Dancing Digits
For this project, me and my partner wanted to create a fun game that was both entertaining and accessible. We thought it would be fun to create a mini version of Dance Dance Revolution because who doesn’t love DDR. Of course it wouldn’t be an exact replica, we plan to make it our own game that is just as fun as the inspiration. The game would strive to appeal to a nostalgic side to players who love arcades and video games in general to provide a fun portable game that can be played with friends. The life of a student is stressful so injecting a little bit of fun in a new way we hope will give the users a memorable experience.
Fabricating the physical components for this project will probably revolved around creating a “stage” that has a set of buttons that the player would press depending on the prompts displayed on the computer screen. The buttons would be made of a relatively transparent material so lights could shine through and correspond to colors displayed on the screen. This “stage” would also house the wires, Arduino, and breadboard so it looks as compact as possible. The screen would be used to display different colors set to a song and depending on how accurate the player presses the buttons, how much would be added to their score would be effected. The coding for this project I think will prove to be very difficult, but I believe me and my partner will be able to use everything we’ve learned to fullest extent to create this project. Since we focused more on the physical fabrication during the midterm project, i think getting more practice with coding will be very beneficial.
My preparatory research essay helped me narrow down what I wanted to create for this project. After discussing other ideas in the game area with my partner, she had a light bulb moment and we decided to settle on this idea. This project aligns with my definition of interaction because the user is able to input a form of data and the computer uses that information in several ways before returning a result that prompts the user to continue doing something or change. Since we are basing our project off DDR, I think this version will strive to take the huge console that DDR has and make it more accessible for daily use. I think this project will also bring a smile to the user face even if it’s not exactly the same as the original, the emotional attachment to classic video games is an important part of this project me and my partner wish to capture as well. There have been handheld games for years, I think bringing a new way of interacting with controllers is the next step in handheld games and this project will delve into that area.