Getting Creative for the Capital Creative Showcase

I went to the capital creative showcase in Sacramento a few weekends ago to get playtesters to demo xr57p.  I had a table and I wanted to dress it up a little with some visuals.  I decided to make (1) an arcade cabinet style housing for computer running the game demo, and (2) some sort of backdrop piece for the booth (at other events, people have brought banners with their game or company logo, etc.)

arcade cabinet

The game is space exploration themed, so for the arcade cabinet, I wanted to build something that resembled the old school mission control terminals from the space race. 

I built a box out of plywood.

Then I measured a screen and cut a hole out of the front. 

A little bit of paint.

Placed the screen in with some bolts. The screen on the front is connected to my laptop and mirrors the display. 

In practice, my laptop sat inside the back of the cabinet facing the opposite direct, so I could run the game and watch the playthroughs from behind the booth.

Space man

To keep the space race theme going, I remixed a carboard cutout of the moon landing to fit my game's main character and mechanics.  (Check it out here.) 

I started with this cardboard cutout.

First, I whited out the moon scene mirrored in the astronaut's visor.

Cut out a blaster for his right hand from some extra carboard. 

colored the helmet reflection to look like the colored grid you play on in the game.  Put the plaster and a yellow square into his hands to reflect the items you pick up in the game.

And here we are in action!