Rithmatist mobile game

[Soother he/him]

Anyone else feel that a rithmatic game for mobile devices would be awesome? Just finished the book and I'd pay good money for that

[Kurkistan he/him]

Too complicated *grumble grumble* not enough space on the screen, *grumble, storming ARC-readers, grumble grumble* I'd say.

[Satsuoni he/him]

Ipad/tablet would be nice I'd say.

 

 *grumble grumble* , *grumble, storming ARC-readers, grumble grumble* I'd say.

And that, I'd say.

Edited April 19, 2013 by Satsuoni

[Soother he/him]

Blame my fiancee. She spends all my money buying arcs

[Yados]

Blame my fiancee. She spends all my money buying arcs

 

yeah, but you'll be grateful when the flood comes.

 

Also: where do you buy advanced reader copies?

[Joe ST he/him]

From Noah's bookstore, no doubt

[Soother he/him]

EBay actually for rithmatist

 

There's a copy up for bid right now ( no it's not mine)

Edited April 19, 2013 by firstRainbowRose
Please don't double post. Use the edit button instead.

[Senor Feesh]

Alternatively, win a contest on 17th Shard a little late now, but maybe next time!

[Morsk he/him]

Why not just play Starcraft?

I haven't read anything more than the chapters Tor has online, but it seems like a lot of skill in Rithmatics is manual skill, drawing quickly and accurately. That would never translate to mobile devices. But mouse-based games can capture the same need for speed and precision and there are lots of RTS games out there.

[Soother he/him]

Trying to draw accurately and quickly with a mouse is substantially harder than drawing on a touchscreen

[BlairJ he/him]

I do agree with that.  I feel that drawing on a tablet is much easier than PC.

[Morsk he/him]

I've never tried one with a stylus; that's probably why. My phone's screen is terrible.

[SirShemmington VI]

Well if it was for tablets, possibly use the touch screen for the basic lines of warding, vigour and forbidance. But for the creation of chalklings, possibly just have them place able from a quick select of ones you've ready made, and each would have a set time to create? 

[Zadakeem he/him]

Drawing on the fly would be difficult. and some of us are not good at drawing. I think it would end up being a system of pre-made shapes. You would have to win/ or move up levels in order to have more protected things. And stronger attacks. It would almost be a combination of RTS and...i dont know...having pre made shapes would almost be like having cards

[Arcanist Lupus he/him]

Has anybody here played the flash game Gemcraft?  It's a tower defense game where you place gems in towers, and the gems shoot monsters.  In the game, you can pause the game entirely to readjust which gems go in which towers, but then there is a time spent recharging.  That's how I'd make a computer, and maybe even tablet game - you can design your shapes (which are premade) while the game is paused, but then they get "drawn" in real time.  And maybe there's a few settings for how fast they are "drawn", with fast speeds affecting the stability of the shape.  It would make multiplayer duels rather difficult, though.

 

Incidentally, Gemcraft is also a game where you get attacked by 2 dimensional bug-like monsters, and the big bad is a shadow-like demon called "The Forgotten".  I have to wonder if Brandon's played the game.

[Oathbringer he/him]

Personally, a real-time Rithmatist game would be great, it would probably work best on a tablet (like kindle or ipad), so that there is enough room. It might also work for touch computers or other game consoles with a touch pad like a ds. It would be amazingly awesome though to do it online one-on-one, melee style, or group against wild chalklings. I don't think gemcraft type would work, then it couldn't really be multiplayer.

[Training Dummy he/him]

Two words: Virtual reality.

 

Either make it into a fully virtual Oculus Rift game, (or some other VR platform), or make it augmented reality through Google Glass. Either way has some upsides and downsides. Using the Oculus Rift would allow you to have different arenas, lets you explore the world itself, and so on, but has the common issues associated with VR in that you don't know if you're going to run into a table in the process. This could be solved if you had a large enough room, maybe a basement or a local gym, but that would require the Oculus Rift to be set up in that specific area. You would also have to figure out how to get your own arms into the game as well, which would be difficult and likely computer-intensive with current technology. Google Glass would let you retain all your knowledge of what's around you, but still let you interact with and alter your surroundings. The downsides would be in trying to have an online battle where you can see the other person, as that would also require a large area as well as full-body capturing to put them in the picture. In general, though, augmented reality is probably the better option.

 

Putting these aside, let's see how the game could be put together. First off, the game would come with a piece of chalk. Well, more of a stylus with the shape and feel of a piece of chalk. It connects to the game and allows you to draw in the virtual world, and it will be your main tool throughout the game. Most of the mechanics should be pretty intuitive if you've read the book, though some might be a bit trickier to implement. The main ones are Lines of Forbiddance and Lines of Making. Since the things you draw in the virtual world won't really affect you, there's nothing to stop you from sticking your arm through a Line of Forbiddance. However, it wouldn't be too hard to stop people from drawing beyond them, and perhaps a sound cue, like a ringing in your ears that gets louder as you get closer, would probably solve this issue.

