Minecraft-inspired Holographic Arcade Game (Product Design and CAD Development)

For the arcade machine contest, I have sketched up and designed a shooter-style arcade machine based on my old favorite game, Minecraft, with Fusion360. I have also implemented a holographic feature for immersive gameplay, which I got inspired from Disney Imagineering's Pepper's Ghost Effect.

For supplies, I recommend:

1. Sketch book with pen/pencil
2. Good source of internet for research and inspiration
3. Fusion 360 for prototyping virtually
4. Have a creative mind! and let it run wild!

(Research Process)

To start off with the design process, I went through a ton of research on what arcade machines are currently trending and what "themes" are best sold. Turns out, Minecraft is still buzzing in the pre-teens to young adults audience, and also because it has been my childhood game, I decided to choose this game as my base theme.

Secondly, I have to consider what kind of gameplay of arcade machines is doing well with the users. For this step, I interviewed several of my friends and my family. The top three features that was a commonality between all users were simplicity, immersiveness and replayability. Consequently, I researched the top most simple yet addictive games to play, and ended up with a simple shooter game like Asteroids. In order to incorporate the Minecraft theme into a third person shooter game, I went through various iterations of sketches and ended up with the one I have attached here. This was also when I was inspired by Disney's imagineering technologies and their Pepper's Ghost effect - which is used on Haunted Mansion and is, still to this day, such an innovative feature.

After having a visual reference with my pen sketch, I can then go to Fusion360, a software that I had just started using, in order to sketch up the multi planar boards which would then be assembled to build a base.

This step involves thinking for DFM (design for manufacturability); a process in which the product designer would also have to consider how the prototype will be manufactured in reality (in factories and such). For this simple arcade machine which has predominantly simple geometric shapes, we could use wooden planks or particle/fibreboard as material. The though process for this also includes eco-friendliness - we can recycle wooden materials to make new particle boards which are cleaner (lesser carbon emissions) and more cost effective.

For rapid prototyping, like this project, Fusion360 is a really good source for visualizing and generating DXF files. As a new user to this software, it was very easy to adapt and the 90 minute tutorial (https://www.autodesk.com/learn/ondemand/course/learn-fusion-360-in-90-minutes) made it much easier to navigate. The interface could also be changed according to your preference; I have had experience with Solidworks, so the option to change the controls based on how Solidworks had theirs, was such a convenience.

After assembling the parts I made with the sheet metal option, I also designed a see-through glass - oriented in such a way it would reflect the screen that would be adjusted on the top of the machine (I have visuals later for this). In order to change the type of material for each component, you can right-click to select the body/feature and select "Appearance". For this project, I have chosen Glass (Clear) material as my preferred medium. However, there are much more clear materials in the library provided by Fusion360. Even environmental mediums such as water and air!

So after designing the main frame and base, I started generating images to wrap around the body for aesthetics. The two minecraft skins here are generated through photoshop, and the background and title is just made through simple Microsoft Paint.I also screenshotted my gameplay from Orecraft* to enact as a screen that would be attached to the top of the machine.

*I changed the name just because of concern for copyright issues

For image wrapping on the bodies in Fusion360, I used DeCal insert feature. This allowed me to choose any planar surface I want my image to be wrapped on and I can select if I want a Chain pattern to wrap around all attached bodies adjacent to it.

As I have previously mentioned, I also attached the screen on the top of the machine, which would then be reflected on the glass surface that I have made in the previous step. With the light from the screen and light in the scene behind the glass, it causes a holographic effect, making it seem like the minecraft zombies and Steve are moving in the static scene.

I have also attached a descriptive schematic of how Pepper's Ghost effect works for people who have not heard of it. It is actually a really simple yet interesting idea!

As my final step in designing, I also added some static scenery items in order for the holograms to interact with. This creates a more immersive scene for the players as well.

So after the designing phase, I can shift my tabs to Render Tab and start my rendering process. As my computer graphics were not high enough, you can see how transparency of the glass is not conveyed in the final render. So I also created a section view to see how the inner scene interconnects with the screen on top.

As this was just a rapid CAD design on this arcade machine, rendering is the final step to this project. However, after the Empathizing (to relate what users want/ the pain points of users), Defining (have a solidified project scope and product assets), Ideation (how I conceptualized from research work, sketches, to CAD design) phases, we have to go through Prototyping and Testing phases. This would include manufacturing prototypes through 3D printing/ laser cutting/ etc. and testing out the prototype and get feedback on it. This completes the cycle of a project and I recommend everyone to use these five steps whenever you are trying to develop a product!