MidShuttle
Mindshuttle is a single-player strategy game where you play as the alien species "Passalien". Passaliens are a species with limited energy that share one braincell in their hivemind. Today, you hold power over the brain cells! Help everyone get to the right station by controlling their every move.
Game Genre
Alternative Controller
Platform
Physical Controller
Tool Used
Makey Makey, Unity, C#, Plastic Vacuum, Laser Cut, 3D Print, Bandsaw, Sander, DIY Tool Kit
Roles
Game Design
Documentation
Controller Design and Setup
Duration
3 Weeks
2023 Fall
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Team Size
2 People
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Design Process
Initial Phase
Project Theme
The theme of our final project is the $20 Challenge, which required us to find a key item that is an inexpensive item with potential for controller interaction.
Item Selection
After hours of exploring the dollar store, we finally decided to choose the flour sifter and designed it based on its following features:
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Operable Handle
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Hollow Bottom
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Makes satisfying sound effects
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Potential to be used in different scenarios
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Potential to be combined with other elements
Design and Thoughts
Controller
Instead of using the flour sifter's original function, we broke out its "control principles" and drafted some ideas like Blow Balloons, Loom, and Bicycle Bell, but finally ended up with the Bus Stop Request to design game controllers:
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Flour Sifter → Hold on tight
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Button → Request Stop
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Scanner → Pay Bus fee
Gameplay
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Observe the different characters’ stop needs (station & gate)
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Press the button to let the character off at the correct stop
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Scan the bus pass to pay the fee/board bus
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Hold on tight when the bus is zooming or risk falling out of it
Contribution
Controller Design and Setup
Besides the teamwork brainstorming, game design, and documentation work in the initial phase, my most highlighted contribution to this project was designing and crafting the game controller.
Based on my extensive bus-riding experience, I recalled and refined the most critical bus components and simplified them to design the MidShuttle controller. Then, I used the manufacturing mechanics inthe ArtCenter model shop to build the simplified controller to connect with MakeyMakey.
