SUMMARY
Produced Fall of 2021. Kitchen Kauldron was created for a class called Games for Themed Entertainment, witch focused on creating a cooperative interactive-themed experience. Utilizing alternative controllers within an immersive game space, Kitchen Kauldron was designed for a food truck, a three-player-cooperative mobile arcade, stored within an RV trailer or fashionable furniture, with the ability to reach wide audiences. The project brewed with a plethora of highly skilled multidisciplinary people, forming a team of 9, including myself, Simon Smith, and Sammy Gerolaga for (Game Design). Stella Golden. Nicholas Huang, Wilson Huang, and Jenelle (Jiawen) Yuan for (Concept). And last but not least Justin Finuliar & Fernando Olmedo (Faculty).
CONTRIBUTIONS: Co-op Gameplay Design, Barista Station, Fabrication, Set/Layout, Interactive Design. Lighting, Electronics, and Voice acting.
SPECIFICATIONS
TEAM: 9 - Multidisciplinary game design and concept
GENRE: Three-Player Cooperative Alternate Controller, Themed Experience
DURATION: 14 Weeks
SOFTWARE: Unity, Adobe and Google apps
AWARDS: GDC 2023 Alt Ctrl Audience Award Nominated for awards at IndieCade 2022
GAMEPLAY
VISUAL RESEARCH / THEMATIC
I began my research by looking into immersive themed spaces and how they manage their set dressing, props, and line queuing. It was important to capture the essence of what the Whimsical Witch theme meant to people and how to combine it with the gamification of a food truck mobile arcade. The research focus was on how these spaces lend themselves to amplify the interactive experience and how might we accomplish our goals of doing the same.
My Team and I went to several onsight locations to see how others fabricated and immersed spaces to lean into their themed designs to maintain the magic circle around interaction.
Previous experience working in the food industry lent itself when capturing the experience of making food orders within a cooperative atmosphere and maintaining a sense of comradery.
PROCESS
PROTOTYPE
I began prototyping the barista mechanics and systems within unity, utilizing primitive sprites and sliders for visualization. It was important to keep it clean and simple at first, leaving room for improvements and iteration. It was a productive test to get a sense of how the barista station will feel and play and inform myself and the concept designers on the potential assets we would need to visualize the mechanics and feedback.
Iterations and tweaks to the overall design were made to amp up the procedures, such as leaky liquid volumes to create a sense of urgency. It was also time to fully developed a physical mock-up of the station to better understand the physical flow of the station.
PHYSICAL MOCK-UP
After nailing down the systems and mechanics within the Barista Station prototype it was time to prepare a physical mock-up of the alternative controllers to gain an understanding of the movement procedures and physical flow that the station would lend to the interactive experience.
This was also a stage in the project where I began working closely with concept artists to incision the screen space, assets, and aesthetics.
It was important to maintain a modular design incase changes and iterations needed to be made based on feedback.
INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT FABRICATION
Understanding spatial constraints to design the game space was vital to the layout plans. The priority was designing the necessary stations to fit three players and a single crew. The station’s orientation needed context to the space, such as using a monitor at the front of the RV to emulate the driver’s view and the server station being near the rear window.
The original structure needed to be remodeled to fit the appropriate stations and hardware. Utilizing a wide variety of tools it was possible to solve these problems. This process required redesigning the structural integrity while being mindful of installing safety features, including a fire extinguisher and smoke alarms.
Lighting was accomplished with LED RGB-mounted lights angled for effect and comfort. The wiring was tidy and out of sight to maximize the themed experience.
Many of the props were 3D printed or handmade, other items were collected from homes and Hollywood prop storages. Set dressing, fernishing came last.
While exhibiting at GDC in 2023 the stations were removed from the RV trailer and installed into fashionable furniture for portable ease while maintaining an authentic theme without trading the essence of the physical stations. In many ways this improved button and wire layout.
Barista Station
Chef Station
Server Station
FULL GAMEPLAY EXPLANATION
OVERVIEW SUMMARY
Work for Wendy the Witch with her questionable business practices to save her failing food truck by collecting as much capital as possible.
