{"id":1523,"date":"2017-05-04T00:50:23","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T05:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/?p=1523"},"modified":"2017-05-04T00:56:03","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T05:56:03","slug":"fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2017\/05\/04\/fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown\/","title":{"rendered":"FUSE event sparks interactive fun downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">PEORIA \u2013 During the FUSE event on April 29th, Bradley Interactive Media students presented their animations and video games to the public. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And tucked in the back corner on\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the first floor of the Peoria Riverfron<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">t Museum next to the gift shop entrance, sat a unique pinball game. It could have easily gone unnoticed by attendees if it weren\u2019t for the small crowd gathered aroun<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">d the game, phones out as people recorded and excitedly cheered their friends as they battled against opponents.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Fuse\" width=\"352\" height=\"198\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/a4F5bwaXPUE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cVS. Pinball\u201d is a two-player pinball, air-hockey hybrid arcade game in which the objective is to use the flippers to knock the ball into the opponent\u2019s gutter. The table is touch-screen, reminding players of a mobile game. On each table end, there two buttons are placed on the sides of the screen where players can control the flippers. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The game was created by a team of six people, including Bradley IM senior Zachary Abbott. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cPinball is a dying game, so a lot of kids these days have never played, let alone touched a machine,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cWe wanted to make it as easy to play as possible so kids of all skill levels could understand.\u201d <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is a simple concept, but actually excluding it and turning it into a full-fledged game wasn\u2019t as simple as pinball might seem. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Originally, Abbott had been on a different project; he and his team first pitched a Virtual Reality (VR) scavenger hunt with a prehistoric theme. When their idea wasn\u2019t picked up, Abbott\u2019s colleague Stephan Cantero invited Abbott to join his team because he believed Abbott would help speed up the creative process.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-1523 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2017\/05\/04\/fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown\/dsc_1333\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2017\/05\/DSC_1333-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1530\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1530'>\n\t\t\t\tFUSE students present their projects April 29 at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2017\/05\/04\/fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown\/dsc_1327\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2017\/05\/DSC_1327-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1529\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1529'>\n\t\t\t\tFUSE students present their projects April 29 at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2017\/05\/04\/fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown\/dsc_1319\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2017\/05\/DSC_1319-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1528\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1528'>\n\t\t\t\tFUSE students present their projects April 29 at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2017\/05\/04\/fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown\/dsc_1305\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2017\/05\/DSC_1305-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1527\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1527'>\n\t\t\t\tFUSE students present their projects April 29 at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2017\/05\/04\/fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown\/dsc_1301\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2017\/05\/DSC_1301-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1526\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1526'>\n\t\t\t\tFUSE students present their projects April 29 at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2017\/05\/04\/fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown\/dsc_1287\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2017\/05\/DSC_1287-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-1525\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt>\n\t\t\t\t<dd class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-1525'>\n\t\t\t\tFUSE students present their projects April 29 at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.\n\t\t\t\t<\/dd><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI was going to be away for the Hollywood Semester abroad, so I wouldn\u2019t be around as much and wanted someone I could trust to be on the team,\u201d Cantero, a junior, said. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Eager to be on the same team with a close friend, Abbott joined on. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWhen I got onto the project, the game was very different,\u201d Abbott said. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before VS. Pinball came to fruition, the original concept was to have two normal balls and a golden ball bouncing around that players have to try to shoot and protect against. There were also ideas of a lot of obstacles or ways for players to perform \u201cspecial moves\u201d that would have caused chaos for opposing players. There had also been discussion of designing the game to look like an actual cross between a pinball machine and an air hockey table. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/g_u0UDjQdQI\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/g_u0UDjQdQI<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSince our audience was younger kids, I tried to bring it down a bit and, after some debating, we agreed to tone it down a little,\u201d Abbott said.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Once they figured out how the game was going to work, the team began to create their game. With four animation majors on the team, they were able to lay down the artwork for their game. Meanwhile, Abbott took up the role as the game scripter and programmer. He created most of the coding for the game and was able to incorporate the assets made by his teammates, such as the art and sound, into the game\u2019s engine. \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe had the game completely functional during the first few weeks of the semester, and because of this, we got to spend a long time on polish,\u201d Abbott said. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The game took a lot of play testing, Abbott repeatedly having to go back and fix coding if something seemed off. They wanted the gameplay to be easy enough for anyone to play, children and adult alike. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">According to Abbott, the game was a success at FUSE. He said he hopes to use this success as a confidence boost for future projects, especially after college. Since he was a child, Abbott has always been been fascinated by video games. Now as a young adult, he wants to create games that can be enjoyed by people of all ages \u2013 perhaps even create games that inspire younger generations to join the gaming industry. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-2 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-2' class='gallery galleryid-1523 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2017\/05\/04\/fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown\/dsc_1317\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2017\/05\/DSC_1317-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"FUSE students present their projects April 29 at the Peoria Riverfront Museum.\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2017\/05\/04\/fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown\/dsc_1325\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2017\/05\/DSC_1325-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/2017\/05\/04\/fuse-event-sparks-interactive-fun-downtown\/dsc_1329\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/files\/2017\/05\/DSC_1329-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cMy top three studios that I want to work for include Blizzard Entertainment, CD Projekt Red, Bioware,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cI plan to work in the industry for 15 to 20 years because I would like to start my own indie company and teach as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Abbott and many other passionate designers in the industry, video games are more than just pieces of entertainment. Even something like Pinball can mean a world to another person and inspire them to create their own content for others to enjoy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cGames are the next step forward in many different areas of life including self expression, communication, art &#8230; I think games can really make a difference in our world,\u201d Abbott said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PEORIA \u2013 During the FUSE event on April 29th, Bradley Interactive Media students presented their animations and video games to the public. And tucked in the back corner on\u00a0the first floor of the Peoria Riverfront Museum next to the gift shop entrance, sat a unique pinball game. It could have easily gone unnoticed by attendees if it weren\u2019t for the small crowd gathered around the game, phones out as people recorded and excitedly cheered their friends as they battled against opponents. \u201cVS. Pinball\u201d is a two-player pinball, air-hockey hybrid arcade game in which the objective is to use the flippers to knock the ball into the opponent\u2019s gutter. The table is touch-screen, reminding players of a mobile game. On each table end, there two buttons are placed on the sides of the screen where players can control the flippers. The game was created by a team of six people, including Bradley IM senior Zachary Abbott. \u201cPinball is a dying game, so a lot of kids these days have never played, let alone touched a machine,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cWe wanted to make it as easy to play as possible so kids of all skill levels could understand.\u201d It is a simple [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3,12],"tags":[244,246,224,220,245],"class_list":["post-1523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-news","category-campus","tag-alexis-lujan","tag-alice-allpow","tag-com-360","tag-com360","tag-maddie-gehling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1523"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1538,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions\/1538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}