Spring of 2022 I was approached to build out a system for a “digital shooting gallery.” XShot designed and built a booth that would contain two shooting galleries using their foam dart weapons.
The galleries would run simultaneously and groups in the galleries would score points for every target they hit. Scores were only kept for each group (not individuals). Outside of the galleries there was a monitor mounted above that displayed the high scores for groups that came through the galleries that day.
The two galleries had unique designs. Gallery 1 was stylized to feel roughly like an 8bit environment. The monitors were masked to give them unique shapes and the characters on the monitors were 8bit style sprites that would bounce or slide around.
Gallery 2 was designed like the back alley of a city. The targets were signs or graphics one may see in the big city.
Each gallery would take up to 4 players who could choose the style of weapon and shoot constantly for a limited time. The game was started by a host who would hit a hidden button that set the system to start after a brief countdown. Each monitor had a Raspberry Pi attached to the back of it along with a small vibration sensor. The sensor was sensitive enough to detect when the monitor was hit and register the score with a central computer running a scorekeeping app built in Unity. Each Pi was wired into the network so data was reliably sent to the computer. It would have been madness to depend on wifi on a trade show floor. The main computer was also displaying the high scores to a monitor above the booth and two monitors that players could look at upon exit from the galleries.
There were 28 Pis used across the two galleries and the game ran for 3 days, the length of VidCon 2022. Here’s a walk through of the game as it was played:
