i++ Project Proposal

Game summary

i++ is an open-source, interactive, single-player game that challenges visual pattern recognition and mental counting ability. Players are challenged to recognize a specific object of a set shape and color in a continuous stream of objects with varying shape and color within a set amount of time. Basic features of gameplay such as shapes, colors, format of shape presentation and time of game remain flexible and can automatically change based on analysis of groups of players’ performance and location. The game displays these statistics to players and maintains an open rapport with players to gather feature requests and feedback in general. Eventually, there may be a player and developer community that maintains, develops and releases future versions of the game.

Game Walkthrough

Start Screen

• Player is allowed to select difficulty. A harder difficulty setting increases the rate at which shapes appear on the screen. An easier difficulty setting decreases the rate at which shapes appear on the screen.


• After difficulty has been set, Player moves on to the Launch Screen.

Launch Screen

• Player is presented with an object with a specific shape and color that they must count throughout the game. This colored shape will be referred to as the Token Object.

• Example: tokenObject = yellow circle

• Once the Player is ready to start, they move on to the Game Screen.

Game Screen

• Random shapes from a shapeSet of random colors from a colorSet flash before the Player at a rate according to the difficulty set on the Start Screen for a set amount of time. The presentation (presentationMode) of the shapes does not always have to be the same. Music will be playing.

• Example:

• shapeSet {square, circle, triangle, rhombus}
• colorSet {blue, green, red, black, yellow}
• gameLength = 30 seconds
• presentationMode = single shape
• music = second 15 to second 45 of “I Might Be Wrong” by, Radiohead (subject to copyright/licensing, of course)

• Once the time is up, the Player is taken to the Count Submit Screen.

Count Submit Screen

• The Player will be asked to input how many Token Objects they counted

• Once the Player enters this information, they move on to the Game Over Screen.

Game Over Screen

• The Player is presented with how many actual Token Objects occurred on the Game Screen
• The Player is presented with options to play another game, view i++ Statistics, leave Comments, or Participate in the development of i++.

i++ Statistics

• Between the Count Submit Screen and the Game Over Screen, i++ saves the Player’s IP Address, all gameplay features and the Player’s Token Object count.

• Example Statistics:

• Top five miscounted Token Objects sorted into difficulty groups.
• Top five correctly-counted Token Objects sorted into difficulty groups.
• Top five miscounted Token Objects by region sorted into difficulty groups.
• Top five correctly-counted Token Objects by region sorted into difficulty groups.
• Average difficulty selected.
• An array of all Token Objects and their correctly-counted/miscounted ratio.

Comments

• a message board about i++ Player experiences.

Participate

• a venue to collect i++ feature requests and gather developers to collaborate on i++ feature requests and overall development.
• i++ community members will have access to a subversion repository.

Technical Summary

• i++ will be written in Ruby using the Ruby on Rails framework.
• A graphics engine/library for i++ has not been determined – any recommendations (feel free to comment)?
• i++ code will be maintained in a subversion repository with anonymous checkout permissions.

• commit privileges will be determined as interest in the i++ development community increases.