 

The other issue, trying to animate the Lines of Making, could likely be solved by incorporating a sketchbook. You would be able to draw whatever you want in it, and the game would compare your drawing to its own database. If the database was connected to the internet, you could probably have the option for your sketches to be added to it automatically, or even share them with your friends. The database would have sketches of animals, mythical creatures, knights, and so on already in it that you can view and use. You would have to redraw them in a duel, of course, and your drawings would be compared to the originals to help determine their strength.

 

If, on the other hand, you want to create your own designs, that's completely possible as well. After all, what's the point of a sketchbook that you can't make your own drawings in? You would draw whatever you want, and the game would check its database for similar drawings. (This shouldn't be too hard for Google Glass, especially since Google already does it for much more complex images.) It would then make a guess as to what your drawing was, (let's say it was a knight), and it would show you other knight designs with attributes of the one you drew added to it. (Say a plumed helmet and a star on the chest.) You could select the one that you like the most, and that would be the ideal version of your drawing, the one that'd have the best capabilities. The last thing would be to identify the joints so that it can be animated in battle, and from then on you can use it whenever you want. When you draw a Chalkling in a duel, it'll get compared to the ideal version, and you have your statistics as well.

 

As a sidenote, there may be certain drawings that are not allowed, and if the database recognizes them, it might give a suitable response about the reputation of Rithmatics or something similar.

 

There would probably be books that you can read to learn new techniques, find out about the history of Rithmatics, and practice various defenses. Perhaps a blank folding "book" would come with the chalk, which the game can add text to. This would also make for a good menu system instead of just having things hanging in the air.

 

Well, that's pretty much all I've got, and although I have no idea how to make a virtual reality video game, if I could it would be like this. Let me know what you think!

 

PS. If, by any chance, you do know how to make a virtual reality game, please make this a thing. ;-)

[kenod]

The problem is that it wouldn't be really available, because the occulus rift requires a high-end gaming computer and the Google Glass isn't gettin sold yet. Also, you would probably need to make custom hardware for the stylus. So because of these things the game would cost too much, or be basically be unavailable .

[Training Dummy he/him]

The problem is that it wouldn't be really available, because the occulus rift requires a high-end gaming computer and the Google Glass isn't gettin sold yet. Also, you would probably need to make custom hardware for the stylus. So because of these things the game would cost too much, or be basically be unavailable .

True, but it would be so incredible if they made it anyway. 

[Hexelena]

Hey Guys i just finished the book.

I am now working on a web implementation of some sort of rithmatics game.

Currently I am still working on detecting shapes and improving the drawn image slightly(otherwise it's too hard). Since I am currently travelling I don't have heaps of time but I am working on making it a real thing.

If you want to see the progress check here: hexelena.github.io (it works on mobile devices as well). Pull requests are very welcome.

EDIT: I attached a picture showing the current look of the app. It currently only detects circles and improves them. (Detecting Shapes is a messy art )...

Does anyone of you know how Sanderson is about fan creations? After all it is his IP.

Edited June 26, 2016 by Hexelena
more information on progress

[DeTess she/her]

I believe he's rather okay with it, as long as you don't earn money from it. Furthermore, all involved rights belong to him, so if your game has a storyline, and he uses something in a book that is similar, you can't do anything about that, even though you (arguably) thought of it first. If you are going to publish something on say, google play, make sure to check with him beforehand.

[Stormgate he/him]

Is there plans for chalklings? And maybe versus battles?

[BrightVoid he/him]

looks like a great start, however I can only use circles of warding

 

[Bugsy he/him]

On 6/25/2016 at 5:05 AM, Hexelena said:

Hey Guys i just finished the book.

I am now working on a web implementation of some sort of rithmatics game.

Currently I am still working on detecting shapes and improving the drawn image slightly(otherwise it's too hard). Since I am currently travelling I don't have heaps of time but I am working on making it a real thing.

If you want to see the progress check here: hexelena.github.io (it works on mobile devices as well). Pull requests are very welcome.

EDIT: I attached a picture showing the current look of the app. It currently only detects circles and improves them. (Detecting Shapes is a messy art )...

Does anyone of you know how Sanderson is about fan creations? After all it is his IP.

If you want to avoid the whole ML/Image recognition, you could have different tools for different lines. Or, since you already have circle recognition, you could simply add the ability to pick bind points, and then allow for lines of forbiddance to be drawn between them by selecting the 2 points. 

Edit: Looks like you got a bit of a head start on that. Nevermind  

Edited December 5, 2016 by Bugsy6912

[Jondesu he/him]

That looks awesome, @Hexelena!  I would absolutely play that game.  I agree that picking bind points would be a good solution, since mobile touchscreens just aren't perfectly accurate even if it's one with a stylus (the Apple Pencil would be great, for instance, but it still doesn't feel like writing with chalk or on paper, and it's much easier for it to slide).