Ian Ayyad
Collected works and projects
OB Invasion
OB Invasion is a full sized coin operated arcade machine built by me. The game is a 2D Beat 'Em Up that takes place in a satirical interpretation of my hometown in Ocean Beach, San Diego. The game was built entirely in Python without a game engine for the Raspberry Pi hardware. All art, animation, coding, electronics and woodworking was done by me.
Space Trucker
Space Truckers is a short, unreleased scrolling Shoot 'Em Up developed my me in Unity 2D for the Android system. The game makes use of Android's accelerometer for the movement controls. Tilt the phone left or right to move in those directions and tap the screen to shoot. These mechanics place a novel addition to a familiar genre.
Project Paper
Worked as one of four artists creating assets and animation for Project Paper, a 2D multiplayer fighting game based heavily on trap placement with art in a scrapbook style. Specifically worked on design and animation of two of the three available characters and numerous traps and stages. Here is a video demo of major mechanics and gameplay. This game was created at UCSC in the senior computer science game design program, made with Unity 2D. All assets and animation were created using Photoshop.
Biosensing Garden
BioSensing Garden is a sculptural garden and water-droplet fountain that visualizes data from a Fitbit, (an exercise tracking device). The fountain is made from a re-purposed printer that drips water onto a pane of tilted glass
The droplets are timed and placed precisely so that they create visualize the data from the fitbit as they fall. Imagery will be projected onto the droplet patterns as they fall onto a garden below. The data droplets are the sole source of water for the plants and so their health is a direct reflection of the amount of exercise from the participant.
For this Project, I took active roles in designing and fabricating the garden itself as well as programming motor controls for the printer motors. I worked along side graduate students Joel Horne, Sean McGowen, and Richard Vallejos along with Art Professor Jennifer Parker and Engineer Professor Mircea Teodorescu to develop the BioSenseing Garden project as part of the OpenLab DANM Mechatronic Research Cohort at UCSC.
The project was exhibited at the Makers Faire in San Mateo, ZERO1 in San Jose, and at The LAB in San Francisco.
Amazeballz: A logic Maze
"Amazeballz " was a large-scale logic puzzle built for the Burning Man festival in 2019 in collaboration with architectural designer Shane Gundelfinger that consisted of a series of colored arches that form a grid, with a clear entrance and exit. Participants must walk through these arches in the specific color sequence of pink, green, yellow, pink, green, yellow, etc. until they are able to successfully walk through the final yellow archway. This means they can only walk through the final yellow archway if the last archway they previously walked through was green. A prize awaits winners on the other side of this final archway. There are numerous instances where participants encounter multiple options (e.g. two different green archways after passing through a pink archway), while there is only one correct sequence path. Participants must also walk through the same arches multiple times from different directions throughout the sequence. This makes the maze very challenging as there are multiple loops and "dead ends" that participants may get stuck in. Participants who choose not to complete the maze can "escape" any time through any of the arches, regardless of color.
Interactive Light Sculptures
Made in collaboration with architectural designer Shane Gundelfinger, these were a series of small motion reactive sculptures that use ultrasonic radars and Arduinos to detect motion and control LEDs within the pieces. Gundelfinger worked on design and fabrication while I worked with the soldering and coding components of the physical computing.
Talk To Jim
Talk To Jim is a solo art piece made by deconstructing an old rotary phone and attaching an Arduino to the existing speaker and ringer. The Arduino has an attached Bluetooth module and when pinged the phone will ring. When answered the speaker plays poetry from deceased 1960's Beat poet and lead singer of The Doors Jim Morrison.
Processing Sketches
Early forays into coding and interactive media using the Processing language
- Jail Cell -
(A piece critiquing the US prison system. Player will walk in direction of mouse.)
- Walkenton -
(A simple piece involving still images in sequence to produce animation and photos of the UC Santa Cruz campus. Use arrow keys to move)