Save Squiggly
Tools:
Unity, Makey Makey, Visual Studio, Substance Painter,
FMOD, Electrical Wire
Roles:
Controller Creator/Designer, and Programmer
Overview
This was a project created with a group of 5 people during a 4 day
Game Jam, competing against 45 other teams at Sheridan College.
The theme behind this Game Jam was to create a game using an
alternate controller with a Makey-Makey.
An Alien has
Landed on planet Earth but you're not the only one to see
this. A chef from a restaurant wants to try and cook it to see
what it tastes like. Try and help squiggly by yourself or with up
to 3 others for as long as you can to avoid whatever the chef
throws at you.
Design Goals
Realism
- Have the player feel like they are holding and touching the
character
- Have what is being done to the controller
reflect on screen
Pick up and Play
- Easy to understand and quick to learn
- Can play for as
long as they want
Driven To Save
- Give a sense of need to save and pity what could happen
-
give the player emotional attachment to the character
Process
Controller Creation
Trying to get
an idea of how we wanted the controller to look was challenging.
Originally it was going to be a box in the middle of the ring
with 4 strings attached to that ring and 1 player would move the
box inside the ring.
This brought up an issue of
portability, how easy it will break, and how well the
interaction works. So instead, I decided to make it just the box
and stings coming out from it. Doing this also allowed for 1-4
players to play at once which brought more engagement and
strategy when playing.
Controller Design
With the
idea and shape of the box finished, it was now deciding how to
box would function. The challenge I faced with this was how to
make the controller feel different from just an on/off state
like pressing a button.
I did this by looking at a
pinball machine ball launch "plunger". I took the idea
of having a type of force be applied when players were pulling
the strings like in the plunger and its spring pull back.
I
wasn't able to put 4 springs inside the box in such a short
period of time. So I used another option that was much simpler
by using door hinges and elastics to give a feeling of force
feedback as they were pulling
Takeaways
This game taught me how to make a controller that not only
functions but feels good to use. It also showed me how tough it is
to make a game in a small amount of time and how multiple skill
sets are needed to accomplish the objectives laid out in front of
us.
Judges from the Hand Eye Society and alumni from
Sheridan awarded this game with "The Best Use of
Makey-Makey".