Concept
My concept is a rhythm game called Sorbetes Hero and it is heavily influenced by the game “Guitar Hero.” In the game, you are a Sorbetes (Filipino-style ice cream) vendor, trying to earn as much money as possible. There’s four lanes that are different ice cream flavor and you have to catch the falling “ice cream” (circles) to earn more points and the longer you play, the more bonuses/multipliers you get. There’s an easy and a hard mode that is dependent on the photoresistor/LDR sensor. The easy mode is just a regular game play of one ice cream falling down at a time, while the hard mode has multiple ice creams falling down. The game has a 90-second timer that triggers the game and the ice cream falls faster as more time goes on, the player gets three strikes for missing, and the end shows how much money they earned.
Project Demo | Arduino Code | p5.js Code | Schematics
What I’m proud of
I’m quite proud of the photoresistor/LDR sensor interaction that I have. I was debating what type of interaction to have with it and I just landed on having it be the “mode indicator.” I took quite a while thinking of how to add this in the physical controller without needing to use a flashlight on it or cover it with my hand yet still have the player interact with it in a natural way. So, I used the mini umbrellas that are usually used for drinks. Umbrellas are used quite often in the Philippines because of both the heat and rain and especially by street vendors. I thought this was a clever and also relevant way to integrate the sensor.
Reflections & Future Improvement
Some things I wanted to include was music and sound effects but I ran into some issues uploading them on p5.js, maybe next time I’ll try using the piezo buzzer for that. I also think I could’ve added more obstacles and challenges in the actual game, something like long presses or like the “bombs” in Fruit Ninja. For the actual Arduino, I like how it turned out but I would like to try to use arcade buttons to have a bigger surface and more satisfying feel. Nevertheless, I’m really proud of this project because I felt like I applied all that I have learned throughout the semester. Though the semester unfortunately became only, I still feel like I was able to learn as much as I could.