Rosella's Modern Life

 

These are some storyline sketches. This project will be story-based and "constructed." The things I will be lowering into Rosella's aquarium will be generic because I want the narrative to shape the interaction. The crux of the piece is that while all it really is is a fishtank with a snail inside, we're inclined to assign value and sentiment to Rosella and the things we drop into the tank.

Speaking of dropping things into a tank, I was able to use a continuous servo to drop an item in:

Since the screen will be the peoples' main interface, I want to do the project in Max. Maxuino fits my needs perfectly, since all the Arduino is doing in this project is lowering and raising objects. As shown in the video, all I need are some timed bangs on float boxes to get them spinning equivalent distances. That's also as fast as I could make the servos spin, but that's not a complaint. Don't want to crush Rosella.

Two buttons will be the primary mode of interaction, with each button deciding what Rosella "does" in her life. I want it to be similar to the King's Quest series, or maybe more true to the concept, Peasant's Quest by HomeStarRunner. The narrative will be completely ridiculous.

• Rosella goes to the mall.
• She (you) decides to fill out one of those "win a boat" sweepstakes forms you see all the time
• She miraculously wins the sweepstakes two weeks later but the company fulfills the sweepstakes has since been foreclosed
• As a "consolation prize," they give her the (now ex-) CEO's firstborn child, Frank
• A generic snail toy model is lowered into the tank
• Rosella goes about her business, encountering other events
• 5 real minutes later, Frank runs away, leaving a note that says he left to "find his passion in above-water basket weaving"
• The snail model is raised back up

Moving forward I would like to create a structure out of wood that holds servos securely and is able to securely sit on the top of the fishtank. I see laser cutting in my immediate future.