Optimo

1) Buy as many microcontroller pieces that we can think of

Thought Process

Once we decided we wanted to try our hand at a physical game, we mapped out some general actions we’d like the player to perform. It had been about 1 month since I landed in Singapore, and a number of my weekends were spent hanging out in Sim Lim (an electronics gold mine), so once they opened up the next day, we’d head over and pick up some parts. From the jam site, it was an hour to and from Sim Lim, so we tried to keep our browsing to a minimum. Most components we picked up ranged from various types of buttons, switches, levers, and an LED screen. Just in case we had the time, we also picked up a few other eccentric components, including a heat pad and gyroscope. The last piece we bought at Sim Lim was a box to house all the components.

However, we didn’t have any cutting tools, so we instead asked the folks who ran the store we went if they’d be willing to cut out holes in the box. Seeing as we just bought the components and didn’t have a lot of time to plan, we had to make some guesses as to what pieces would end up where, and mark some extra holes, should there be any other external components we could fit. In the meantime while they cut the box, we journeyed to other department stores near Sim Lim to find some adhesive. We settled on a putty-like substance henceforth referred to as “blue gum”.

When we got back to the jam site much later in the day, we spent the remainder of the night wiring as many components as we could to the Arduino and retrofitting them on or in the box. We took a small reprieve and spent the rest of the jam trying to use as many of the components as we could, following the documentation on the Arduino site.

Results

We were able to reach our goal of using 70% of our materials, save for the more eccentric pieces due to time constraints. Our guesses for the cuts allowed our components to, for the most part, slot into the box without too much hassle. There was enough wiggle room inside to place all the components, however, the wiring was an absolute nightmare. We had to redo multiple connections several times, since the copper wasn’t reaching each other. Said blue gum was able to cover up most of our wiring mistakes so none would accidentally collide with a piece that it shouldn’t, as well as filled any holes for unused components.

2) Create an instruction manual & Show movement on the LED screen

Thought Process

Because of how abstract our puzzle game was, we knew we had to have very thorough directions to actually have the game be playable. To both keep with the theming of “fixing a robot’s brain”, as well as generally document what the steps were, we made a manual to show each and every step, detailing what is expected to happen. The next part was showing movement on the actual puzzle box. After completing a certain task, the LED screen would activate, and would show more movement for the players to be engaged, eventually showing a fireworks animation upon completion.

Results

The manual provided a flair to an already unique game entry. When the players reached the LED screen animations, their faces lit up and felt that real progress was being made to fix this “robot’s brain”.