UMLish

I made a umlish class diagram.  Blue is classes, yellow is inherited classes, red is file formats, purple is fields, and green is methods.  Higher classes contain lower classes.

Standard UML would probably be a good thing to learn, so next time I will definitely go that route.

Design Document

Here is a bare bones design document.

Design Document in Brief – Trombone Hero

Game States

Input/GUI

Input will be designed around the custom trombone controller built for the project. The trombone allows the slide to be in one of 5 positions, and a single independent button. The slide and button are used in conjunction to choose menu items, which are displayed in a single list. Position 1+ Button means accept, position 2 + button = up, position 3+ button = down.

Profile

The game will keep track of player profiles. Profiles have the following information: Name, date created, time played, highest accuracy, avg accuracy, highest score, avg score, favorite song, songs completed out of total songs.

Game

There are 10 songs with two difficulties each. Each song is given a difficulty ranging from 1 to 5 stars. Each song keeps track of if it has been completed, top score, and top accuracy, and the name of that person. Scoring is a system of a number times a multiplier. Each blob is worth 2, the multiplier starts 1. Every ten consecutive notes, the multiplier increases by one with a ceiling of 5. Missing a note brings the multiplier down to 1. The bonus strips are an automatic 10 multiplier for any correct note. Missing in the bonus strip will bring the multiplier down to 1 after the strip is finished.

After the song is finished, there is a results page, and that takes you back to the select song page.

Sound

The music will be comprised of the original track overlayed by a trombone arrangement. The arrangement will play until a note is missed, then mute, then resume when the first note is correctly placed.

Overall Feel/Attitude

The game should be lighthearted, bright, and cartoony. GUI graphics, game graphics, and various sound effects should reflect this.

Scrum board

I created a scrum board on scrumy.com to organize my ideas.  I'm still searching for the design document I wrote, which was rather all emcompassing, but for some reason I can't find it anywhere.  I will write up a smaller one and use it in conjunction with the scrum board.

Link is scrumy.com/bsauer

First Post

This is my first post about my trombone video game I am making for senior project.  The goal is to make a game similar to Guitar Hero, but instead of a guitar controller, there is a trombone controller.  The trombone has 5 positions that the player moves to match notes. 

This summer, I started working on the controller.  I took apart a run of the mill pc game controller to use the chip for the controller.  Basically, rather than having buttons, I drilled holes in the contacts and soldered wires to them.  The wires run down the slide of the trombone and complete the circuits depending on how far or near the slide is.

 This steel series 1gc controller from Gamestop cost 9 dollars, and is where I got my chip.

 After taking apart the controller, the chip inside looks like this.  I was pleasantly surprised on how small it was.

 Doing preliminary tests connecting the leads with speaker wire.  After this, I decided speaker wire was a good choice because of cost and conductivity.

 Working with limited space in my room.

 The first wires go on.  My camera apparently can't focus that small, but these first joints were probably my best.  I've been struggling with the soldering part.

 This is the drill I used to drill the holes in the board.  It dates from around the 1940's and was one of the first electric drills ever made.  I had to use it because my drill did not hold the special micro drillbits I had to get.  The thing is stinky and it blew a breaker in my room.

 This is the trombone that the controller is made of.  Here I was scoping out where the 5 positions would be.

 More wires going on.  I purchased some helping hands which really facilitated the soldering once I had all the wires protruding from the bottom.  There are a total of 12 wires, 2 for each position and one for a single button, which will mimic the "strum" button on the Guitar Hero games.

 An attempted close up.

 Originally I wanted the chip on the physical trombone, with the wires running down the slide and having the slide be the part that completed the circuit.  The problem was the wires would not fit between the slide and the trombone, because it is a really tight fit.  So, I attached the board to the slide and drilled holes in the pvc.  Now, when the slide is in, all 5 buttons should report as on.  Rather than checking which circuits are connected, I now check which ones are NOT connected.

 The masking tape is temporary; I will hot glue it when I'm sure everything is working.

Well thats about it for what I did over the summer.  The thing seems conceptually feasible after some preliminary tests.  I do need to resolder some of the points, and I will probably seek help from someone more experienced.

Next post I'll post my design document.  It seems to have gone missing on me.