Sonic Seek
Move the mouse to find the invisible target and click it to score. The target moves across the game screen, so use your ears to hunt it down. The musical notes get lower in pitch as you get closer to the target. If you cannot get the notes to go any lower, you have found your target.
Score 1 to 4 points depending on how close you get to the precise target. You win 4 points if you get it exactly right.
You lose 10 seconds of time if you miss by too much.
Each time you score adds to your timer, depending on how much you scored. Game over when time runs out.
Click the green flag button at the upper right corner to start a new game. Click the red stop-sign button to end the game. |
Sonic Seek is searching game in which the player uses sound to find the location of an unseen target and click it with the mouse.
I was the sole developer on this game. I designed the game, scripted all its features, and integrated the audio.
My Work On This Game:
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Specified game objectives
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Designed and scripted all game features in Scratch scripting system, including target behavior, player rewards, and penalties
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Designed searching gameplay to be based on sound rather than visuals
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Designed changing music pitch intervals affected by player's mouse distance from target, letting players create their own meandering musical journey through their search
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Designed target to drift around the screen, constantly changing distance from the player's mouse so that the music produced is an evolving description of this spatial relationship
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Designed music tempo to increase as the player runs out of time as both warning and to create feeling of urgency
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Wrote in-game text
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Selected and integrated audio
Sonic Seek is a game I designed and scripted in Scratch. This was a response to a challenge in the Scratch developers community to make a game without relying on sprites. Although the game does use images for counters and backgrounds, they are not sprites in the sense of how Scratch defines them.
This game is similar to using a metal detector, only with pitch changes rather than tempo. I wanted the pitch changes to occur at intervals that would be interesting to hear, and allow players and the moving target to create music together during the hunt.
I am pleased that many players thought I created a very innovative game. Unfortunately, the gameplay proved to be too challenging for most users. Most players reported having difficulty recognizing when the sounds are rising or lowering in pitch, and I was unable to come up with a way to decrease the difficulty further without changing the entire concept of the game.
From this experience, I do not believe this type of game has much of a future in the market. Nevertheless, it was a very rewarding experiment. |
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