We got to a point with Trust Climber where it sort of does what we wanted it to do; a two player game in which there is one climber and one belayer. The belay has to give slack or reel in rope to support the climber, and the climber must climb to new heights. The players switch roles depending on where they are in the climb. We were able to get these mechanics up and running, and implement an Xbox controller which both players use to play the game, one player using the a,b,x,y buttons and the other player using the triggers on the other end. As I mentioned, this prototype kind of worked, but it was clumsy and it was pretty broken. We had set out to explore climbing/belaying as a metaphor for trust between players, but this interaction doesn’t really start to get at that idea. In general the group felt there was not much merit in developing this prototype any further and to move on. Although it didn’t work out to be anything particularly compelling, it did help us to focus what we want to include in the final experience we create. One of the better features of this piece was the rope that Ben put together, along with the pulling in, paying out mechanic that went along with it. The connection is at the core of the emotional target the group is interested in evoking,and that has directly informed the prototype we are currently working on.

P.S. These are a few games we were looking at.

Solo Joe Rock Climbing
GIRP
Extreme Climbing
Mount Your Friends