Final Project: Design Your Own Interactive Audiovisual Software Tool

Final Deliverables: The 人 Civilization

Discover a lost civilization, explore the Hidden Ruins, and find lost treasure!

Professor Wang is on the brink of the archaeological breakthrough of a lifetime - discovering the mysterious 人 Civilization, which is rumored to have the key to eternal life. His plans are foiled when the Chickencer King, an unscrupulous rival archaeologist, forces his way onto the scene with the help of his armed Chickencer Guards. Will you be able to stop the Chickencer King before he takes the treasures of the 人 Civilization for himself?

Video link: https://youtu.be/SuJCXQp7T9E

Description

The player plays the role of a Heroic Archaeologist following Professor Wang, who is on the brink of discovering the mysterious 人 Civilization.

The player must use their knowledge of the principles and concepts discussed in the Artful Design textbook to navigate through various challenges and outsmart the Chickencer King and his armed guards, who are trying to steal the treasures of the 人 Civilization for themselves.

Along the way, the player must also pay attention to how the attributes of the background music change, which is also graphically reflected in the moving clouds. This is a clue that can help them in their quest to beat the chickens to the treasures.

The game ends in success when the player saves the treasures of the 人 Civilization in time. The game ends in failure when the player runs out of time and the Chickencer King succeeds in stealing the treasures.

How to run/use

1. Open the application.
2. There are 3 buttons on the Menu screen. Click Play to enter the game, About to view a synopsis of the game, and Quit to quit the application.
3. In the game:
   • Use mouse clicks to progress through dialog.
   • Press the A/D or Left/Right keys to control the player’s movement.
   • Press the Space key to interact with objects (i.e., treasure chests). Interactable objects are indicated with a yellow warning sign.
   • For each puzzle, click the blue Answer Buttons to select from a set of choices, and click the pink Submit Button to submit your answer.
   • Pay attention to how the attributes of the background music change as you toggle each treasure chest on and off. These changes are also graphically reflected in the the moving clouds.
   • Each incorrect submission lowers the remaining time by 30 seconds.
   • Your goal is to complete the quest and discover the hidden treasures within 10 minutes. The remaining time is shown at the upper-right corner of the screen.
4. Upon completing the game, you will be taken back to the Menu screen.

Project files

GitHub link: https://github.com/katchen1/The-Civilization

Executable

Build link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iHtptKQwaVeQeBPMeQn0GW9ZWxHkqmGm/view?usp=sharing

Please run on the MacOS platform. To open the application:

1. Download the build file and save it to a local folder.
2. Right click on the file → click “Open”.
3. If you run into the “application cannot be opened” error, set the executable flag by running chmod -R +x <app name>.app/Contents/MacOS in the terminal, then try opening the file again.

Acknowledgements

• Thank you to the CS476A Fall 2022 teaching team and classmates for feedback on my milestones for this project.
• Assets used:
  • Dialog system: https://github.com/DoublSB/UnityDialogAsset
  • Platformer 2D art: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/gui/d-dialogue-system-167312
  • UI pack: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/gui/icons/sleek-essential-ui-pack-170650

Milestone 3

I created the minimal essential system, an unpolished version of the essential experience (i.e., all core elements working and working together).

Video link: https://youtu.be/A2rGIj7G7Nw

Specifically, I added a menu screen with four buttons: Play, About, Settings, Quit. For each puzzle, added a back button so the player can choose to come back to it later.

For the final deliverables, I will just need to polish the game. I need to flesh out the different puzzles and make them vary in difficulty and format (multiple choice, drag-and-drop, etc.), implement a more aesthetic and flexible UI, including a home screen, build out the music composition, and improve the narrative.

Milestone 2

I chose to move forward with my third idea (Gescape) from the previous milestone and implemented a working version of my core mechanics including basic elements of audio, graphics, and interaction.

Video link: https://youtu.be/XU8i2rOARYg

Screenshots

Core Mechanics Implemented

• Setting up the environment (top-down platform) and character movement.
  • The player is able to push objects around. When they get close enough to the object (indicated by a red question mark), they can press Space to interact with it, opening up a puzzle.
• Creating 3 simple puzzles. For each puzzle:
  • The player is prompted with a concept/principle from Artful Design.
  • They click buttons to cycle through a list of choices (with sound effects) until they reach the final answer and activate the associated sound.
  • The sounds will build up to form a musical composition.
• Creating a narrative for the game.
  • For now, I made it so that once the player solves all puzzles, they unlock the center chest and discover a special stone. They need to go pick up the stone, then bring it to the altar up north to summon Ge, who will present a final congratulatory message for beating the game.

Next Steps

• Flesh out the different puzzles and make them vary in difficulty and format (multiple choice, drag-and-drop, etc.).
• Implement a more aesthetic and flexible UI, including a home screen, pause/play button, a back button for each puzzle, and a timer.
• Build out the music composition.
• Improve the narrative. Make the story more complete/interesting. Make it more game-like. Make sure the player always understands what they’re doing and why they’re doing it.

Milestone 1

Three ideas, sketched out, ready to present

• maximally different from each other
• try to articulate as much specificity as possible!
• ideas sketched out e.g., on paper
• a short paragraph explaining each idea

Project specs: https://ccrma.stanford.edu/wiki/256a-fall-2022/final

Idea 1: The Music Box Store

For this idea, I aim to combine audio visualization (project 1) and sequencing (project 2). The player will be able to walk around (W/A/S/D) in a music box store with a first-person camera view, encountering different music boxes. They can click a music box to zoom into it, edit its music sequence by moving its drum pins around, selecting the instrument that the music box plays (keyboard, strings, flute, etc.), and adjusting the tempo with the box’s hand-crank. Each music sequence will be visualized as waves (time-domain and spectrum history) around the box that produces it.

Idea 2: Nostalgia

This idea attempts to bring back some of my earliest memories. The player enters a room that resembles my childhood bedroom. They can walk around (W/A/S/D) with a first-person camera view, encountering different objects and completing different activities that I experienced as a child. Completion of each activity will activate certain animations sounds with the object as the audio source. For example, the player can:

• pick up a doll and put on its hat, and the doll will start singing a nursery song that my dad used to sing to me.
• pick up a crayon and draw Barney, activating the “I love you, you love me” tune upon completion.
• pick up a ball and attempt to shoot it into a basket, activating bouncing ball sounds.
• arrange planet models in order, activating the planets nursery rhyme.
• open the window shades, bringing the sun into view. This will play from the window the “You are my sunshine” song that my mom used to sing to me.

All the while, there will be peaceful music playing in the background. Once the user completes all activities, they can finally unlock/open the bedroom door and walk towards a parental voice calling them to go eat dinner.

Idea 3: Gescape

This is a musical escape room game where each puzzle is related to a chapter in the textbook Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime. The goal is to reiterate the ideas learned from the class, ranging from audio and visual design to game and social design. I have not really thought about the specifics of the puzzles, but it could probably be in the form of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, connect the dots, etc., that tests the player about the principles. Completion of a puzzle will activate certain animations and sounds (drum beats, woo/ahh noises, Chickencer sound, etc., that slowly build up a music composition), and lead to clues for the next puzzle. I think there is potential to make this a humorous experience.