Concept:
Instead of making a competitive game that includes winning or losing, I wanted to create something calm and creative while still connecting it personally. I decided to create “Morocco’s Door Studio” for my Midterm project. Initially, I got inspired by traditional Moroccan doors because of the detailed arches, colorful zellige tiles, and the decorative handles that make each door unique. Whenever I come across these doors in Morocco, each door is different, although the pattern and color can be similar, the entire final piece is different. The experience is similar to a digital sticker book because the user starts with a blank Moroccan door frame and can build their own entrance by selecting different decorative elements such as tiles, arches, and knockers while adding their own colors to it. The goal is for the user to experiment freely and design something that feels visually pleasing to them. Traditional Gnawa music will play in the background to enhance the atmosphere and make the experience feel immersive and culturally rooted.
Design:
The design will focus on Moroccan tones like gold, blue, red, and nude colors. The door frame will remain centered on the canvas as the main focus, while decorative options will appear as selectable buttons on the side of the screen (for example “Tiles” “Knockers” “Arches”). When the user selects a category and clicks on the door area, a decoration will appear at the mouse position. Each decoration will be represented as an object and added to an array so multiple elements can be placed on the screen. The experience will begin with an instruction screen that explains how to play. The user must press a key or click a button to begin designing. After decorating, there will be a “Reset” or “Start Again” button that clears the canvas so users are able to experiment again. Additionally, to make the interaction more engaging a soft sound will play when a decoration is placed.
Images: (inspo/planning for my game/experience)
Challenging Aspects:
One of the most challenging aspects of this project I think will be managing the different decoration objects and making sure they are stored and displayed properly. Since every click creates a new object, I need to make sure they are correctly added to an array and drawn continuously in the draw() function. Another challenging aspect is organizing the different design categories. I need to make sure that when the user selects “Tiles” only tile decorations are placed, and not arches or knockers. Another issue might be finding transparent PNG images for the decorations which might take a while, but I can try creating them on my own or maybe using AI for this part.
Risk Prevention:
Although I am still working on this project, and I won’t know what issues I will run into, to reduce the risk of the objects becoming confusing, I will first create a simple test version where clicking the screen generates basic colored shapes using a class that I recently found and learned about: Decoration. This will help me confirm that the objects are properly created and stored in the array.
Before adding detailed images, I will test everything using simple shapes like rectangles and circles. Once the system works, I will replace those shapes with the actual decorative images I have saved.
For the category selections, I will use a variable maybe naming it currentCategory that will update whenever a button is clicked and this way the program always knows which type of decoration to place on the screen.