Project title: Two-player drumming rhythm game

Project Statement of Purpose:

When we were thinking about this project, we considered that college students are generally under high stress, so we wanted to design a game that could relieve people’s stress in a fun way. So we came up with the idea of a rhythm game, but we felt that a one-player game was too basic, and we wanted to have two players collaborate on this game, so we wanted to design a rhythm game that two players would work together to play. We think that with this kind of teamwork players can feel more fun and engaged.

Project Proposal Plan:

Generally, what we want to do is a rhythm game for two players. The main format we use is to display different color blocks on the screen according to a certain clip of music, and players will have different color drums in front of them, which color appears on the screen players need to hit the corresponding color drum. We also chose the drums because we felt that the drums would allow more physical interaction with the players, and the players moved their upper limbs instead of just their fingers. To make this more cooperative for two players, we decide to add some mixed colors, for example, if green appears on the screen, the players need to hit the yellow and red drums at the same time. We will also have three modes for players to choose from, easy medium and hard. These are the ways Sid and I came up with to make the game more engaging and more enjoyable for players, and also how to let them collaborate more.

We will also ask our friends and other classmates during the whole design process how we think we can improve the game to make it more interesting and more interactive for the two players.

Nov. 24th – Nov. 31st Building the programming part: finding similar code in open processing and making changes to it； Selecting a sensor: what sensor to connect to the drum to better deliver information accurately and without delay to the Arduino; we need to experiment and select.

December 1st – December 4th  Complete the programming design part, drum-making part (using laser cut), and wiring construction part. Basically, complete the project.

December 5th Check the whole project for problems and make minor changes

Context and Significance:

In my previous research, I came across a project called “UW-Makeathon: Laser Drums”, a project that uses laser cut technology to make drums, but its main theme is audio-visual integration, so it composes drums and fast LEDs. I got the inspiration from this project that I could use laser cutting to make drums and design a game with rhythm and music.

I think my vision of this project is quite in line with the definition of interaction, in my view it’s a fully interactive game. The color blocks on the screen mobilize the user to beat the corresponding drum, and the player’s response translates into a score on the screen that determines whether they can move to the next level of the game. The user is highly motivated and engaged, and it is not a one-sided input and output from either the project or the player.

Our game is unique in that it is not a single-player ordinary rhythm game, which already existed. It is a rhythm game where two players need to cooperate fully; two players control three drums and they need to decide for themselves how to distribute the tasks so that their motivation will be very actively mobilized.

I think the value of our project is that it is very simple; it is very easy to get started, and it brings remarkable results, that is, two players will definitely have a lot of communication when playing this game, will definitely cooperate, and will definitely be very natural and relaxed work in a team. This allows people to increase their communication with others in the game and also achieve the purpose of decompression and relaxation.