Concept:
Growing up, I used to spend my days playing Nintendo games with my siblings, whether it was a game like Mario Sunshine or even Mario Party. The nostalgia of the games and characters’ associated with Nintendo made me want to create something similar. Therefore, for my midterm project, I decided to create a pac-man like game, in which Mario and Luigi chase after stars. This will need two players to take the role of Mario and Luigi. My idea for this is that it would be some sort of competition to see who can collect the most stars. The whole concept behind this idea is to let users interact with the art directly, which is why I will try to emphasize user-experience and user-centered design as I start to build this project.
Design:
For this project, I have decided to keep the design simple and clean. The color scheme will be soft but vibrant against the dark background. I am leaning towards going for a “retro” color scheme. I want my game to make users excited to play it, thus, the colors are significant. For user-interaction, I want the two players to use keys on the keyboard, such as WASD and the arrows, to move the characters up, down, left and right. This will be the main form of interaction for my project. In terms of sound, I want each character to have a distinct sound for when they collect their stars. I also want to potentially have a sound for when the game is over. This will create an immersive and memorable experience for users, enhancing their engagement throughout the game. I might incorporate subtle background music that complements the pace of the game in order to further enrich the overall auditory experience of the users. However, I want to prioritize getting the sound of the characters catching the stars first. Carefully considering both the visual and auditory aspects of the game will allow me to conceptualize the experience I want to create for users, one that is captivating and memorable.
In order to visualize the concept and design of my game, I drew basic wireframes. These drawings are very basic and overly simplistic but they give me a rough idea of what design and feel I want to showcase to users.
Sketch of Game Layout:
Fears and Minimizing Risk:
Reflecting on this project, I think I am most frightened about two things: how I will be able to implement the keyPressed function properly to ensure that each character moves according to their keys and how I would be able to indicate that the game has ended. To tackle these two issues, I am practicing using both sound and the keyPressed functions in different ways to ensure that I understand how to use them in order to be able to manipulate them the way I want for this project. For the keys, I have been studying from slides and practicing using videos from Youtube. By doing this, I will get a better understanding of the function, so I will be able to implement it successfully in my project. In regards to the sound, I am still figuring out how to make it so that a noise indicates the end of the game. I am thinking of potentially putting a timer that would stop all activity once it reaches the end. However, I am still figuring this out but with time and trial and error, I will be able to implement such a feature in my project.