A zip file containing the source code/executable: link
If you wish to get it working in a playable fashion, please contact me. Thanks.

Concept
I chose the input device fairly early on – I figured, given my limited options (microphone, webcam, mouse, keyboard), that webcam would be the most interesting for me, and new territory.

Having seen several projects where the user puts himself into awkward/interesting positions to propel the exhibit, I wanted to create something that forced the user (perhaps against his will) to enter in some embarrassing positions. I decided that a game would be best, to use a person’s natural inclination to win in order to force them to compromise themselves in front of the rest of the class.

I wanted to create a game where a person, using their finger, hand, or entire body, would propel themselves through water by creating snakelike or swimming motions. The idea would be that there would be a viscous fluid that the onscreen representation of one’s hand would push against, and if done right, would propel the user in a direction, similar to the way a snake uses frictional forces against the ground to travel.

Execution
Tracking hands/bodies in a convenient/consistent way across variable lighting conditions/backgrounds proved too daunting a challenge for me, especially since there would be no consistent position for them, so I decided to use brightly colored stuffed fish as the game controllers, because their colors were such that it was unlikely anything else in the room would have the same hue, allowing me to relatively easily parse their shapes and locations.

Secondly, implementing the viscous fluid for them to swim through was also too ambitious, and i settled on the fish moving around the screen based on the fish’s location.

In the end, it was a rush to get something that would maximize fun and increase my chances of delivering a workable product to the table by Wednesday. I changed the game to have the two fish (represented onscreen by the amorphous blobs of whatever the webcam was able to detect) shoot at each other, with sound effects and explosions to maximize fun/silliness.

I was able to (eventually) implement an algorithm that calculated the fish’s “pointiest” area, allowing the user to shoot lasers from that point – this meant that if the users pinched the fish in just the right way, they could achieve a certain degree of aiming, and by moving the fish around, they could dodge incoming lasers to a degree.

Conclusions (post presentation)
Although it was not what I expected, the class seemed to enjoy watching the battle, and the participants were sweating with exertion, so I feel I was able to at least capture the attention of people. I liked that the user was given a certain degree of control that was novel to a computer game (if it can even be called that) – I felt this provided a gameplay mechanic and level of complexity to an otherwise simple game.