Art & Design: Hong Kong Campus
- Best of Show 2011 Entelechy Competition: Savannah College of Art & Design
- Best Digital Game Prototype 2011 Entelechy Competition: Savannah College of Art & Design
- Exhibited at Game Developers Exchange 2011
Celebrating our trip to Los Angeles as an IndieCade Finalist.
Pictured from left to right: Erin Hanlon, Jonathan Justice, Mattew Maloney, David Spencer, Daniel Plemmons, Charles Trippe.
Not pictured: Yuki Yamada, Bianca Gee, John Sharp
Black Bottom Parade on a test run just before its permanent installation at the Hong Kong Campus of the Savannah College of Art and Design.
The classroom turned workshop where we built the table.
All those dancers dressed in green are about to slip of the edge of the platform.
They're falling off!
Only one dancer remains on the table. All his compatriots are replaced by heavy coffins that slide across the platform making it more difficult to maneuver.
We're going over the design & construction of the table / projector rig and our progress on the game with some of the higher ups at the Hong Kong campus of SCAD.
The game runs off a laptop and is displayed on the table via a projector.
On top of the table are several custom controllers. Inside each one is an LED which can be triggered by a button on the top. Underneath the table a projector bounces the image off a mirror up onto the table. To the left is a much larger mirror that reflects the light from the LEDs into the view of a PSEYE camera. We use the light data from the PSEYE to track where players are moving their controllers.
One of the promo posters for the game.
One each side of the game table is a set of instructions for playing the game. You can check out the rules while other people are playing.
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