Arcade Game Fabrication Project
Overview
Multiplayer Alternative Control Arcade Game
Built with Unity Game Engine, 2Pac Controls, and other Fabrication Assets
My Role
As the Project Manager for my team’s Alt Ctrl Arcade Game, I scheduled and led all team meetings, utilized Google Drive to create Power Points, Budget Documents, and Outlines of our project goals and deadlines, and I worked on the Fabrication and Audio Team to produce our final project: Smack Dat Rat.
Fabrication & Audio
The players in our game, Smack Dat Rat, play in competition with one another as rival cat exterminators. The controllers are built specifically so players feel like cats, complete with cat scratching post joysticks for world navigation and furry rat buttons for smacking and collecting the rats. This physical experience is designed so players can fully immerse themselves into the world of New York Kitty by mimicking the cat experience with tactile alt controls. For the audio, I wanted to use cat meows, rat squeak, and paw smack sounds to create more interactive and immersive gameplay.
Concept & Preproduction
As illustrated below, the beginning iterations of our project involved sketching and designing our controllers. We did not have the rat buttons in mind yet, but we knew fabrication would involve a cat scratcher joystick. Making many different sketches of alt ctrls and working with the team was very important to finally deciding upon the cat-scratcher joystick and rat damage buttons.
Deliverables
Deliverable 1: For Deliverable 1, our team knew that our arcade game would involve a core loop of ‘Search, Find, and Smack’ for collecting rats. We also decided that our controls and player interaction would involve a 2 player versus game with a joystick for world navigation. We decided that cat paws would be used to smack the damage buttons and we would have a split screen for competition between characters. We also decided to have a rat-tracking radar map to enhance competition between characters. I began fabrication of the rat ‘damage’ buttons out of cookie tins we found at a creative reuse shop, and I used a hammer to cut through 4 tins and insert buttons (we used 6 buttons in total; 3 for each rat button).
Deliverable 2: I fabricated the outside of our tins using double stick tape, a needle, and thread. I also drilled a small hole in the back of each tin button so the wiring could connect to the IPAC2 while being concealed from the player. This enabled a more aesthetic and clean gameplay experience.
Final Project:
I sewed rat faces and tails to each button to give a more rat-like look. Additionally,
