Archive | October 2020

Barbaric Hunt! (A maze, by yours truly.)

For the last class periods of my CSAI class, two of which I spent pondering on what the topic should be, I have made a maze game for people to enjoy! The name? Read the title.

Barbaric Hunt was based off of the once string of musicals performed at my school known as Madrigal Fest, Mad Quest, or “That one play we like and absolutely dread for at the same time.” Regardless, this year, a new character had been added, which had been the role I recieved; Burg the Barbarian. (And yes, I did have an epic battle ax.)

Originally when making the concept of the maze game I didn’t know what to do, but in the backstory of my character, there were dinosaurs on set, and as a joke I had decided to adopt them all and address them as my children, and so, since the maze game had to be school inspired, I decided why not have it so Burg’s children were lost, and now she had to find them scattered throughout this maze!

So, in this maze, you will experience the thrilling experience of going through a 50×50 maze whilst trying to five your five kids, and even a secret… if you dare. In order to complete the game, it is required that you find all 5 dino kids first, and even if you find the exit, go back, and find those kids of yours… What kind of mother are you abandoning your kids like that?!

Looking back as I write this, I think there were two huge potholes in the road to figuring out my game. Maybe three. Which include brainstorming the theme, general coding, and oh lord how do I stay on task with making a maze. I think it’s funny though, as I write this, I remember how when making the maze I had no idea how to do half of what I wanted, and although the coding I used is still rather simple, in my eyes I think it’s pretty amazing. When I first began the challenge of imagining a maze based off of school, I was actually clueless. I had a few ideas, but none of them really clicked with me. I knew I wanted it to be drama related, or music themed, like my classes, but none of the ideas stuck until I remembered the fun I had in that musical, yelling all my lines in a gruff angry aunt named Cindy voice. From there on out, it all went well.

I regret saying that well part, it did and didn’t. I make that sound so bad, but it wasn’t. Honestly, I couldn’t have got this done so well without the help of my expert coding teacher Mr. Dembo. Of course since he’s my teacher he’s gonna help, but seriously, that dude is a wizard. He just kinda understands everything, and it’s like “woah, thanks man, that was a total big brain move!”In the early stages of when this project was introduced, he actually made sure I was staying focused and thinking, and when it came to coding, he understood that I didn’t want it to be too complex, or something too snazzy, (although I did get carried away with designing the darn maze…), but he made sure that I was happy with what I was making.

Thanks man, you were an awesome help.

I think to end this post off though, all in all, this was actually the best unit I’ve ever had in my CSAI class, and although this maybe isn’t my best awarding project of the year, and maybe it’s not as nearly good as some of the other games my peers made, I don’t care! I put effort into this, and y’know what, after making five dinosaur kids and adding dialogue to Burg when she finds each of them and mostly her just being sassy to them , it really does make me happy. I enjoyed making this game, and to those who play it, I hope you like it too.

If you really must know, by the way, and you’re seeing this post after encountering each dino”son” then each character does have a story with their name. Sort of.

“Cooler Daniel” is based off of a meme, “Seymour” is based off of my friend Emma’s autistic cat (of which the cat is a dumb sweetheart), “Dunkin” was based off my own cat who is a total clod, “Beans” was based off of my aunts cat who is also a dumb sweetheart, and finally, “Sita” named after my advisors pet snake but I don’t think I spelt it right. The name was also just a weird class inside joke last year or two years ago.

Hope you’ll find my game as enjoyable as I found it myself!

Did you find the secret ?