Post date: Apr 03, 2013 10:9:27 PM

https://www.sifteo.com/

History of Sifteo:

Founders:

Dave Merrill and Jeevan Kalanithi (graduate students from MIT Media Lab)

Inspiration:

Sorting through a pile of LEGOs as if they were piles of digital data

“Desire to rethink human-computer interaction by designing new, physical interfaces”

Awards:

International CES Innovations 2011 Design and Engineering Awards Honoree 2011

LoopLoop, (interactive music game) Best in Show at the 2012 Interaction Awards

Specifications:

• Icon_3axis

• Precision 3-axis accelerometer to respond to motion

• Icon touch

• Touch sensitive screen

• Icon sensors

• Proximity sensors to detect nearby cubes

• Icon color

• Full color TFT LCD Display

• Icon wireless

• 2.4 GHz wireless radio to communicate with the Sifteo Base

In 2009, the first prototype (called Siftables) was introduced during a TED conference, due to the popularity of the talk; the founders were encouraged to build Sifteo, Inc. in San Francisco. The first Sifteo Cubes were shipped in September 2011, with its successors shipped Nov, 23, 2012.

Considered a first of its kind, hands-on, interactive game system, these 1.7 inch block interact with players and each other through 4 functions:

1)    Neighbor

2)    Press

3)    Tilt

4)    Shake

An example of different ways to use the Cube

Sifteo games focus on fun, educational themes such as strategy, collaboration, pattern recognition, and spatial reasoning. Working with a Sifteo Base, the user can store games, play audio, and connect to a computer to purchase additional games with a USB cable

Cubes come pre-installed with 4 puzzle games to begin with. Each start kit comes with a Sifteo base and 3 starter cubes, although more cubes can be added on! (Mostly likely 12 cubes total, but our guide at Sifteo, Daniel, hinted that some games could take up to 24 Sifteo cubes)

Sifteo Cubes are also very portable, but they will require batteries.

Tour with Daniel Plemmons

At Sifteo, we spoke with Daniel Plemmons, who talked to us about the company (see History above) but also about their culture. They look for people who are creative and collaborative, able to prototype and implement changes quickly, and love to constantly play test. The office has large windows, so I suppose not every computer lab will be like the 3rd floor? They also had a pillar that was a giant whiteboard for people to write down any ideas. I also noticed that their work tables were very high, you either worked sitting on high chairs or you stood up. Many of the employees were busy preparing for GDC so we were not able to speak with them, and I was also even more appreciative that Daniel would take the time to accommodate us when Sifteo was going through a major milestone within their company.

Play testing

The topic of the importance of play testing their products was a major factor in their company. Many of the games for the Sifteo Cubes are currently made for a younger audience, (ages 7-12), and how vital it was to actually have children from that age group try out their games. Designers take notes on how the children interact with the cubes, are the games too hard? Too easy? Are the instructions clear? How long is their interest level?

The developers of the cube noticed that very young children like to pick up and stack the cubes, the cubes fall to the floor or tumble, therefore a lot of testing was done to ensure the Sifteo cubes were durable enough to last rough handling by children.

One of the games, Tower no Tumble, actually lets the player stack the cubes in a pyramid like format on a flat surface, and the goal of the game is lay another cube flat on the table and softly fling it towards the pyramid stack without causing it to fall over. While the game is about control, when we played the game, we noticed how hard it was to keep the pyramid intact. The cubes fell over constantly, but the impact did not affect the cubes. I was impressed by the durability, and also impressed that Sifteo had thought so far as to think of new ways to use their cubes in levels of interactivity. Anyone can just press a touch screen, but how many devices are there that can be stacked or shaken and each time the player is rewarded with some new action?

Bernie Lin, the director of Game Production at Sifteo asked us to play test a new software, I think it was nicknamed “Face Time” (don’t quote me on this), in which 3 cubes had a cartoon face looking at you. When you placed two cubes next to each other, the face would look at each other, ifyou stacked the cubes, they would look up or down at each other. Daniel and Bernie wanted to see how we would react, so they did not tell us too much about what we were supposed to do, but I think the goal of this software was to see how many ways the user would interact with the cubes.

Esther, Caitlin and I played with the cubes trying to see how many different actions the faces would take. The faces would also change color, red being angry, and blue being neutral, and yellow being sad. We stacked the cubes vertically and horizontally, we shook the cubes, pressed the touch screen, tilted them towards each other, moved the cubes around, placed a cube away from another, behind each other…eventually we got a message on one of the cubes to press the touch screen, which meant we had stacked the faces correctly. It was fun seeing how many different ways each person would play with just three cubes.

There is also a simple RPG style game called Sandwich Kingdom that was entertaining to play. Rather than having a top down map style reminiscent of SNES games, the player starts with one cube, and by placing another cube either on top, below, or left or right from the center, a new path would open for the player to go. It was really fun placing cubes next to each other to see what new path would open for the player.

You can see all their current games here: https://www.sifteo.com/games

At this GDC, Daniel mentioned they would be launching 40 new titles soon, and I am very curious as to what interaction each new game would provide with the cubes.

