War of the Currents
Arcade Game Design & Promo Video
Arcade Game Graphics & Promo Video
Real Art | Proto Buildbar
Roles
Director, Designer,
Motion Graphics
“War of the Currents” is a 2-player fighting game where the joysticks are wired to deliver 200 volts to the loser.
It’s a test of will for both players, originally started as a side-project between myself, programmer Dustin Clinard, and electrical engineer Marc Stevens.
I don’t remember where the idea for this came from. Dusty and I talked about it forever. I thought maybe Marc Stevens and Chris Wire thought it up, but one time at a Real Art Christmas Party, I was talking to Jack Wire (Chris’s 15-year-old) and he claimed he had the idea.
An arcade game that shocks you. It’s a great idea.
Awards
Gold Addy Award (Hermes)
Links
Real Art Official Case Study
Proto Buildbar
Proto / War of the Currents Press Page
Story Time
The Goal
Build a fighting game starring Edison and Tesla.
Dusty said that if I could just make all the animations, he could make a Street Fighter clone in Unity.
“Just make the animations!” - Programmer
I was like—no thanks I don’t have 10 years.
But then we started talking about Mortal Kombat—using footage of real people to make the graphics.
And by “real people”, I mean Real Art people.
I did a quick test where I down-scaled some green screen footage to a 16-bit-esque character. I showed it to Dusty as a proof of concept, and we agreed to make it happen.
We asked Real Art developer Gary Riggins and industrial engineer Bryan Campbell to play Tesla and Edison. They agreed, mostly because they didn’t know what they were getting into, but also because they are awesome and this idea was awesome.
We brought in Cody Brown to figure out the studio capture.
On a very, very hot night in late August, we held a ridiculous green-screen video shoot that lasted way into the night. Gary and Bryan were rockstars and we captured every move, including some awesome ad libs—some of which made it to the final game. (Pro Tip: Learn combos)
Ian Sperry
Captain of Industry
From Footage to Sprites
After the shoot, Cody edited the footage down to the best takes of each move. I keyed and down-res’ed the footage.
But—after I saw the individual frames, I was disappointed in how much detail we had lost. After a quick pixel-art illustration test, I found that in ~15 minutes I could retouch a single frame of animation. It would take forever, but after comparing before / after, I knew it had to be done.
I used After Effects to select key frames and rendered them out in sequence, then built sprite sheets. Then came a very very boring process of hand-illustrating eyes, mustaches and bow ties onto each frame.
U/I & Attract Screens
Next came all of the game’s practical details: the UI, the menu, and the arcade attract videos. Dustin and I went back and forth on a few different game design concepts and finally landed on a “super-charge” meter at the bottom that fills as you get hurt—that way even if you’re getting beaten every game, you still get the chance to shock the guy next to you once or twice.
Proto Buildbar
Proto was a 3D printing makerspace / fantastic local hangout next door. Real Art designed the entire space as an homage to inventors—wallpapering it with cool posters about the “War of the Currents”, a huge mural of Tesla.
At some point it became obvious that this one-off, handmade arcade unit should live there.
Endorsement by Real Art
Up to this point, all of this development on EvT was being done outside of work hours and in-between client projects. But as the game was starting to come together, serendipity took this project to a whole other level.
SxSW in Austin Tx selected Proto as a finalist for the 2016 Interactive Innovation Award, nominated in the category “Innovative DIY space”.
The real gem: along with the nomination came free booth space at SxSW during the judging. Two days of free advertising, open to the public, at one of the coolest Festivals/Conferences in the US.
Chris Wire asked to see the game in progress, and made a ballsy call: Instead of taking a 3D printer or a soldering station to represent Proto as a makerspace, take something that embodied its spirit—a homemade arcade game, about inventors, with a real life electrical twist.
Chris told us to finish Tesla vs Edison and ship it to Austin, Tx.
Building for SxSW
With South by Southwest a little over a month away, that meant we had to make this project sweet and finish it NOW.
Real Art funded TvE, assigned a proper production team, gave it a job number—everything went crazy.
This amplified the entire project, not just the game. We had budget for the arcade cabinet build, time on-the-clock to work, and resources from other teams at Real Art. The print team developed proper branding—“War of the Currents” logo and cabinet design—and the industrial team finished the electronics.
The icing on the cake was hiring freelance musician & old friend Adam Haroff to compose the soundtrack to the game. It was a real challenge—I asked for 16-bit-esque early-20th-century harpsichord influenced rock-and-roll. Adam knocked it out of the park. He had never worked with FM synthesis before, but learned it for this project and crushed it.
Word from Austin was that ‘War of the Currents’ was a huge hit. Small crowds were gathering around the game both days. I was sent videos of spectators on edge, waiting for someone to get shocked… it was a dream come true to see.
EvT Promo Video
After the reaction in Austin, we knew that the idea was solid enough to get some press.
To help publicize the project, we decided to build a trailer for the game.
We called in local badasses Shawn Patton and Bryan Saunders to co-star along with Thomas Edison and Nicola Tesla themselves. They agreed.
We filmed the promo video in one long night. Editing and VFX took two weeks. It was a blast.
We wanted to have at least one matte painting in the video. The perfect opportunity was the final wide shot of our two playaz—fully into the game, totally unaware that the roof has been ripped off by an electrical storm… that they’re causing. I gave my matte painting to Kevin Passmore who CRUSHED the composite.
Play War of the Currents
“Tesla versus Edison: War of the Currents” lives at Real Art now. If you think you can handle it, come visit us. Set shock strength to three. It’s one of the coolest projects I’ve ever been a part of.
There’s a Konami Code-esque easter egg in there, but to my knowledge no one has found it yet. If you want to be the first, start at https://realart.com/anthology.
Concept & Development
Real Art
Dustin Clinard - Lead Development
Andy Nick - Lead Design
Marc Stevens - Lead Engineering
Game Development
Dustin Clinard - Lead Development
Gary Riggins - Gameplay Programmer
Nate Sizemore - Development
Electronics & Engineering
Marc Stevens - Electronics Engineering
Joe Althaus - Electronics
Justin Gault - Fabrication
Bryan Campbell - Fabrication
Live Capture
Cody Brown - Videography & Editing
Gary Riggins - “Edison”
Bryan Campbell - “Tesla”
Andy Nick - Direction
Dustin Clinard - Direction
Shelby White - Make-up / Wardrobe
Graphics & UI
Andy Nick - Lead Design
Matt Gregg - Level Design
Soundtrack, Sound Design, VO
Adam Haroff
Video Promo
Sean Patton - Edison Player
Bryan Saunders - Tesla Player
Andy Nick - Direction, Motion Graphics
Cody Brown - DP
Kevin Passmore - AD, VFX, Stop Motion, Sound Design
Lauren Valko - AD & VFX
Tom Davis - AD, VFX, Stop Motion
Shelby White - Make-up / Wardrobe
Production
Rob Anspach
Betsy McFaddin
Branding
Ben Griffen
Special Thanks:
Real Art Print Team
Proto Buildbar
Bryan Saunders & Sean Patton
