“Oculabyrinth” for Accipiter Labs Spring 2018
Product Owner, Puzzle Designer, Production Manager & Technical Director

• Released Spring of 2018
• Game Studio title focusing on the use of the Tobii Eye Tracker to allow for alternative access to game content and assistive interaction through hardware integration
• Showcased at Pax East

I think it is important to acknowledge the incredible work of our student programmer from WPI, Sola Shirai and our lead artist and vfx genius, Donald Carling.

I wanted to investigate the Tobii eye tracker for game play, as I was already using it for interactive installations and user interactions (see my exhibit works). For gaming, I wanted to explore just how much one could rely on the interface without turning toward mouse, keyboard, or other controller. As such, I designed this game to take full advantage of the eye tracker for all interactions in the game, from movement to puzzle manipulation, essentially replacing the mouse with your eye movements and right-clicks with directed gaze over specific locations.

I particularly enjoyed developing puzzles for this game, while inviting the student team to create an appropriate world and a beautifully detailed environment. I acted as programming mentor, but our lead programmer was quite independent and exceptionally productive. Meanwhile our lead artist is able to bring cohesion and depth to any theme or design, so working with him was very synergistic. I do not believe I could have been as productive with this project-vision without them.

The reception at PAX East was extremely positive and many participants were surprised by the easy calibration and natural response/interaction that one could have with the eye tracker when no one had any previous experience using it. There was little to no eye strain reported during the many long hours of development and testing, and the puzzles all felt intuitive as far as interacting with them via the eye-tracked controls.

This title was extremely well received at the Accessibility Jam by those who tried it– unfortunately not many remote players had access to the Tobii, so feedback was limited to those playing at our local showcase.

I would like to compare the game responses and reviews between this version and another built exclusively to utilize mouse and keyboard.