// EXhibit picture
Grocery trip!
Alternative controller
GAME DESIGN
INteraction design
Arcade
// BRIEF
A school project where we built a video game with its own original controller for an exhibition.
DURATION
3 weeks
TEAM
2 Game Designer
2 Transportation designer
1 Developer
Skills involved
Game Designer
Experience Designer
C://PORTFOLIO/PROJECTS/GROCERY-TRIP // 2022 // EXHIBITED AT GDC 2023
01
/ GAMEPLAY OVERVIEW
A CRAZY
GROCERY RACE.
// PITCH
You're at the supermarket. The list is long, but the timer is short. One of you drives the cart, the other grabs items off the shelves.
Other shoppers in your way? Shove them.
Get as much groceries as possible before running out of time.
CORE GAMEPLAY LOOP
three things to juggle at once is a lot for one pair of hands.
+ especially when the controller is a shopping cart! +
Navigates through the game
01 / DRIVE!
Get as many points as possible
02 / Catch!
Shove those who dares to get in your way.
03 / Punch!
/ THE SPLIT
ONE CONTROLLER, TWO PLAYER.
02
We decided to divide the controller for two players. The idea came from a childhood memory: being a kid stuck in the cart while a parent races through the aisles.
// PLAYER 1
DRIVE
Steer & boost
NAVIGATE
Find your way, avoid obstacles
THE PARENT
SHARED CONTROLLER
One choice, three design consequences
// PLAYER 2
GRAB
PUNCH
Push other shoppers aside
Reach and snatch
THE CHILD
// COGNITIVE LOAD
One choice, three design consequences
// COGNITIVE LOAD
One choice, three design consequences
// COGNITIVE LOAD
One choice, three design consequences
/ GAME FEEL
The real challenge: making the cart feel fun.
03
A shopping cart is annoying to push in real life, that was our raw material. Game feel was the job: turn the friction of a clumsy object into the pleasure of a well-tuned one.
01
02
03
Acceleraration
WAS
Bump into every walls
NOW
Speed builds up smoothly
Turning radius
WAS
Slide past every aisle
NOW
Tight, drift-ready and responsive
Ground grip
WAS
Ice rink
NOW
Sticky, but fast
Braking
WAS
Stop instantly, or slide forever
NOW
Cart settle on its own
// TUNING NOTEBOOK
There was no single moment when it clicked. Just a slow convergence, test after test, value after value, until the cart stopped feeling like a problem and started feeling like a ride.
// ON SCREEN
First, we tuned
the cart on keyboards.
Steering, accelerating, dodging, all done from a laptop, with arrows and a free vehicle script we'd pulled off the internet. After a few rounds of adjustments, the cart felt workable.
Not great, but playable.
“It almost felt right”
// ON THE CART
Then we plugged the controller in.
Same game, same code, same physics. Different planet. The cart drifted past every aisle, accelerated into walls, refused to turn. Players stopped laughing and started apologizing.
“It almost felt right”
// THE TUNING
Four parameters. Dozens of user tests.
We grabbed anyone passing the studio: classmates, friends, randoms, and watched. Did they smile while playing or they seemed lost? Push acceleration too high, you get an F1 in sand. Too low, you're back to the tank. The right answer was always between two failures.
/ ELECTRONICS
Wiring the cart: where ux met hardware.
04
I never wired anything before, so I learned by doing with the structure.
Adding a sensor is a design decision, not just a technical part.
Hardware iterates like software: think test, adjust, but with a soldering iron.
Cable is also invisible, UX if a wire gets in a hand, the player feels it before they see it.
Driver controls
The inputs to go forward or backward
Driver controls
The inputs to go forward or backward
Driver controls
The inputs to go forward or backward
Driver controls
The inputs to go forward or backward
// SYSTEM FLOW
// WHAT I LEARNED
PHYSICAL GESTURE
SENSOR / CONTROL
INPUT BOARD
UNITY
ON-SCREEN ACTION
/ FINAL STOP
GDC 2023!
05
We applied to exhibit our game at GDC 2023, the largest conference for video game industry professionals in San Francisco. Months later, we received the exciting news: our application was accepted!
We couldn't fly a real shopping cart to San Francisco like this. So we rebuilt one in wood, this time foldable, as a structure that collapses into a flight-safe box, including all the stuff needed for the game to work.
We were amazed that people enjoyed it this much!
For us mid-game laughter means the controller disappears, and only the game and fun remains.
One player even came back 11 times in a row chasing the leaderboard!
// HOW WE GOT THERE
// ON THE FLOOR
// PLAYERS TRIED IT
200+
3 days