R.mote, the new way to control your games!

Hi Everyone,

Very excited to present you a work in progress: R.mote ( pronounced "remote" as in Remote control)

​

http://rmote.fabrejean.net/

-- R.mote lets you control games with your phone. It basically turns your smart phone into a joystick.

-- R.mote connection is all done over the internet, so no bluetooth, no peer to peer, you only need an internet connection.

-- Binding your game with the player device is simple: The user is presented with a QrCode, and the R.mote app can scan it to connect to that game instance. If the user scan it with a regular QrCode scanner, it will be directed to the website and presented with instructions and explanations.

-- R.mote is currently in closed beta. The first playable demo being Unity Stealth demo.

-- R.mote is all done in PlayMaker/Photon, both the app and the sdk!

-- Integrating R.mote into your game is as easy as it can get given the fact that Unity Input class is not really flexible ( sadly, if anyone knows a trick to set Inputs directly into Input class, contact me )

Instead of:

Code (csharp):

1. forwardInput = Input.GetAxis("Horizontal");

Do this:

Code (csharp):

1. forwardInput = RmoteInput.GetAxis("Horizontal");

AND THAT'S IT!!!

RmoteInput class is taking into account Unity Input where applicable, so even when connected, you don't loose your normal inputs: keyboard, mouse and joysticks are still active.

Of course, it is strongly recommanded that you take full advantage of what will be proposed, like gyro, acceleration, touch screen inputs, etc etc, so it's likely you'll want to enhance your controls in your project to take full advantage of what's impossible with a keyboard, mouse or joystick.

-- The app will be free, no ads, no catch: the end user is empowered with a pure system. The app sources are not part of the sdk and custom R.mote apps and needs will be dealt on a per case bases.

-- I will offer several types of contracts, and definitly a free package to test and develop. Since Photon is used under the hood, it's likely that for heavy usages, developers will use their own photon app id. Everything is designed to be completly flexible on that front. R.mote SDK will also provide a true turn key solution, where developer are not required to register nor set up anything prior using R.mote. Just drop a prefab, choose the types on inputs you need and run.

-- Integrating R.mote connection protocole and interface in your project is very simple: developers and artists are free to design it the way they want, no graphical rules nor specifications to obey, apart from obviously showing the QrCode R.mote will give you if you want the user to connect.

-- I am not sure how far I am going to push the ecosystem of games and apps that will feature R.mote, but I think there is something here that should not be missed. So I will likely propose publishers a way to have their games featured on R.mote website, just to benefit from the dynamics of "What else can I control with R.mote!".

-- My next implementation of R.mote will be to control my excavator demo so stay tune for more fun ( well... granted you can't really use it right now... sorry )

Lot's of work ahead still, especially around the product itself, but the first playable game was an important milestone and I am very pleased to finally be able to share this with you

I welcome your comments and critics: this project is going to be used by you, and I want this to be something you enjoy integrating into your games and apps, so don't hesitate to share your thoughts, I am listening!

Have a good day everyone!

Jean

 

Hi Jean,

Looks interesting. I know there are several Android apps out there that simulate joysticks / keyboards already. How is your app different? Will I be able to design my own controls and skins?

 

Hi BigKahuna,

Thanks

I had a look at the android apps just now. The main differences are:

-- You don't need to install anything on your computer for R.mote, the communication is all done over the internet, so ANY platform can be controlled with R.mote, you can have an Ipad App that implements R.mote and control that iPad App with the R.mote app. Going wild; you can have a tv show hosting a game, and the first one who scan the qr code ( comfy in his sofa at home) gets to play and win a prize if succeeds. Also, my wife bumped into a news on tv program, shortly after I started on this, showing a giant game display on a building and controlled via your ipad.

<iframe src="http://tv.ibtimes.com/share/10137" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

R.mote would work in museum too: go see an exhibition and take control of some interactive pieces with your phone, that's something very interesting, it cuts down the cost of building such exhibition and totally kill the usual problems of kids wrecking the control device and hardware, here it's your phone, so people will not start hammering on it...

This kind of things are possible with R.mote.

Also, the main difference I see as well is that other Remote apps do not offer access to gyro, acceleration, geolocation because they are presented to the computer as a regular joysticks, and thus follow the conventions of a what a joystick can give. Here with R.mote you have access to a lot more and that's really nice.

Skinning: yes, I will certainly add the ability to skin the remote control once you scan a qr code, that will likely not be part of the entry level package tho.

Custom layout: yes that will be possible to define what elements you want and where you want them. This is something you will be able to declare in your project settings or on the fly when you request a connection. I am also tinkering with the idea of letting the end user then reorganize it ( left handed, or different positioning). I will also provide the possibility to switch layouts and controls during the gameplay ( as an advanced feature), for example, you can can walk your character, but if your character enters a car or a helicopter, then you swith controls to give exactly what's needed.


Custom Widgets: not sure yet I will offer this ( very difficult to implement), instead I would take suggestions and implement them for everyone to benefit from this, but so far I plan on the followinbg widgets:

-- Pad
-- Joystick
-- touch pad ( basically fowarding touch inputs)
-- Button
-- slider
-- radio button
-- check box
-- numpad and keyboard
-- questions and feedback: from your app, you can ask a question ( popup) and the user is presented with options to select on his screen.

Device gestures:
-- shake
-- jump ( it's like acceleration but wrapped into easy inputs)

Device hardware:
-- gyro
-- acceleration
-- orientation
-- geolocation


Feedback ( from app to R.mote controller)
-- Vibrate ( when player gets hit for example)
-- color flash ( when hit, when picking a bonus, screen would turn green for an instance)

Sound
-- streaming sounds is something I want to study as well, so that ambiant music cna be played from your iphone, or even short sounds as part of the game action)

and also for tablets version, I will study the possibility of implemented simple minimaps and radars, listings ( for inventories or slide shows to select a slide when controlling a presentation) etc etc, since all this screen could be used for feedback, not just for controls: that would be quite cool!


So much I want to do!

Bye,

Jean

 

Hi,

While I am not really sure about IOS 7 overal redesign... I must say the new game controller api makes it something special for me

http://gamecase.com/

Now, that is the real deal!!

Typically, R.mote will be the enabler to provide a true physical controller combined with gyro with such hardwares! Can't wait to preorder and provide support for this with R.mote!


Bye,

Jean