Assignment 2: Designing Low-fi Prototype

Design process for Flash prototype:

1) Need to design a challenging maze - do a search on the internet to look at some images of mazes
2) Search for suitable sound effects and background music

3) Program action script for Flash game

4) Main mechanics should be "working" in this low fidelity prototype. Main mechanics should be "working" so that it can be tested during the play testing phase. How can the respondents tell you what the problems are when they can't play the game.

Majority of the images of mazes that I came across were either too childish, too simple or too complicated. But I soon realised that there is a flaw in the maze's design. There isn't any way to complete this maze as it is only filled with lots of dead ends. So, I tweaked the design of the maze a little; creating not 1 but 2 paths that leads to the finish line.

Here are some fabulous website that have sample sound effects for me to preview and download.

www.flashkit.com

A set of 13 different sound effects were used in the game. I used sounds that ranged from the funny to the plain annoying. Whenever the player's cursor touches the walls of the maze, it would trigger a random sound from this set of 13.

As for the background music, I came across Steven Cravis's compositions on the internet and liked his music a lot. The duration of his compositions range from a minute to about 5 minutes so I do not need to shorten his music to fit the game prototype. Piano melodies by this composer from San Francisco are pleasant and is "built to inspire reflection and hope". So I decided to choose one of my favourites called "Through the Kaleidoscope" and use that as the background music for my prototype. Steven Cravis' recordings are mainly contemporary instrumental pieces which shift between solo piano pieces and multilayered electronic compositions.

Here is a link that allows you to preview or even download samples of his music.

With the help of Cameron Owens whose knowledge in action script is simply amazing, I managed to program the action script for the following functions:

- Red ball to follow the movement of the cursor (Must not trail the cursor. There shouldn't be a delay.

- Play random sound from the set of 13 sound effects whenever the cursor touches the walls and game restarts

The following action script as to be placed on a separate layer; not on the same layer as the images etc.