I’ll meet you in the rain
Alternative Control Co-op Game
"I’ll meet you in the rain" is an alternative control cooperative experience that explores poetic human connection through custom-engineered physical hardware. Interlocking a glowing star-shimmering umbrella with a physical glass jar that captures drifting starlight, the game subverts traditional input mechanics—translating raw tactile gestures into a synchronized real-time narrative under a speculative, real-time simulated cosmic night sky.
Project Promotional Trailer
Hardware Architecture & Telemetry Pipeline
Core Interaction
01
The Alt.Ctrl Dynamic: Embodying the Prop
By swapping standardized plastic controllers for heavily altered domestic items—a real umbrella and a physical glass bottle—the system forces an intuitive, performance-based kinetic relationship between the players and the engine. Players do not press buttons; they actively swing the canopy to reflect drifting fragments or sway the jar to gather stars.
As a designer and programmer, my mapping logic focused on ensuring kinesthetic sympathy: when players sway the real-world umbrella left and right, the corresponding on-screen object replicates this lateral movement instantly. This direct spatial translation removes cognitive barriers, amplifying the immersion and delivering an intuitive sense of absolute kinetic control.
02
Asymmetric Cooperation & Poetic Encodings
The core level architecture operates as a strictly asymmetric cooperative playground. One participant manipulates the umbrella, turning its standard shielding functionality into a kinetic deflector that bounces fading shooting stars safely away. On the opposite side, the bottle operator moves to intercept these deflected stars, capturing them in a spatial mechanic inspired by the childhood ritual of collecting folded origami lucky stars.
The experience redefines asymmetric co-op through intentional narrative isolation. Players begin on opposite sides of the display, completely unaware of each other's existence or their cooperative bond. The gameplay culminates at the cosmic midpoint where they fly toward each other and finally meet. It is at this poetic moment that they discover the true nature of their actions: everything they have been doing individually was secretly serving and completing the other person's world.
Technical Explanation & Walkthrough
Exhibition Records & Hardware Iterations