Three players cooperate at specialized stations to complete fantasy food orders for fantasy characters within an immersive-themed food truck.
Visit three unique (Level) venus, including; Mellow Marsh, Shroomchella, and Hydrohub. Each amping up in difficulty, with a final hungry boss battle.
Mellow Marsh
Shroomchelle
Hydrahub
THE BARISTA STATION
The Barista Station handles all of the drink orders, receiving requests from the Server Station and fulfilling them by completing a set of procedures to deliver three specified Drink orders.
The station is a multitasking visceral interaction for players with a knack for button pressing. The player maintains liquid levels that slowly drain before moving on to physical controllers to complete the order.
Blend, Stir, and Shake orders to completion, to brew a Black Cat Bobba, Cauldron Kambocha, and Toe of Frog Slushie.
ALTERNATIVE CONTROLLERS
The Barista Station has four alternative controllers with three distinct physical controllers.
Espresso Machine- Three buttons control the liquid levels, with neon strip lights. Matching all three in the target zone enables players to complete the final step, a physical check.
Cauldron- The player stirs the wooden stick that’s attached to a joystick, after a few rotations the associated drink will complete.
Shaker- Originally a Wii remote using a gyroscope the shaker is a cocktail mixer with a button on the inside, when shaken with enough force the shaker activates.
Blender- a Button fabricated into an actual blender to capture the authentic feel.
THE CHEF STATION
The Chef Station handles all of the food orders, receiving requests from the Server Station and fulfilling them by completing a set of procedures to deliver three specified food orders.
Players select recipes and follow directions on the screen to process raw ingredients into their final form then combined them to create food orders.
Cut, Fry, and Sear ingredients, processing them into their final form before dropping them into the microwave cauldron to complete and serve the orders.
ALTERNATIVE CONTROLLERS
The Chef Station has three alternative controllers with three distinct physical controllers.
Leap Motion - hand-tracking technology that enables players to interact with their hands in the virtual space by moving in the physical. Installed in a cutting board in front of the player.
Tree Stump Buttons- Three buttons carved into the wooden tree dowels, each button correlates to three tools the player utilizes for processing food, such as cutting, pan-searing, and deep frying.
Magical Cookbook- A physical book with three glowing touch-sensitive glyphs associated with recipes enabling the player to cycle through in-game.
THE SERVER STATION
The Server station handles all the customer order requests and relays the information to the Barista Station and Chef Station. Each order has an expiration time so they require all members to make haste to fulfill orders and submitted them upon completion.
Players use a crystal ball to navigate their diviner around customer thought bubbles to read their minds and collect food orders.
After relaying the information to each station the Server receives and submits complete food before the timer runs out collecting score currency.
This station is the only station with the event timer and piggy bank score counter.
ALTERNATIVE CONTROLLERS
The Server station has Three alternative controllers
Crystal ball- Enables the player to select, read, and discover customer orders.
Your Voice- The server must communicate to the other stations for what to make ext, closing the imperfect information gap.
Submission and Trash button enable the player to submit or remove awaiting order.
IMAGE GALLERY
Inside the RV Trailer ➤
Props and set dressing made to replicate in game assets. ➤
Cooking props and set dressing ➤
Alternative controllers ➤
Portion of the team before leaving for GDC ➤
A portion of the team after GDC exhibition ➤
Chef Station setup at GDC ➤
Barista Station setup at GDC ➤
Server Station set up at GDC ➤
The project packed up and ready for San Francisco ➤
Kitchen Kauldron booth pre opening at GDC ➤
GDC 23 website announcing the Alt.Crtl Audience Award for the Kitchen Kauldron Team ➤
REFLECTION
This project culminated many skills and elements of game design that enriched my design experience within the collaborative space. I personally designed the barista station while co-designing the overall game experience with my fellow colleagues and concept artists. I managed the fabrication process for housing the themed experiences, focusing on; safety, layout, hardware, lighting, wire management, and other interactive design elements.
Please visit the Art Center Entertainment page for more information.