week3 The concept detail

Game Mashup 

Twister + Pacman

The main feature of Twister is player against each other by contend for different colored circles， and the main feature of Pacman is player try to eat all Pac-dots and avoid enemies at same time. So I was thinking how to make a new game by using these features, also keep the interestingness.

When people play Pacman, they only need to control four keys on the keyboard and against enemies which controlled by computer. So how about make player against player, they don’t need to play Pacman alone, they can interact with other people by using the feature which Twister provided, rather than only interact with computer.

Then one idea came up, which is make twister become the controller for the game Pacman, and Pacman become the spinner to determine where the player has to push. I decided using finger twister to make the control easier for players. The first version is that divided Pacman map into 8X8 grid, then using eight different button, four of them control horizontal axis and other four button control vertical axis, the combination of buttons can move the Pacman go to the specific location. 

But I realize why not just keep the original Pacman game to make the player easier to understand the game controls, so I got another version of design, which is the game provide instructions about which combination controlling four keys, so user don’t have to think about the axis. 

For the gameplay, two player using fingers to push buttons (like finger twister),each player can only use one hand to touch the control board, just like when you play finger twister. The control board has 8 different buttons,the player follow the instructions( the combination of buttons) to push the button and decide where the Pacman should go (up ,down, left, right) by their own decisions, two players control two Pacman, and Pacman eat Pac-dot to get score, the highest score player win. But it doesn't mean this game is simple, the combination of control button will become more difficult, the longer you play, the more fingers required.

For the Technical part, I plan to use Makey Makey to make the mini Twister control board, because it can connect everyday objects to computer programs, so I can create some new physical interaction for the game. I’m going to use Unity to create the game interface and game content include Pacman game and the instruction. In my opinion, the hardest part of prototyping is how to makes people control the game by push the combination of buttons, I intend to do more research about this part over the next few weeks.