yuan peng

creative technologist + artist

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games + game-adjacent things

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A quiet game about adhd and loneliness and trying (wip)

Hi! I'm Yuan, and I'm applying for the Solstice Program as a solo developer. If you're looking for my portfolio and other info about me, you're already in the right place! This is just a super secret page I made to house my pitch. My contact/social links can be found in the footer.Disclaimer: Bob from Animal Crossing is a place holder because I think he's neat pls don't report me to Nintendo/Nintendo pls don't sue me...

I have an affinity for the quiet games that you can finish in one lazy afternoon on the couch and maybe never touch again, but stay with and become a part of you because you spend the next few years digesting them. The ones that come to mind for me are Assemble With Care and Unpacking. These games are both narrative/story-heavy, and the mechanics are relatively simple, but serve to convey the story in more than just words. There also isn't really a player character; it's more as if the player is watching over the main character as they go through their arc. This format and POV seems uniquely suited to telling a "slice of life" kind of story of a character who is Other. The player is invited to participate in the character's everyday life and most intimate spaces, but never to "step into their shoes" in an act of consumeristic empathy.I've been wanting to make a game like this about ADHD. I was diagnosed with it recently, and it's put a lot of things that have happened throughout my life into perspective for me. The images I have on this page are of a somewhat polished prototype, but in no way past early stages of development. I imagine the player as just an invisible entity rummaging through a little guy's bedroom as they go about their day. Different objects will be interactable and have unique animations or other elements that reveal things about the character. (Some possible interactions with a camera shown below.) New objects and/or animations will appear as days go by.While I want the game to be an attempt at communicating the experience of neurodivergence to neurotypical people and bridge some gaps in understanding, I also want it to be something other neurodivergent people can find comfort in, to know that they are not alone.

As a solo dev, most of the budget would serve as compensation for the time and work I put into the project, which would in turn become one of the primary means by which I support myself for the duration of the work in terms of housing and basic necessities. While the rent is a bit steep in Brooklyn, it should still cover a good chunk of that. I do foresee potentially outsourcing some 3D modeling work if I continue to work on this game in 3D; that's one of the aspects of game development that eludes me. In this case, part of the budget would go towards hiring someone for that. What remains would be used to buy additional things I will need for development, either in the form of software, hardware/equipment, or educational/research resources. Examples of these include the Adobe Suite, upgraded computer parts, speakers for audio mixing (often overlooked even in AAA games, I’ve found), or a course on unfamiliar coding concepts. I usually avoid spending money on these things, since they seem too self-indulgent most of the time, but I think the combination of having a budget set aside for it and the mindset that it would be for an organized incubator would finally allow me to do it.

a game about trying (wip)

disclaimer: bob from animal crossing is a place holder because i think he's neat pls don't report me to nintendo/nintendo pls don't sue me

rummage through a little guy's bedroom as they go about their day. they're trying their best. some days, they'll work at their computer for 14 hours straight. other days, they'll stay in bed. they might even leave the house on occasion.some possible interactions with a camera shown below; other objects will also be interactable and have various unique animations. new objects and/or animations may appear as days go by.

most of the 3D assets shown are taken from sketchfab, some of which i modified a bit to suit my needs. i did model the bed and camera myself, though.

an installation-performance on mind and mindfulness™.

abstract

have you tried meditation? is an installation and pseudo-performance piece that expresses a personal frustration with the commercialization of mindfulness practices like meditation while examining the deep-seated ableism in a society that values productivity above all else. with the rise of wellness culture and burnout in recent years, mindfulness has gone from a rather fringe topic of scientific investigation to being an occasional replacement for psychotherapy, a tool for corporate well-being, and a widely-implemented practice in educational settings. one would think it’s good that we’re talking about mental health more, but capitalism has twisted our understanding of it to align with our never-ending pursuit of self-optimization and productivity. mindfulness is an industrial complex, manifested in things like the “amazen” meditation booth and subscription-based mindfulness apps that claim to help a user achieve happiness in just 10 minutes.the piece has two components: a breathing-driven interaction between a user and a 3d scan of myself, and the performance, which is designed around and integrated with the core interaction. a user is invited to sit across from a vertical monitor displaying a 3d scan of my body. the piece starts off with a typical recording of a guided meditation before sliding into commentary and revealing the half-grotesque, half-humorous connection between the user's breathing and my 3d scan: when a user inhales, i inflate, and when they exhale, i deflate. control of the pacing for the voiceover switches over to the user as well, with lines only playing in time with inhales and exhales. by the end of the performance, my hope is that the person on the other side will have come to a deeper understanding of what it means to engage with modern mindfulness, or have, at the very least, heard and understood me.conceived and developed over the course of a semester for ima capstone 2022.

