Rev & Release (Progressive Promo Game)
Rev & Release is something that I worked on at Midwest Immersive over a few weeks between September and October of 2019. It was a promotional arcade game created in one dimension for Progressive to use at conventions.
Description:
The goal of Rev & Release is simple - the player has to try and land their ball into a highlighted region. They do this with a special controller that looks like the handlebars of a motorcycle. When they rev the handle, their ball charges up. When they let go, the ball is shot upwards! The longer they rev for, the further the ball goes. All of this happens on several LED light bars, mounted on a special structure manufactured for promotional events. If the player manages to land the ball in the highlighted section, they win and progress to the next level! If they make it all the way to the end, the sculpture emits a burst of smoke and they’re given a physical prize.
The Moto-Monument, the physical structure that Rev & Release was played on.
My Role:
My role was all over the development of this project. I created a few prototypes of potential gameplay ideas, designed the game, developed the project, handled sound design, and handled visuals (if you can call it that - they’re in one dimension). I also worked with others and another team who handled working out hardware and fabrication - they handled the physical specs, I handled the digital specs.
Rev & Release’s design is something that I’m proud of.
My employer came to me and said “Hey - we have the opportunity to make a game for a client - but it can only be on LED light bars. Is that something you can do?”. I didn’t exactly register what I was in for when I said yes, but designing a game in one dimension turned out to be a lot of fun.
Why it’s important:
A screenshot of Rev & Release, showing the settings menu.
An issue that I overcame with this project was balancing the game. Progressive told us that they wanted to give out prizes to players if they managed to get far enough in the game. They were also concerned about the game’s difficulty - if it was too easy, they’d run out of prizes quickly. If it was too hard, they’d have a ton left over. Another issue was with the physical construction itself - Progressive wanted it to emit smoke when a player wins - and in turn, draw more people to their booth. If players aren’t winning, then the structure isn’t drawing people to it. If players are winning a ton, then it’ll run out of smoke early. To solve this, I designed and implemented a dynamic difficulty system. Progressive could set how many wins at maximum they wanted to get in a day, and the game would adjust it’s difficulty to stay within that range. Difficulty is determined by how slippery the rev controls are - the amount at which the rev increases is non-linear, and a game session with a higher difficulty setting results in players overshooting their target.
