E-MAZE by Malika and Nathan

Nathan and I referred to our old definition of interaction first and hoped to be inspired with new ideas. During our midterm project, we agreed that something interactive was either a recreational project (a game) or a helpful project intended for a specific group of audience. And continuingly, we want to create a game. Therefore, our target audience is everybody with some free time at hand and seeking a little bit of fun. After the researches I did for this final project, I put my emphasis on the ‘alternate’ part. To build this characteristic into a game, we decided to make the game choose its own level of hardness depending on the time the player spends on solving the easiest level. This game gives a maze-like map and within it is a ball. The floor of the map will be marked with cubes. The player uses a handle that controls the moving direction of the ball. When a rolling command is made by the player, the ball will roll towards that direction and only stop when hitting the wall of the maze or the barriers in the maze. The cubes rolled by the ball will be marked with a color. To win this game, a player should color all the cubes on the floor, which means that every cube should be rolled by the ball at least once.

Within the first week, we will focus on design several mazes that have a different level of hardness and the programming part of the project. This is to make the game more interactive in that it can give the players different mazes depending on the time they spend on finishing the easiest one. The week after that, we will search for something to serve as the handle in our project and run some test for this project, and if time allows, build a real maze (the easiest one) with a moving ball in it just to make the game more fun.

The research I did inspired me to add the ‘different level of hardness’ into the game. Like the Chatty Coasters that listen for silences in conversation and insert provocative questions into them, our project will give you the challenge that is worthy of your talent. It takes the time you spend on the easiest maze as the feedback and choose ‘your level’ of the game for you. After successful completion, our project may attract many players in an e-game store.