Game Builder Garage [Demo] -- (Extra) Alice's Guide: Moving Characters with the Control Stick

Channel:

YuuGiJoou

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Published on July 2, 2021 11:00:05 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DMogZ7fBdM

Game:

Game Builder Garage (2021)

Category:

Guide

Duration: 4:31

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1

B-but... haven't the people suffered enough yet?!
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To which I say... NEVER!

Um... I mean... there's actually quite a fair bit more information to absorb from this demo... if you're willing, anyway.

For those inclined to seek it out... and those who might've noticed that there was indeed small little bits of information flowing steadily into and being tucked away in the bottom corner of the screen, out of sight and out of mind... that's just Alice's Guide.

I mentioned it before, because there was one instance right around the first Checkpoint, before we could comply with Bob's enthusiastic directive to carry on.

In THAT case, Alice's Guide wasn't optional, because she was given the unenviable task of making sure we understood the basic controls. You kinda need those to continue using the software, and you can't rely on Bob or even Alice to tell you what to do if you're ever going to take off the training wheels and program under your own steam.

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Alice's Guide
Moving Characters with the Control Stick

Anyway, this sounds an awful lot like one of the things we did for Bob... and you'd be right! An in-depth look at what the Stick Nodon does cannot possibly begin without first becoming loosely acquainted with the Stick Nodon! Bob's introduction was quite instrumental in getting us here.

But now it's time to get down to work... on stuff we already think we understand!

All I can say is that you should be patient and receptive when it comes to the technical stuff like this, because you might find that things are a bit more complicated under the hood than you originally assumed.

This time, we're actually being encouraged to notice that there's a lot of detail behind the otherwise simple and almost automatic task we'd completed in the early Steps of Lesson 1. For instance, a Stick Nodon is assigned an axis and plugged into a particular port on the Person Nodon in order to send it movement instructions.

You might figure this seems silly and obvious and a little redundant and just makes extra steps in the long run... but what if you were to map those inputs to different functions entirely? Left and right are just arbitrary axes on an input device's range of movement, after all... and so are the "left and right" in the virtualized game world, for that matter.

We take them for granted as players, because we're used to the two coinciding, because that's how we compartmentalize the incredibly abstract process of moving a little piece of rubber-coated plastic to impose our will upon an image we see displayed on a screen. We also notice when they're NOT the way we expected them, precisely because those cases fly in the face of our intuition on the matter.

This part of the software reminds me very directly of the more technical-minded "Garage" mode of the Labo software, wherein you could alter wide ranges of what it means to interact with the control implements we'd created, allowing a "gas pedal" to have altered sensitivity... or to do something seemingly insane, like turn that into the "steering wheel" instead. It didn't necessarily make sense to do so, but the fact that you COULD was the eye-opening part of it all for me.

Something like that is actually quite advanced stuff, despite the apparently limited form factor of the pre-cut cardboard Toy-Cons we were tasked with assembling precisely according to instructions... but, in theory, you could thereby construct your own similar designs that interface with the complex sensors within the Joy-Cons themselves in order to do... essentially anything with them.

As exciting as all that is, I'm a bit disappointed by comparison that their practical implications for use in other games, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, perhaps the most significant incidence of their integration to date... or... like... ever... ... ... but they just used one cookie-cuter control scheme that... honestly doesn't work all that well, and you have no control or say over how that ultimately works out. Bummer. If I could re-map the functions of the Toy-Con Car... why, I could tailor the driving experience to my every whim and specification!

That's clearly the real reason why I race so poorly. I'm looking to solve a problem for which there are demonstrably the tools to get the job done... ... ... but the two don't talk to each other, and thus it's a no-go. D'oh!

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Of course, talking shop with Alice is something that really gets my juices flowing and I start to wonder about the possibilities... but I'll leave that aside for now and just ask a few more "obvious" questions...

Why is it that a connection must be deleted and a new one dragged from the Stick Nodon to the Person rather than moved?

Does this mean planar motion in a "3D" space with depth would require TWO Stick Nodons?!

Only time and further lessons at the Garage will tell. (Too bad Bob cut us off cold turkey until we pay up!)

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