Changes done to the project:
From the two suggested ideas, I decided to work on the first one since it would be the most realistic option. Now, the original first idea consisted in creating a platformer that would interact via the traditional directional moving buttons and a photoresistor, that would move the scenario according to how much light it received. Although, since I have already done a platform and time constraints, I had to modify this idea.
The idea still has the directional movement and photoresistor to interact with the game differently, but now there are significant changes such as:
- It is now going to be from a top-down perspective, instead from a traditional 2-D.
- It will feature enemies in the form of ghosts.
- Time will serve as a metric for progression.
- It now has a flashlight mechanic which serves to reveal the current position of enemies, but at the cost of an initial high consumption of battery and increased draining battery speed. This battery remaining for this mechanic will be display via LEDs that indicate, according to the scale of Green > Green > Yellow > Red. If the red LED light dims, the player will lose.
- It has a “flashlight recharge station” which helps in increasing the current battery.
- The enemies (Ghosts) can be detected, according to their current location and distance, via sound with the piezo speakers; in other words, if they are too near or far, the piezo speaker will make sounds according to it.
- Random outcomes in every match due to the location of the player, enemies, and battery charges.
- The photoresistor is now going to serve as to how fast the battery will charge. I am still going to allow external factors to interact with it to let the player have a certain degree of freedom. For example, the normal speed at which the battery charges in the stations are of 1x, but if a smartphone flashlight interacts with the photoresistor, it can increase up to 4x.
All of this has been implemented at the moment, but still need bug fixes, further improvements and user testing.
Current progress of the game:
You can move with the keys ESDF and you can use backspace to turn ON or OFF the lights. Keep in mind, because an Arduino is needed, the sound will not be played to locate the enemies, as also the external modification for the speed at which the battery is recharged.
Current Arduino Progress
My current Arduino looks something like this at the moment:
I still need to implement the design and the buttons to move, but since I was mostly worried about the game mechanics and logic first, the design is something that I know will be straightforward to implement. Although, definitively, still time-consuming.