ETCircus
ETCircus is an eye tracking game where the player focuses on the screen and tries to find the cup with the hidden ball.
Collaborators
Artist Hagen Miller
Programmer Shicai He, James Finkel
Sound Design & Producer Hua Tong
My role
Designer & Artist
Modeling, and animation
Platform
Tobii Eyetracker 5
Tools
Maya, Unity, Adobe Creative Suite
Timeline
1 week
Prompt
On this assignment, the key is to have a good idea that is FUN to play with, preferably one that can be implemented simply. This means there's an especially large emphasis on playability.
Design Process
Platform
After doing some playtesting with Tobii Eyetracker, we realized that this platform is not great at accurately locating the point the player is looking at on the screen. To select a small object on the screen, the player has to look at a point next to the object, not the object itself. Considering this drawback and the short timeframe, we need to design a game that is intuitive and doesn’t require too much accuracy. Using a concept most people are familiar with, tracking a cup with your eyes, we designed a game that is fundamentally about watching and looking.
Prompt
To make the game more FUN to play with, we set the environment in a circus. The player is being tested in front of a crowd. This could make the player feel more invested. To make the player feel challenged, but not defeated, we playtested to find the best difficulty level for each of the four round.
Gameplay
This is a video showing a classmate playing the game with Tobii Eyetracker 5.
Modeling and Animation
Reflection
There are a few game design details we would focus on if we had more time to work on this project.
We would like to create some surprise moments in the game to distract the player and make the game less predictable. For example, a clown jumping through a burning hoop. These absurd shocking moments can pique player’s interest and create escalation.
The game could work well as a tournament, allowing players to compete with one another, aiming to be the best.
