Some University of Central Florida students have created a video game that uses a device to translate a player’s eye movement into movement on the screen.
In “The Channeler,” you play the role of a medium who solves puzzles and brain teasers using your mind.
“It’s interesting and it’s new,” said Summan Mirza of using eye-tracking technology in game development. She generated the game idea and leads a team of 12 on the project at UCF’s Florida Interactive Entertainment Academy. “This is the best place to explore new things.”
As she sits at her desk playing the game, Mirza’s eyes dart around her computer screen as a circle-shaped cursor follows her gaze.
It’s an experience she helped create and one she says will become more commonplace in gaming.
For the player, the technology means moving a statue toward you by staring at it.
It means selecting a shell in a ghostly variation of the old hidden ball shell game by looking at it for five seconds.
Or it means closing one eye to “concentrate” hard enough to see hidden markings on a pedestal.
They all combine to create a game long on psychology and short on actual physical game controllers, though you use the computer’s keyboard to move around.
Ben Noel, an industry veteran who now heads FIEA, said he likes to see students explore new devices and platforms to build games
“It’s always encouraging when people come up with their own idea and start looking at things people haven’t done,” Noel said. “There is a lot of ingenuity going on out there.”
Noel knows a thing or two about innovation in video games.
Noel once worked for Electronic Arts’ Texas-based studio, Origin, which created Ultima Online, a pioneering game that helped lead the industry’s push toward online gaming.
“It brought in a new set of business models and gameplay,” he said of Ultima. “All of a sudden, utilities, network and service providers were part of it. That stuff is critical today.”
UCF’s video game school consistently ranks high in national rankings.
Since January, its students have been building four games they will show off at a playtest event at UCF.
“The Channeler” is among that group, which includes a game about a girl fleeing war-torn Europe and a puzzler. The fourth requires players to draw accurate police sketches to win.
But “The Channeler” is the only game that will use eye-tracking hardware.
The team includes five programmers, four artists and three designers.
Lead programmer Nihav Jain said elements like eye-tracking, which some blockbuster titles have already incorporated, could change a gamer’s experience. For instance, when a character is on screen speaking with a player, perhaps it’ll require eye contact.
Gaming “will become more natural,” Jain said, because gamers will get real-time feedback based upon what they do, creating an increasingly immersive feeling.
“We can’t learn every technology to its core,” Jain said. “This gives us a very unique platform to work on.”
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