Human Computer Interaction course certificate

a few weeks ago I "graduated" an online course under the topic Human Computer Interactions by the great Scott Klemmer. i truly recommend this course to anyone developing applications in the modern age.

Bare Knuckles: boxing motion capture game

Bare Knuckles is one of the first game titles of Omek Interactive. It is a classic ring boxing game, only each character has a special twitch. 

Choose your avatar: "D for Dragon" who can blow fire, "the Blob" could swallow his opponent and "Bruce le Sharque" who uses his dead alligator for powerful smacks.

I was one of the two game designers of this title.

created at: 2010


team:
+Eli Elhadad
+Yaron Yanai
+Yinon Oshrat
+Barak Segal
+Bar S
+Amir Rosenberger
+Noam Gat
Edna Nuama

Lecture: Similarities between game design and instructional design

On July 10th 2012, I gave a lecture about the similarities between designing a game and designing a lesson in classroom, at one of the biggest educational conferences in Israel: IUCEL Meital.

the lecture strove to show that educational and instructional design could learn from game design at how to tangle the users into the web of curiosity, challenge and fun.
I talked about 9 main design principals in the game design theory that can be used also in instructional design:

1. the player as the Messiah. let the user feel that without him the session cannot be over. if the user will not make the right move, nothing will happen. make sure you put it all into a good story.
2. rules. setup rules for the game/ lesson. only when you have rules, the users will try and break them. without rules, they will try and break the teacher... 
3. feeling of control. let the user feel they are in control, but actually you should control all the possible routes and choices they could make.
4. immediate feedback. give feedback as fast as you can, as precise as possible.
5. goals. setup big goals and smaller goals to keep the users on track.
6. balance the amount of content. no content is boring. too much content confuse.
7. balance the challenge and the ability. don't be afraid to challenge your users, just make sure they feel competent to the task. 
8. develop the feeling of success. make sure your users succeed. after a hard task, give an easy one.
9. reflection. always assist the user to reflect their performance.

my presentation for download (hebrew).
all other lectures' from the conference can be downloaded as well (hebrew). 

Adventure Park: motion capture video game

Evil Master has taken over the famous adventure park and the Dragon family come to the rescue. Evil Master has a plan to capture the family of heroes in order to be able to take over the world!

Play the family heroes in six different levels, from entering the park, capturing the huge evil Mage and fighting Evil Master. six different gameplays, combining: boxing, magics (fireball, shield, etc), sliding on rails and more.

The game is now available as a part of a new Chinese TV and game console, called CT510, from Eedoo, a publisher from Lenovo.

created at: 2009-2011


team:
+Eli Elhadad
+Yaron Yanai
+Yinon Oshrat
+Barak Segal
+Bar S
+Amir Rosenberger
+Noam Gat
Edna Nuama
and the rest of Omek Interactive

Galactic Surfers: motion capture game

concept: motion capture based video game. created by the Omek Interactive studios where I work as a game designer and level designer.

released at: 2011

team:
+Eli Elhadad
+Yaron Yanai
+Yinon Oshrat
+Barak Segal
+Bar S
+Amir Rosenberger
+Noam Gat
Edna Nuama

and the rest of Omek's team

Lecture: Challenges in Designing a Menu System with Depth Sensor Technology

on February 22nd, in a conference meetup of the Israeli User Experience group, I gave a talk about designing a menu with the depth sensor techonology.

here's the abstract:

Touch-less technologies, such as augmented reality, depth camera sensor and voice recognition, are entering our lives. They confront user experience designers with the challenge to invent new interface and control scheme to allow users to interact with a simple menu system and select items.

This lecture would analyze the menu system and its UX guidelines; then we would describe the properties of the depth sensor and emphasis the challenges around it. Possible solutions would be offered and demonstrated.

Omek Interactive Studios create games and applications with the power of depth motion sensors. It has  deals with Intel, Lenovo, Panasonic and more market leaders.

here is the presentation of the lecture

TowerDefensAR: Augmented Reality video game

Goal: Defend your treasure box as long as you can!

How it works:

the 2 markers draw an electricity line between them, which can destroy the monsters who wish to steal your treasure.

Live Play:

play here on a bigger screen.

How to play:

1. print the two markers.
2. allow the application to activate your webcam.
3. start a new game and fight for your treasure.

created at: 2011