Mood lighting the games room, step by step
Finished
FinishedThis is everything finished then. The games room now has sufficient mood lighting that a game can be played with only these lights on.
The backlights for the display cases was easy to install. There is sufficient room to stick the LED strip so that no individual LED can be seen from the front. This you just get the lovely backlight.
Here is a before and after:
Final comments:
This was a fairly straightforward project. The kits were easy to use and the example from the Hobby Lab was something that I feel I’ve accomplished on a domestic scale.
I’m planning on trying some game based use of the lights. For example they can be set to change with a timer so I can set the length of a turn an make it obvious to the players whose go it is. Thus, one player has their go when the light is red, the other player gets their go when the light is blue. I set the light to alternate between red and blue every ten minutes. Let the game begin!
Has anyone else got any cool ideas for actively using this type of lighting setup in their games?
If you play one of the many Star Wars games, the room definitely needs to be plunged into red light whenever the Empire activates. Then you just need to bring in sound effects 🙂
Of course – why didn’t I think of that? Star Wars would be perfect played in this environment. I am considering options for sound effects too. The Hobby Hall has some sound reactive effects lights which provide things like lightning and muzzle flash effects so maybe laser blast effect lights might add to the sound effect reel too. You can never have too much immersion. Thanks for the comment 🙂
Flares and star shells. You could have a very dark setup for night battles and have players needing to get units to forgo shooting at the enemy and instead fire flares and star shells for a few minutes or a turn of visibility. Risky because if the opponent will see to and if they remember where you stuff was when the light goes..
That’s a cool idea. Brightness levels are easily adjustable and as long as it is night outside there won’t be any additional lighting beyond the mood lights if we don’t want it. I like the concept of emulating the effect of on field visibility aids and their limited duration. That would mean you would need to try and time key movements to avoid being exposed whilst your opponent tries to catch a glimpse of what you are up to. Excellent 🙂
Thanks for looking in on the project and taking time to comment.