The Return of Balance is a game produced by Greg
Niemeyer, and Joe
Mckay,
and myself. The game challenges players into improving their sense of balance by
having them participate in whimsical puzzles of dexterity. A weight-sensing pad
is used to track the movements of the participants as they try to bounce virtual
beach balls into their respectively colored rings. As the player becomes more
adept at honing their ability to balance, the game increases in difficulty.
In the later stages of development we added a laser and light sensor to the
installation, allowing onlookers to participate by throwing real physical beach
balls. When thrown over a wall, the beach balls trigger the release of a virtual
‘joker ball’ that allows the current player to score in any ring they wish.
The Return of Balance was originally coded in
Max/MSP, but was ported to
Processing.
