Awesome progress has been made over the past 2 weeks! While I believe the Gym room will still be the most challenging to get done correctly so its fun, I am able to use a lot of my base code from the puzzle room to streamline the development. Thanks to this amount of re-usability, I am a bit ahead of schedule and ready to show off the first bit of the gym. In this screenshot you can see the first available exercise for this room. Since going to the gym can be a chore for most people, I hope to break up the monotony by creating 3-4 different experiences where users can work to level up their mythlink’s strength.
The first thing you might notice is that the controller has changed! A true and fun punching experience would not be complete without the ability to switch it up from the boring old Vive controller. As such, players can swap the models at run-time from the Vive controller to a boxing glove. It’s a small thing, but adds a bit of fun to the training.
Now, what exactly is going on in this image? Well, think of it as sort of a twist on the classic “whack-a-mole” arcade game. In this variation, you’re presented with a vertical board of these sandbags which reside in hollow boxes. After a set amount of time (based on which level you have selected) one of the sandbags will pop out and welcome you to pummel it back into submission! The strength of your punch is then shown (404 in this screenshot) and your points applied appropriately. As this is a strength focused game, there is less emphasis on how fast you can punch and more on how HARD you can beat those babies in. The game isn’t quite as simple as that either, you get a multiplier bonus for alternating hands (right punch, left punch…lets keep balanced!) and can set a “resistance” variable on what constitutes a valid hit on the sandbag. Setting a higher resistance value makes the sandbags less willing to take on weak punches, but also awards greater points.
I expect to wrap up this room on development sometime in the next couple weeks (my busy schedule pending), but hope to move on to the next gym exercise sometime near the end of the month.