Simon Air
KID Group Career Portfolio
Try the gameplay, BEFORE even programming anything!
One of the best kept secrets in electronic game design is this:
You don't need to build a fully working and programmed electronic prototype to test the gameplay, Literally build something simple, that you can run the gameplay program from your LIVE thoughts!
Midway through mocking up the ring design, above. a fleeting notion came along:
Would aTOUCHLESS, motion sensing version of the classic Simon game be fun? What fun gameplay potential would that open up?
How do you test this idea quickly? You make a PUPPET!
See earlier puppet examples below, and a video of the final puppet below that.
Notice that one of them has a wire tether connected to it. On the end of the tether are a bunch of buttons that simply turn lights on and off by push button.
Whoever has a gameplay idea in their head, they control the buttons- and they literally use their voice for any sound effects while another person plays. The person puppeting the lights and sound effects also watches the person plays and reacts to their successes and fails accordingly!
Below is simply an audio sequence that is a single sound file that plays through while somebody has memorized the button-pressing choreography. So what you see here can literally be done and iterated without having programmed any electronics to demonstrate and test this much.
This simple but effective method is what gained approval for further development investment that much sooner and that much more efficiently, and raced its way to market where it was known as Simon Air!
