The Final Product

My final product is The Nutcracker Music Box, a 2D platform game in which you are a tutu-wearing bunny in a Nutcracker Suite music box! Your goal is to collect every note and land on every music-making platform without fall through the gaps, jumping off-time and touching bombs. As each music-making item is touched, a note from the Waltz of the Flowers (Nutcracker Theme) will play. As the bunny progresses through th music box, it moves through all four scenes in The Nutcracker Suite and all of the platforms and notes are themed to the scene. There's a reindeer sleigh at the end too!

The Experience

The Nutcracker Music Box aims to delight the user with completely detailed scenes from the ballet that look fun and cohesive even without knowledge of the ballet. The music generated in this game also aims to be delightful by closely replicating the sounds from a music box. In terms of gameplay, this game is an real test of timing and attention, since platforms, gaps, notes and bombs are constantly passing by.

The Interface

See slideshow at the top for screenshots!

* Press the Start! button to begin

** Key Controls: **

• Up Arrow Key: Jump
• Down Arrow Key: Duck

* Maneuver through the four scenes to play the theme from The Nutcracker Suite

* Jump into the reindeers' sleigh to successfully finish the song!

The Software Architecture

Some key components:

• Platform and note generation via C# scripts
• Custom data structures utilized for easier note and platform "composition" throughout the scenes
• The main camera, curtains, and a particle system (the bunny's sparkly trail) follow the bunny, which constantly moves forward
• All scene decoration was placed by hand
• The bunny animation, some scene decorations and nearly all of the scene-themed platforms and notes were drawn or digitally manipulated by me

The "Goodness" Measure

I decided this game was "good" when the aesthetics and gameplay came together. More specifically, I thought that the aesthetics were nice enough to show when a screenshot from any point in the game looked like a beautiful scene in which all of the elements made sense together. My measure for gameplay being "good" was when successfully hitting the notes and music-making platforms was satisfying (visually and auditorily), and when missing these items was frustrating.