Concept Design
As we were looking at previous Midterm projects in class, one of them reminded me of a type of game I used to highly enjoy. The project that reminded me of this was the Coffee shop experience. A few years back, I really enjoyed playing mobile 2D puzzle / escape room games, which had a very similar structure to how the Coffee shop experience functioned. You would be able to zoom into certain parts of the walls, where the objects were placed, and solve interactive puzzles, which would eventually lead to you figuring out some final code to opening the door and passing the game. Thus, I decided that I would attempt and create a virtual 2D escape room game of my own. I am still debating on whether I should create the images myself or find references online. I began by sketching out two versions of how I would want the game to function.
I am still not fully decided on the overall theme of the experience/puzzle game; however, I will shortly begin sketching possible ideas for the visuals and take it from there.
Code Design
In order to piece all of the walls and “zoom-in puzzles” together, I am sure that I will need to come up with some sort of layers and switch them according to some indicators.
As of now, I think the best approach for this would be to create a class that would help differentiate between the different scenes. Additionally, I need to consider where I will include each of these elements:
- At least one shape – Perhaps the door, maybe create shapes as objects underlying the images for them to detect if they are being selected
- At least one image – Images for puzzles, keys, characters, background, etc.
- At least one sound – Some theme song playing in the background.
- At least one on-screen text – One of the puzzles will be a riddle which will include on-screen text.
- Object-Oriented Programming – I will create a “Layer Manager” class which will help me switch to different layers, such as the overall wall view, zoom into a specific puzzle, etc.
Frightening Concepts
Since I have not yet tried creating objects that are clickable, I believe that this aspect, along with switching views, will be the most challenging for me. In order to overcome this, I will try to research methods of how I can implement this. I have a few ideas about how I can create clickable objects, and I will create a tester p5 sketch, where I will try to implement all of these concepts, which are complex to me. After I am able to make sure that they work well, I can then confidently add them to my midterm project.