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We are excited to announce that a participant of De Pont challenge has created a real VR game called Attack de Pont. The game is developed by Ria Stroes, a creative coder who participated in the De Pont Hackathon, a collaboration between Lava Lab, Creative Coding Amsterdam, SubmarineChannel & Amsterdam Creative Industries Network.

“I participated in one of the workshops, which was about A-Frame – a VR library for the web. On the library homepage of A-Frame, I found an example of a sphere, a triangle and a cubical, which you could move in an empty VR space. I had already created a small P5 animation about a Ferry, that transported little creatures to the other side and back.”

“Then I got an idea, what if … I can create a mix of these two worlds; a 2D-animation and this VR example, both libraries where written in javascript. So I took the example with the sphere, that I could move up en down and put it behind my P5 sketch of the ferry. Now the sphere became a sun and when the sun hits the boot all the hairs of the creatures are exploding and the creatures jump out the boot, but the Ferry doesn’t care and goes on… back and forth … back and forth…”

“To my own big surprise it worked out well and on an Iphone or Ipad you can play this little game as you control the sun in VR-space and you can try to hit the boot with the sun.”

The second version I created at home is a real VR game. You can play it with cardboard VR glasses.

Are you curious about this new VR experience? Click on the link below!

The second project to be announced is the game Otherside; a First Person Platformer in which the player has to jump from one boat to another to get to the other side of the IJ. This might seem quite easy at first, but it is pretty hard to master! The developer of Otherside was inspired by games like Frogger and Mirror’s Edge. Although these two games might sound like a weird combination, it turns out to be a great match!

You can play the game by downloading the installer here (Windows only): http://depont.submarinechannel.com/Otherside_Setup.exe.zip

We have a couple of new projects to announce! The first project is a platform game called The Ferry and it is created by Gijs Bannenberg. Here you see a demo of this awesome game!!!

Last Saturday’s De Pont Hackathon was a big success! Six teams made up of coders, designers and artists from all walks of life worked their b*ts off all day to produce a demo made with the 3D assets of De Pont. The concepts people came up with were pretty rad, ranging from experimental VR experiences to AR hybrids (live action mixed with 3D). We closed the event with food and drinks, followed by a showcase of everyone’s project and of course a party.

Big shout out to all participants, to Lava Lab, to the organizers; Creative Coding Amsterdam.

Here are some more pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/jWX7vFg2GTgSfDdy8

Come and join us in Amsterdam on Saturday April 30th, 2016 for the very first Hackathon focusing on De Pont!

Throughout the day, computer programmers, game designers, animators, software developers, and creative coding enthusiasts will collaborate on creating their own version of De Pont ferry journey.

Get tickets!

Time: 10.30 to 23.30
Location: Lava Lab (Asterdwarsweg 5, Amsterdam)

Program Hackathon (tickets sold out)

10:30 – 18:00

Places for this hackathon are limited! Buy your tickets here. Tickets are 20 euro and include lunch, a super fancy dinner by John Pastinaak (De Ruimte), and snacks + drinks during the day event.
We’ll be making movies, games or interactive storytelling experiences on the theme of the ferry that crosses the IJ river to Amsterdam North.
Some VR related experience (Unity, 3D-modeling, storytelling, etc.) is handy but not absolutely necessary – we’ll guide you through the basics!
Submarine Channel will make a selection of the final projects. These projects will be published on Submarine Channel and De Pont website and will be presented at a De Pont showcase at EYE film museum later this year.

What can you expect?

• A short workshop on virtual reality, VR storytelling and more.
• Meet other creative coding enthusiasts
• Make awesome VR projects together
• Presentations will be in English

Meetup (free event, no ticket needed)

(19:00 – 22:00)

The evening program will be free and open to everyone, as long as we all still fit in the building. There will be short talks on virtual reality projects and storytelling (tba). Additionally, the results of the hackathon will of course be shown!

What can you expect?

