VampStar
🎮
VampStar is a rhythm-based multiplayer party game featuring real-world light interaction. The game blends rhythm gameplay, physical defense mechanics, and light-based hardware interaction to create an energetic and collaborative experience.
V-chan, the town’s favorite vampire idol, is set for her live show today! Beware of persistent paparazzi armed with strong flashlights trying to snap photos of her. As a genuine vampire, V-chan is uneasy, but her reliable bodyguard is here to shield her from the intrusive lights.
VampStar is built for the Building Virtual Worlds course at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center. At the end of the course, the game won the First Penguin Award in the course.
Project Type
Video game with alternative controller
🧛🏻♀️
Time
Nov 2024 - Dec 2024 (2 weeks)Team
Jinyi Dai, Shiwei Hong, Ivy Li, Regina Xia, Yiran Zhang
My Role
Designed and implemented all UI logic, including health, score, and combo systems.
Developed rhythm gameplay mechanics and note timing system.
Programmed flashlight detection, including real-time light intensity reading and two-stage feedback for player alerts.
Designed the flash detection gameplay mechanic and visual feedback system for bodyguard players.
Balanced light sensitivity thresholds and performance impact to maintain fair but challenging gameplay.
Hardware Integration & Design
Calibrated Phidgets light sensors across different mobile phone flash intensities.
Implemented data transfer pipelines from Phidgets to Unity, including signal scaling and denoising.
Assembled wearable hardware by embedding sensors into custom-designed vampire wings.
Gameplay
Vampstar is a 3-party game, including the idol (1), the body guard(2 or more) and the paparazzi (3 or more).
V-Chan, the Idol
V-Chan is the most popular idol, but as a vampire, her weakness is the flash light from the paparazzi. In the game, V-Chan needs to hit the notes on the dancing pad to give the best performance to her fans and try to earn a high score. When getting hurt from the flash light, she will lose the HP, but a good dancing combo can also help her to gain more HP and stay healthy.
Bodyguard
The bodyguards are V-Chan's loyal guardians. They need to protect V-Chan from the flashlights, or her stage performance will suffer. Bodyguards need to use their bodies to block the flashlights from the paparazzi's phones to ensure a safe performing environment.
Paparazzi
Paparazzi are a group of crazy fans of V-Chan. They try to use their phones to take photos of the idol with shinig flash light. They need to overcome the annoying bodyguards and get the best photos of V-Chan.
Videos
Why Light Sensors?
The player who play as the idol needs to wear a vampire wing which attached with 3 phidget light sensors on it. Conventional gaming involves physical tools like controllers, external racing wheels, and so on. However, these controllers are confined by the limitations of being artificial, physical items for interacting with the game.
Our game takes a different approach by utilizing 'light' in combination with Phidget light sensors as the central feature. Unlike artificial physical items, this experience involves using something intangible, light, to create a tangible impact on the game. The paparazzi employ light to do harm to the idol, while the bodyguards strive to obstruct the light to shield the idol. This unique experience is exclusively feasible through a specific control scheme due to the presence of light sensors, enabling the detection of intangible light.
Game Engine
Unity
Gameplay Programmer
Game Designer