technical details

blender was used to “deflate” and “inflate” the model via cloth simulation. these simulations were then baked and exported as alembic files. a kinect v2 tracked the up and down movement of a joint at the center of a user’s chest, and these tracked values were used to triggered various reactions from the application. fmod studio was used to create a reactive audio system for sound effects and the voiceover. these components were all combined in unity to create the final product.a screen recording of the full piece can be found below for those who are curious about the contents of the voiceover.

an interactive installation about manipulating flesh and how weird gender presentation is.

ifeelweirdaboutmybody is made up of two different interactive vignettes that feature a 3d scan of my body. the user interacts with my virtual form through different gestures in each piece: squeezing and pulling or swiping in different directions. i drew inspiration from yoko ono’s “cut piece”, in that i wanted to let other people control my body in some way. how do users perceive me before and after interacting with my model? a lot of people default to “miss” and “she/her” with me. i do still prefer “sir, do you have a cigarette?” over “miss, do you need help carrying that?” at what point does my physical form cross the boundaries from the binary “she” or “he” to “they”, or even to “it”?each vignette is meant to feel different in the user’s body, with the first being more aggressive, and the second being more slow and meditative. they reflect some of the different ways that i think of my body/treat my body/want my body to be treated – like a sculpture, or like a sack of meat.

experiments with ar and programmed video effects

i created a filter in spark ar studio using the program’s face distortion features and alpha masks that “cut and pasted” a user’s eyes to other parts of their face. horns and fangs appear to grow from the user’s face when they smile. extra eyes can be added by tapping the screen.this was later combined with various max/msp/jitter effects. the parameters of certain effects were made dynamic by the addition of midi input control.

an arcade game that combines traditional space shooter-style gameplay with audiovisual effects.

made for playing on teenage engineering’s op-z, but will also accept midi input from any device/source.

if you have an op-z or midi controller and would like to play, download here.

a vr daw (digital audio workspace)/recording studio, the tiltbrush + ableton live hybrid that avant-garde soundcloud artists and cyborg vjs (visual jockeys) dream of.

abstract

the term “classical music” probably makes you think of the instruments associated with it: a piano, a flute, or whatever instrument you learned to play as a kid. what about avant-pop, glitch hop, grime – what does that look like? as the form of music itself has become more abstract, rules being broken with every new subgenre formed, so too has the concept of fixed “instruments” broken down.i wanted to explore our modern relationship with music, sound, and the tools we use to create music by combining emerging technology and new ways of perceiving with electronic music production methods. the result is onemanband.

technical details

onemanband was made in unity with the steamvr sdk, and it communicates with ableton live through osc messages that are run through livegrabber, a series of max for live plugins. the samples used were taken from a number sample packs from landr.

an endless side-scroller cloud game. collect water to grow big and put out fires! but if you lose too much water you get tiny and disappear :•(

play in your browser here.

made for the itp class the new arcade to be played with a custom controller that i made to go along with the project. blowing into the microphone makes the cloud float up, flappy bird style. when playing with the controller, pressing the button over a pond collects water from it, and the toggle turns rain on and off.the controller shell is 3d printed pla. hardware includes a white led arcade button, led toggle switch, an electret microphone, and a teensy 3.2.

when you get your heart broken, make art about it.

made in the aftermath of a somewhat painful breakup.a meditative vr space made up of a moon, star field, and quotes from writers and poets i curated that i feel describe the experience of existing in the world as a woman/feminine-presenting: on anxiety, love, loneliness, trauma, and the gaze/performance.there is no beginning or end or arc to this, and there is no user input. the environment is oriented in a way that the viewer must view it from a somewhat inclined position. you can stay for as long as you like, watching the moon, feeling the vastness of the empty space, letting the words wash over you. lolo zouai’s beaucoup plays in the background, a melancholic yet cheerful song about lost love and trying to move on and lingering feelings.

vr viewmaster of scattered places

i spent a lot of time sculpting in vr for a bit. i made a number of assets in oculus medium: a gnarled plum tree wrapped in floating stones, lumpy cloud forms, and stars. i pulled these assets into unity along with some other 3d models to create a few vr environments.

i draw sometimes.

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ima logo

arcade cabinet

espressive words

patterns and mockups

color palette compositions

• Email
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• Twitter
• Gamepad
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• GitHub