1. Introduction to the madness

In 2017 SLQ delivered the Cardboard Kaiju project. A part of the larger One Last Apocalypse program, Cardboard Kaiju was essentially a large scale - not quite life size - board-game. The key objective of the game being preventing the kaiju (Japanese for Strange Beast and genre of international monster films), now named Danger Noodle, from destroying a city made of corrugated cardboard. The game framework was card based, the monster designed and fabricated by the community then delivered as a one day event at The Edge.

In 2018 The Edge team will be redeveloping and reiterating the idea to coincide with the GoPlay! gaming event. A new game framework will be devised, city designed and of course a new monster conceptualised. The aim is to improve on last year and deliver the best possible version of the concept with an eye for replication in other places and spaces across Queensland. Community involvement will be imperative to the success of the process.

Game Design

Cardboard Kaiju used a card based resolution mechanic loosely adapted from other people's mechanics. This go around we're looking at engaging with a game designer to create something a little more bespoke and reflective that this is a board game. We are initially in conversation with Dylan Shearer, a local game designer who has delivered programming for us in the past. He is willing to come onboard, which is great.

Buildings

Last year we went the whole 9 yards with the buildings, making them fully 3D mounted on large hexagonal game pieces for assembling the city. This presented some issues regards time to fabrication, complexity in fabrication and (comparative) expense in materials. Moving into the new iteration and based on some learnings from Cardboard Kaiju I suggest we go 2.5D, cut out cartoon style as it is easier to cut out and cheaper. I am going to upload and example here over the weekend if I get a chance. This should mean it can be cut quickly and the design process with community around this should be dead simple. That is another process I will write up when I get a chance.

Kaiju Design Process

The design process for this project is already solid. What needs working on is the transition from the initial brainstorming and modelling to the proper construction. I don't have a solution to this at the moment and it's something we can address as a team in the coming weeks. Above all else I think it's a matter of refinement rather than designs, which I guess means re-examination and reiteration and we all know what I think about alliteration.

The suggested process being:

Delivery of game design workshops to completely overhaul/rewrite the Cardboard Kaiju Game.

Development of building templates that can be modified and outputted for easy fabrication.

Redesign of the design process with the aim to develop a new Kaiju to join Danger Noodle.

Design of a FX control system built on SCRATCH that will incorporate light, sound, video and physical interactivity.

Delivery of workshops in content creation to feed into the project.

In all it is expected that this process will take 8 weeks from commencement to completion. A focus will be given to how this could be implemented in a public library setting without the tools available to The Edge. Outlined below are the initial thoughts around the project and each of these points that will be expanded on.

A smaller, desktop version will be completed as a part of the process, to be distributed via SLQ/The Edge website for laser cut fabrication under a Creative Commons licence. The kaiju itself might be made available as a 3D printed object, known as the Almost Cardboard Kaiju kit or a cardboard, slot together skeleton kit. Something like this.

FX Control Kit

This will be a keyboard encoder (or similar solution) running on top of SCRATCH on a Raspberry Pi 3. It will cover off on SFX/VFX/PFX (P is for Physical). There will need to be workshops written to cover off on:

Wiring one up and the ancillary technology required. All off the shelf components and nothing bespoke that would get in the way of someone else doing this.

Content creation for the platform and addressing inherent limitations.

Physical control out of SCRATCH

Using SCRATCH in this context.

It's really important to get this as right as we can on the first go around. This is not the first time we have created one of these units and it's not the first time we've run some of these workshops. It is the first time we have some this in quite some time and we might have lost a lot of the learnings from the last time around. The last time around we were also using bespoke hardware solutions to interact with the Raspberry Pi platform which cost money and represents a barrier. Resolving that hurdle will be imperative in proceeding with the project. Breadboards, ICs and resistors should be the extent of it if we can manage.

There are learning materials already out there are like here, here and here, though may need to hunt down more recent resources. This should be straight forward and it's not new ground. It's come a long way since the last time we tried to do this.

The idea with this box is that it controls all content playback and triggers of the effects. The idea is not to create a box that it sits in, as that can be a part of the process of design with community.

Content Creation

There will need to be some workshops developed in content creation. We already have some of these on hand that can be focused specifically on this project. When using the word content in this context we're taking in audio, visual and physical. This is separated out from the FX control kit program so as not to confuse matters. Separate pages dealing with these workshops will be generated to the central document so they can be more easily repurposed for future projects. Same goes for the FX control kit as I imagine this will have some very real applications for the Greater and Grander Rumpus program in 2019 if that program goes ahead.

Project Style Guide

A new element to our projects pages, these are the imperatives, concepts and non-negotiable considerations specific to this program from a logistical/communications perspective. I have come to the conclusion that all programs are distinct in their needs (duh) and it bears calling them out so there are no mistakes made. I could also be completely wrong and happy to hear arguments to the contrary.

Cardboard Kaiju is not to be abbreviated as a term. It is never referred to as CK.

The Kaiju will be made from cardboard. It can have substrates inside that hold it all together. We will not be stupid about this. It is not about purity and fidelity to the titular materials. It's about getting the job done and not crying.

All cut files uploaded to the wiki will be in both .svg and .dxf file formats.

All text documents will be uploaded as .pdf, .odf, .rtf or .txt.

All video files will be uploaded in H264 (x264) MP4.

All audio files will be uploaded in .mp3 or .flac formats.