Project Title
Darkness Rhapsody.
Project statement of purpose
During my research, I have drawn inspiration from the project Roskilde Festival playground, which creates changing mazes of light and color, along with an interactive button that changes the background music. Based on this project, I want to design a maze game mainly with processing, where players can hardly see the maze itself and need to listen to where the sound comes from to find the right path. It mimics the experience of eyesight loss and forces players to focus on the sounds that they ignore in daily life. It is a game designed for everyone to explore and reflect on their sense of hearing. Instead of instant feedback that we usually get from games, this one intends to slow down the quick pace in life and provoke thoughts on ourselves.
Project Plan
The project will be in the form of an interactive game using both Arduino and Processing. The goal is to find the way out in a dark maze with deadly monsters.
The Arduino will be used for controlling the movement of the character and we plan to use joysticks for this.
The game interface will be in an abstract art style, and it only uses black, white and red color. Around the character there is limited illumination that allows the player to see a very small area around.
The player needs to wear headphones to identify the direction of the sound. The sound of the monster remains the same all through the levels, while the tone showing the exit changes when the player reaches different places. 3D audio effects will be used, and we are still considering what songs to choose.
The monster starts moving regularly in an area once the player crosses the boundary, and the player loses when bumping into the monster. Monsters look like red polygons, but the player won’t see them until getting very close.
In the next three weeks, we are going to figure out these things:
First week: Deciding whether to realize the effect of walking by moving the background or just use a still background and move the character; Design the maze;
Second week: Connect Arduino and Processing to make them work as we expected; Choose the sounds; Coding and editing sounds;
Third week: User test.
Context and Significance
In my previous research and analysis, I defined interaction as the activity between at least two actors who affect others in a cycle of receiving input, processing and giving output, and it arouses people’s emotional or mental reactions. From my point of view, game is one of the most interactive activities that fit the definition. The uniqueness of our project lies in its lack of immediate feedback and requirement on both physical and mental focus. Meanwhile, we add some features like monsters and the risk of losing to make it entertaining enough. This will be a game accessible to everyone to have an experience of a mix of quietness and excitement.