• Short talks on VR
• Meet other creative coding enthusiasts
• Drinks will be available for a small price
• Presentations will be in English

VR Afterparty! (free event, no ticket needed)

(Starting at 22:00)

At 22:00 the VR afterparty will start where we can bring our VR goggles to the dance floor! The afterparty takes place at our friends and neighbours at De Ruimte. More info about this party will follow soon.

What can you expect?

• Experience a VR dance floor!

For more information and updates on the event, check out the official events page on Facebook

What better timing than Valentine’s Day to release the demo video of Saku Saisa’s game: De Pont – An Amsterdam Love Story!

This is a game where the player, as a passenger of the Amsterdam ferry, must find his / her love interest on the docks in order to embark on the boat (see earlier blog post for full game description).

Still in development, the game already contains important features. Before starting, the player can create and customize his / her own character by choosing areas of interests. Once the character is created, he / she can walk around the docks and communicate with other characters. The aim is to find common interests between two characters and create a perfect match!

More news on the game’s development will follow in the coming months, in the meantime check out the creator’s web page for other games: http://www.underradar-games.fi/

De Pont – An Amsterdam Love Story from Submarine Channel on Vimeo.

Merijn, Hylke, Roos, Joris, Arjan, Hao, Mike, and Steven, a brand new team of participants @DePont from the Saxion Hogescholen, are working on a game where you, the user, must solve a crime mystery on the Amsterdam ferry. Your role, as ferry passenger, will be to investigate, and search for the criminal. The team is still in the early stages of developping its project, but they’ve already put together a stop motion synopsis video (click on the image below to view it):

Curious to know how an online game is made? Check out the team’s blog where every step of the process is recorded: http://saxionsub.cuccfree.com/ 

An other new project is: Interplanetary Ferry. This short animation is being made by director: Lucie van den Driessche, art-director: Iris van den Akker, technical director: Aser Perez and animator: Sigrid Mohn. The project will be a retro-futuristic guide to space travel.

Synopsis:

The story takes place somewhere in the future. The ferry of Amsterdam now serves as an interplanetary ferry, going back and forth from earth to other planets. The animation serves as an instruction video for the ferry before people (or aliens) are boarding, visualised through small jokes/gags.
There are two characters explaining the rules: the astronaut and the alien. The astronaut always follow the rules and never gets into trouble. The alien always does the complete opposite, and thus gets hurt or left behind.

This is a format for an series of animations. For each rule there will be a short episode: about lining up before getting on board, about using special cups for drinks otherwise it would float around in space, about how to make sure you won’t accidentally drift off into space, etc.

We have a couple of new projects to announce! This project is being developed by director: Jos Meijers and Art-Director: Linda Klaassen. It will be a short animation project with a beautiful style of its own:

Synopsis:

The ferry takes off in a gloomy, misty atmosphere. All the people on board are silhouettes, except for one boy, who is in color. He looks around and finds out that another girl is also different, like him. He tries to get to her, but fails everytime, only picking up glimps of the girl.
Finally, the ferry arrives at his destination and the silhouettes are leaving the boat. The vanish into the landscape, becoming one with the earth. The girl is visible as some sort of flame who’s blowing out.
We look back at the boy again, only to find out he’s older now, a man. It turns out he’s the ferryman, and the ferry takes off again to the other side.

The theme in this animation is the bridge between life and death. The ferryman is stuck on the ferry and can never rest with the other dead people. The name ‘Lethe’ is a derivative from one of the Greek rivers of the underworld.

Valentijn Muijrers, a researcher, lecturer and programmer at HKU (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht) is making a game about stories.

In his game you start as a passenger on a strange ferry with antique furniture. But somehow the ferry forces you to fulfill certain goals, like throwing paintings. Once you fulfill the goals, you continue to play as another passenger, with new goals. These new goals may or may not conflict with the goals of other passengers. The question is: can you fulfill all your goals while not getting hit by flying objects from the other passengers?

The game is elegantly made. The interior of this ferry feels like a lush prlour room which would not misstand in the thriving thirties. The spatial atmosphere helps with the engagement of the game. For example when you move away from an gramaphone player the sound gradually reduces. It’s little things like this what make playing this game absolutely fun!