“The year is 1967 and you are a TV repair person. Get to work.”
TV Trouble is a game in which the player is challenged with the task of repairing an endless wave of faulty analogue televisions. TVs are repaired by interacting with attached buttons, dials and aerials. By manipulating the controls, the TV’s signal either improves or degrades. The task is to align all of the TV’s controls into their “correct” state so that the signal is perfect. Points are awarded for each TV based on how accurately it is tuned in, and bonus points are awarded for speedy completion.
One of my main focuses for this project was to create a convincing-looking and dynamic effect for the various levels of television screen static. This was done primarily with shader and audio work. The material used on the screens is a video texture with four separate noise/distortion effects layered over the top, the strength of each controllable with parameters. In the script for the TV class, the TV’s “completion amount” variable (a float from 0-1 determining how tuned in  the TV is) is cross-referenced against a set of curves which are then used as the input for the distortion effects. The erratic shape of the curve prevents the transition from looking like a linear improvement/degradation in signal quality. A similar technique is used to transition between the clean TV audio and the static noise SFX; and also to augment the pitch of the clean audio track. The combined effect gives the player an audiovisual feedback that is similar to tuning in an analogue television.
The float curves used to create the erratic transition from static to clear TV signal
TV Trouble was featured in Rock Paper Shotgun’s weekly freeware column.
TV Trouble was selected to be a part of the EGX 2016’s Leftfield Collection booth.