Project concept
Last week, when I first thought of my game idea, I had almost the same concept as now, but it was originally a candy-themed game. Then I decided to make it closer to home, more customizable, and more traditional. I was trying to think about what should fall from the sky instead of candy, but I really couldn’t come up with anything at first.
Then one day, I was at my grandpa’s house, and I saw him drinking coffee with my little brother. It made me laugh because in our culture, especially in Arab families, they always tell kids not to drink soft drinks, but somehow Gahwa (Arabic coffee) is always allowed, even though it’s full of caffeine! What’s even funnier is that my grandpa used to give my little brother kahwa when he was literally a baby. He could only drink milk, but my grandpa would secretly give him kahwa without my parents knowing. In his mind, kahwa was totally fine, but soft drinks were bad.
That moment gave me the idea to make the game about Gahwa. So now, in my game, the goal is to catch the Gahwa and avoid the Pepsi , if you catch the Pepsi, the game is over. That twist made the game feel really traditional and personal to me.
I also decided to name the characters with Arab names and base them on my younger brother and sister. I really enjoyed that part because it made the game feel more meaningful and connected to my culture. Even though it’s a simple game and my technical experience isn’t that advanced yet, I really love the creative side of it. It feels fun and personal, and that’s what I enjoyed most.
What I am proud of
For my Week 6 submission, what I’m most proud of is that I made this entire game from scratch it’s my first time ever creating a full game, and that alone makes me really proud of myself. I’m also proud of how resourceful I was throughout the process. Even though the YouTube videos I found weren’t the same as my game at all, I still managed to understand their concepts and figure out how to apply them to my own project. I feel like I found really good sources that helped me learn and improve, and it showed me that I’m capable of teaching myself new things and solving problems independently.
I’m also really proud of my concept because it has a story behind it that makes it personal and meaningful. I feel like I did really well in both the creative and technical parts of the project. On the technical side, I worked hard to understand new concepts and used different sources to make my game function the way I wanted. On the creative side, it all came naturally because I was genuinely passionate about the idea. I really enjoyed bringing my story to life through the game, and that made the whole process even more special for me.
Bug
The only thing that’s bothering me about my game right now is that sometimes you lose even when the Pepsi is kind of far from the character. It doesn’t actually touch or collide with the player, but the game still ends as if it did. I think it’s because the data or hitbox isn’t directed properly to the character, so I’m planning to fix that bug. I also haven’t added any sounds yet, but I really want to, I just need to watch some tutorials first to learn how to do it correctly.
Code Highlight
This part of the code is one of the main things we learned in class, and it really became the foundation for my whole project. It basically controls what shows up on the screen depending on which stage of the game you’re in, like the home screen, instructions, character select, gameplay, or game over. This structure made everything so much easier for me because it helped organize my code and made it clear what each part should do. I started with this as my base and then kept building on it, adding more functions and features as I went along. It really helped me understand how to manage different screens in a game.
function draw() {
background(0);
//conditions for screens
if (currentScreen === 'home') drawHome();
else if (currentScreen === 'instructions') drawInstructions();
else if (currentScreen === 'character') drawCharacterSelect();
else if (currentScreen === 'game') drawGame();
else if (currentScreen === 'gameover') drawGameOver();
Some Images I Used
