theFactor.e
Webcam Keepy-Uppy Worldcup game for The Netherlands released
Over the past couple days we’ve built a keepy-uppy game here at theFactor.e to celebrate the win of Holland in the Worldcup. Unfortunately it didn’t go our way and we came in second. So the game is now great to take your mind off the loss.
I used the great face recognition code Marilena. This awesome bit of AS3 code is based on some older work done in C: OpenCV. Once I knew where the face was I added a little bit of physics. Using 2d ball on ball collision I can make the ball bounce of your head in the right way. To see how these collisions work check this page.
Have fun playing the game. And for the non-Dutch speaking visitors just click ‘webcam’ to play with your webcam (duh) and ‘muis’ to play with your mouse. Play the theFactor.e Keepy Uppy game here.
Getting started with multitouch in AIR 2.0 and Player 10.1 on the Macbook
I decided to have a look at the latest beta players for AIR 2.0 and FP 1.5 with regards to multitouch. Lee Brimelow has a great multitouch tutorial on his site, check it out.
In order to get it to work you need a Macbook with multitouch pad. I use the latest pro model, courtesy of theFactor.e 
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- You need to download the beta runtime plus sdk which you can get here.
- Install the runtime. This is the easy part.
- Setup the sdk like they explain here. I’ve got it setup so I can export from Flash.
- Create a new Flash AIR project.
- If you would use any of the TransformGestureEvents now it will throw an error. But export the file anyway.
- Open the xml file that Flash just exported next to your swf (Multitouch-app.xml in my case).
- Change the line that define the name space so it uses the 2.0 beta name space:
<application xmlns=”http://ns.adobe.com/air/application/2.0beta2″> - Save the xml and try exporting the Flash file again. It should work a charm now.
I’ve uploaded the source for you to play with here. And if you just want to see the AIR app download that here. It only works on a Macbook with multitouch pad or some other fancy multitouch device running Windows 7. Enjoy!
Big thanks to Lee Brimelow and the Internets
Moving from London to Leeuwarden
After spending 5 years in London of which the last 4 years with the great people of Digital-Outlook it was time to move on and return to the Netherlands. I had a great time with Digital-Outlook, it is a great group of people who really understand their audience and know how to party. So if you’re in London and you’re looking for a great place to work give them a call.
But there are some cool new challenges ahead as well. I’ve joined theFactor.e which is a very well established company in Holland. They’ve set up a new business unit focused on casual and serious games in Leeuwarden. They brought me in as the games and social media specialist.
It’ll be really cool and challenging at the same time to setup this part of the business. I’ve worked here for 3 weeks now and am already enjoying it. What makes this place extra special is the link with Gameship. This is a high end motion capture studio that sits in the building I’m working in and is co-owned by theFactor.e. Pretty cool to have the possibility to do awesome stuff with it.
Mocap Studio Gameship