GCAP 2021: Raising The Bar

Making a series of small shared-screen co-op games for kids to use during class feels like it should be a fun and simple client project. We were wrong. The wrinkles came when the requirements of the environment were presented to us:

- have to be controlled solely by the students devices
- have to work in controlled network environments
- couldn't install any software on the student or teachers devices
- couldn't add or require any hardware

This meant we couldn't ask for any game controllers to be used for input but we also couldn't create or use any local network or bluetooth. So we found ourselves with everything having to use the internet and we had to make it work on the myriad devices students have. Still, part of the fun of doing client work is figuring out how to meet their goals and requirements, so we got stuck into it.

To solve this problem we came up with a slightly unsual, but ultimately successful, design we called Clients and Controllers. At its simplest Controllers provide input, akin to physical gamepad controllers, Clients handle any actions the Controllers create. By ruthlessly keeping everything within our own design framework, even on the same device, we were able to meet the requirements of the client and still make some solid games. In this talk we'll be going over this design approach, its strengths and weaknesses, and how it can be applied to your own games.