U2U

A ground breaking show in many respects, U2U stressed connectivity between Nickelodeon and it's viewing audience. Viewer's were encouraged to submit their original ideas for shows, video games, poems --- just about anything they wanted to see on television -- and U2U would come up with different ways to materialize it. The "Links" segment teamed imaginative kids with professional animators, artists, and designers which resulted in startling creations.

My responsibilities on the show were divided into three areas:

1) Remote Networked Games - Co-developed and produced the following games:
	"VR500" by Virtek, ltd. - Up to 5 players could compete against each other in sporty race cars from anywhere on Earth (tested as far as Hong Kong to Florida, USA) on this virtual race course.
	"OddPods" by Forte Technologies - Two players using bizarre egg-shaped robots could compete for points in a virtual maze while avoiding strange creatures and each other's stunning "paralaser". While the games could be linked to the studio with nearly any PC, a special turnkey system was developed to be shipped to any target player. Based on early Pentium-based PCs, these systems where equipped with VR helmets and a complete assortment of interactive gear tailored to the game.

2) Animated Segments - Produced the basic elements, storyboards, and effects for:
	"The Adventures of Bouncy Boy in Skull City" - The creation of a Nickelodeon viewer, the segment was designed to resemble an actual video game review of the game's highlights. Character artwork and animations were created by Pat Meehan, a fantastic artist and video game enthusiast, and rendered as a traditional side-scrolling video game. The elements were combined and edited by myself into a faithful representation of the viewer's game design to great effect.
	"MegaBlaster" - This segment showed the development and collaboration between a Nickelodeon viewer and Grant Boucher, a 3D animator whose many credits include "SeaQuest", "Star Trek: Voyager", and "Titanic". Grant was able to take the viewer's drawings and create a faithful representation of the vehicle which was rendered and combined with a little video magic to bring the fictional Mars explorer, "MegaBlaster", to life in Nickelodeon style.

3) Live in Studio Events - Acquired and arranged large scale in studio events including:
	"Loch Ness Adventure" by Evans and Sutherland - In this game, the audience had to retrieve a single egg of the legendary monster while negotiating a dangerous underwater landscape. This game was played by the entire studio audience, utilizing the unique Cinematrix Interactive Audience Participation (IAP) system. Based on the I-Werks location based entertainment of the same name, the game had exceptionally high-end graphics, generated by military grade, real-time imaging technology.
	"Egghead Shred" by Paradigm - This game had the audience playing a punk-rock "Humpty Dumpty-like" character as he skied his way down a obstacle-laden slope of frying pans and vicious forks (no kidding!). The stunning graphics were produced by a host of Silicon Graphics Reality Engine-based workstations while the audience utilized the Cinematrix IAP as the control interface.
	"Rock-It!" by Cinematrix - An inventive take on the Pong type games, this simple game utilized Cinematrix's IAP system to great effect. The audience was divided into two competing teams, each manipulating a defensive shield, protecting their fleet of space vehicles from marauding asteroids.
	"Dr. Megow's Mad Cap Ornithon" by Angel Studios - A remarkable 3D game experience powered by Silicon Graphics workstations, this game allowed multiple players to race against each other as bizarre ostrich-like robots in an even more bizarre psychadelic labyrinth filled with pitfalls and traps.