This is my master thesis, developing a prototype of group game for Wii Remote. Using several PCs, a large number of Wii Remotes can be connected to play a video game on a big screen.
For the game development, I use Brian Peek Wiimote Library, Irrlichtnetcp Engine, and Visual C# 2008 Express Edition. The game can be played using 3 different methods using the Wii Remote.
I finished my thesis last month and now I want to share it. Just click the link below to read more about it. In the end of the article, you can download the PDF of the thesis document and the source code of the game.
Enjoy 🙂
Connecting Wii Remotes
Because of Bluetooth limitation, one PC can only connect with maximum 4 Wii Remotes. To connect more Wii Remotes, several PCs are connected using networking. The system consists of one game server and several client machine. Each client machine can handle maximum 4 Wii Remotes using Bluetooth.
Theoretically, the system can be played by 16 or more players but I can only manage to test it with 6 Wii Remotes.
Controlling the Game using Wii Remote
I implement a simple game where the players control the characters collecting as many as possible items from the screen in a fixed time.
You can control the character movement using one of this method: tilt, pointing the Wii Remote, or using the sideway/gamepad mode. I use the character Hiro from my previous game (Tokusatsu Agent).
Another mode which is supported is the group mode where one game character is controlled by several players. The experiments show that the players perform better scores in single player mode (one character is controlled by one player) but they prefer the group mode. I think this is the characteristic of the target group of Nintendo Wii, the casual gamer, who prefers fun game play over performance (higher score).
Thesis Document
For more details, you can download and read the thesis document here: http://www.abiyasa.com/thesis/thesis-suhardi.pdf [7 Mb]
As recommended by my professor, I use Latex for the document. I thought it’s the best time to learn Latex. Until now, I still don’t like Latex but it saved my thesis document once, when my harddrive crashed.
My wife, who actually did all the Latex code and settings for me, writes a comparison between MS-Word and Latex for thesis writing. I still prefer MS-Word or even Adobe InDesign (I love doing layout)
Development
For the development, I use Visual C# 2008 Express Edition (which is available for free). I use Brian Peek’s Wiimote Library which enables you to connect up to 4 Wii Remote on a PC. And for the graphics engine, I use my favorite engine, Irrlichtnetcp, the .NET version for Irrlicht Engine. You also need to download DirectX SDK (version August 2007).
You can download the source code here:
- WiiGroup-GameServer.zip [20 Mb]. This is the game server which display and handle the game engine.
- WiiGroup-InputClient.zip [0.2 Mb]. This is the input client, which connect the Wii Remote using Bluetooth.
The documentation for this source code is still a mess 🙁 Maybe you need to read the thesis document to find out how this thing works. I am still working on it to make it easier to install or execute 😐
Feel free to contact me if you need help or have some questions 😉
Acknowledge
- My wife, for loving and supporting me (and also for helping me with the Latex thingy :p)
- My professors: Prof. Joern Loviscach from Hochschule Bremen and Prof. Juergen Friedrich from University of Bremen
- Mrs. Irmtraut Wolf and Marina Schoen from the Bremen University’s administration office for allowing me to send the thesis document and doing some registrations via post.
- Niko for making such an easy-to-use-but-powerful graphics engine Irrlicht.
- braitmml, deusxl, and lester_dev for making the Irrlicht Engine available for C# (Irrlichtnetcp).
- Brian Peek for his Wii Remote library for .NET
Publication
My project was published on a Game Design and Technology Workshop 2008 at Liverpool 🙂 Unfortunately, I was waiting for my work permit in Berlin, so to travel outside Germany was not allowed for me (I could have traveled but the immigration officer would not guaranteed that I could get back to Germany). So I couldn’t be there to present my work 🙁
Video
This video shows how a character can be controlled by 2 players.
More videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBAtu3ulcig