PROJECT TITLE
Rhythm Master—— Watch out the Ball!
PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE *
Genre: Single-player Game
I want to design a fun music game where players would react in various ways to the drums and lyrics of the music. In the pre-research, I learned that there are such games(Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhythm_game), and I hope people can use more body language, interesting props, and sensors to make the game more interactive. Because it is difficult to get the computer to analyze the music, we need to record the drums of the music ourselves and tell the computer when to react. In addition, what props to choose to make the game more interesting is also a problem.
PROJECT PROPOSAL PLAN
During the first week, we are going to finish the external device connected to the Arduino. We need to set four small buttons on a large cardboard, install an LED board in the middle, and put 4 Neopixel Strips around it. We will select a piece of music with lyrics, and select and record part of the rhythm because it is very difficult to get the computer to analyze the music directly. We would then artificially program these rhythms into the computer, and four different Neopixel Strips would light up with the rhythm. When a specific Neopixel lights up, the player needs to press the corresponding button. We will pick a specific lyric in the song, and when the word is sung, the middle LED will light up, at this time, the player needs to blow the whistle with the prop.
In the second week, we will finish the code for Processing. When a specific light band is lit up, the computer screen will have a small ball in the corresponding direction smashing into the person in the middle. When the player presses the button, he will make the ball bounce, and if the player does not react in time, then a big red cross will appear on the whole screen, and then all the light strips will turn red together.
At last, to make the game more interactive, we hope to add a sound sensor again, when a specific word appears, there will be small balls in all four directions to smash people, so players need to whistle, at this time the sound sensor will receive the signal, people will be safe.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The research I did in the early stages let me learn about dancing machines, and combined them with the rules of dodgeball (Reference:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodgeball). In the final project, I hope to combine and improve them. The interaction I think of is not made up of just one action, it is a continuous process. With the different reactions of people, the machine should also act respectively. For example, the music requires the player to make a certain action, if the player’s action is correct, the person can knock back the ball, if the player’s action is wrong, there will be a different reaction. While the players are playing, the audience can also know the progress of the game by the people on the screen and the audience will react. Music is also a continuous process, so the player will also continue to do different reactions. This is in line with my definition, and I hope I can make the game more interesting.