It was fun to explore more what a ninja is and what we can get from one which will be interesting to the kids.

Our idea is to make a ninja sword which will be the tool to our game. The concept of it is to follow the rhythm of a song by making movements with the ninja sword. We decided to make it with 3d printing, a little bit of wood and foam. The idea is to put the sensor for movement in the handle so that the software to know if the kid had made a movement in the right moment or not.

The Sword

Trying the technical part

THE START

INSPIRATION

For me it was a bit difficult in the beginning to dive into the ninja games or their interface, because I don't have much experience in this field, but then I watched a lot of game trailers and ninja series for kids. For an inspiration with Marco we played Fruit Ninja for its interface, Beat Saber which is a game for music and
Hello Ninja which is tv series for kids

Interaction station

After the classes with Jeremy and Boris (big thank you), with Marco we saw that we need to see what are the tools that we need to use in order our idea to work out. We needed to use Touch Designer and Arduino. Marco worked on Touch designer and and the logic of the game. There were a lot of projects from our major in the interaction station and it was fun to work all together for maybe 4 weeks there the whole days.

While Marco was working on the technical part, my task was to make the sword and the animation. The sword itself is made from 3d printing and wood. First I made a lot of sketches of the right measurements which included how the sensor is going to be inside, what is the perfect sword's size for kids and their height, etc.

To create the 3d sketch before 3d printing it, I used Fusion 360 and Cura for the first time. In order to put the sensor inside, we needed a cover that will protect the sensor from falling. I managed to make a thread through which you can easily remove the sensor afterwards.

Making 3D

Material Station

The 3d printing was a challenge, but definitely interesting experience. After 7 hours of printing the tryout and 15 hours of printing the final one, we got out handle!

Wood Station

Final Result

Wood station description
Here I tried different machines for the first time in order to make the blade. I had the option to make it with laser cut, but it was more fun to explore the wood station

Introduction

My next task was to make the introduction of the game where we introduce the user to what is the story and the goal of the game. even though animated simply, I wanted to dive the viewer into the feeling of the game.

The tools I used for the making of the video were After Effects, Premiere Pro and Procreate. I wanted to include symbols of the Japanese culture, the castles, the bridge and the silhouette of the ninja.