                                                             Sifteo at GDC (with Daniel)

SDK

Another unique aspect of Sifteo is that their developer’s kit, SDK, is available for free. Users with knowledge of C++ can create their own application for Max OS X, Windows or Linux)

“Work with the same tools our internal game studio uses to make your own unique and innovative games and applications for Sifteo Cubes. Enjoy our self-contained platform, cycle-accurate simulator, C++ compiler, and automated data compression.” 

https://developers.sifteo.com/download (SKD Kit) 

https://developers.sifteo.com/docs/SifteoSDK/1.0.0/ (Documentation)

https://www.sifteo.com/developers (Join!)

http://www.fingerprintplay.com/

History of Finger Print

Founders:

Nancy MacIntyre: CEO/ Founder

(We spoke with her very briefly…she asked us if we were artist or designers…then she asked us where we went to school, she knew about Ringling!

Brad Edelman: Chief Technology Officer

Heather Regan: Chief Product Officer

Michael Chanover: Vice President of Creative

Company Testimonial:

“Fingerprint is a unique group dedicated to building the next great kids company. Our team is made up of veterans from some of the most successful entertainment companies (LucasFilm and Electronic Arts), innovative consumer education companies (LeapFrog and Learning Company), game changing game companies (PlayFirst and 2K Games) and kid targeted start-ups (Everloop and Gazillion). By the numbers, Fingerprint’s team has generated over $4 billion in revenue, 500 million downloads, 200 video games, 100 interactive books, and 12 technology patents.”

Awards:

3-time Family Choice Awards Winner

2012 Family Choice Awards

2013 iKids Award

Fingerprint is considered the first learning and play network for kids and their parents/guardians. The company was originally a start up with funding (estimated around 7.8 million) from Corus, who owns Nelvana (animation studio), television networks, as well as well-known brands such as Max&Ruby, Babar, Franklin the Turtle, etc...

Their games are meant to be educational but without taking away the fun. I really enjoy their appealing design style which is very cute, simple, and clean. Children who play Fingerprint games can send their parents “achievements” such as postcards from a traveling game (through email or Facebook) to both increase their confidence and to help the parents keep track of what their children are learning. Parents can also write notes, record a message or send emoticons to their children. It is a great way for both the parents and the child to interact in the same game while also being separate from each other.

Their downloads for their apps are currently in the six figure range, and Fingerprint’s future goals is to have their apps available overseas, as well as introduce a new line for older children.

Games include their own titles as well as partners with existing brands such as:

Veggie Tales

Caillou

Tour with Sarah Knepper Rudder and Carlo Delallana

Sarah Rudder

At Fingerprint, we spoke with the web designer, Sarah, who talked to us about one of most important aspects of designing games for children, protecting their privacy. While adults can create their own user profile with personal information if they so desire, games for children never ask for age or location. User names are already premade, and the child can choose from a list of names. The names are not randomly generated from words, but actually given a lot of thought to have the user name sound child friendly and fun.

Sample Page of their style and child friendly layout

Sarah also talked about testing their brand identity with actual children from their target age group. The children who use Fingerprint can also choose an avatar to go with their profile. While I thought the style was very charming, Sarah told us that the target age group, especially the boys, complained that the designs were too “babyish” and he did not want his friends to think he was a baby for playing their games. Sarah told us how she realized that children always want to appear older to appear cooler in front of their peers, so currently the company is thinking of ways to redesign the avatars to appear older but still read for a younger age group. These types of feedback are invaluable to a company, and would not be possible without constant testing.

Carlo Delallana

Carlo Delallana is the Lead Game Designer at Fingerprint. He told us how he started as a QA Analyst and moved his way up to a Game Analyst and eventually a producer and game designer. He has worked since for Ubisoft, Playfirst, and Tencent. Carlo was very easy to talk to because he felt more like a fatherly figure passing down sage advice to his children (even though he was probably in his mid-30s still).

He mentioned that sometimes you may not start where you want to go, that you might have to start lower than you expect, and that is a realistic choice you might have to make but that does not necessarily mean it is a wrong choice. I felt he was telling us not to be too picky when we try to become professionals in the game world after graduation, but to take the job that is offered because you can always move on afterwards.

Carlo talked to us about the importance of accepting failure, and to not be held back by failing at a certain task. He described failure as “the next best teacher besides your professor”. Because we are students, he encouraged us not to be too hard on ourselves if we fail at finishing a desired task but to think of it more as a learning tool to find new ways to solve a problem. He also stressed the importance of not holding grudges against peers or a company that may give us a bad experience in the future, because in the game industry, everyone knows each other, and professionalism is key when presenting yourself.

Carlo also showed us his method of doing game design docs, which was close to a bubble chart, with more images than words. He had an image and description for every design in the game, even as to the color a button would light up if the player chose correctly or incorrectly. He stressed that a solid game design document makes life easier for everyone, especially if you are a company like Fingerprint that may work with developers overseas. The game design document also focused on rewards as well as the roller coaster method of high and low conflict.

A game designer has to have precise attention to detail, but also have knowledge of more than just games. He talked about how his interest in history was a great reference in making designs for games. A good game designer should always be interested in everything, history, art, literature, he believed that the wider the net of your knowledge, the better you would be at design.

The Flying Alphabetinis (Produced by Carlo for FingerPrint)

Erin, Caitlin and I played this on the iPad, lots of fun