For our assignment, we decided to create attempt to create the BoFFiT – an innovative new game testing your reaction time that is entirely legally distinct from a Bop It!.
The device has four potential inputs – Push It!, where the large yellow button had to be pushed, Twist It!, where the wheel needs to be twisted, Blind It!, where the light sensor must be covered, and Roll It!, where the whole device must be rotated to the side.
The names of these inputs flash up on the screen accompanied by an accompanying sound effect, with a three second window to respond. If successful, the amount of time the player has to respond is decreased by five percent, and a new input appears. This repeats until the player eventually fails an input, either by using the wrong one, or by taking too long. Upon failure, the player’s score was displayed on the screen, along with either a booing or a cheering sound effect playing, depending on whether or not the player scored above 30.
During development of the BoFFiT, we ran into several problems regarding the code, as well as a couple of slightly more mundane problems. Initially, the button would fail to register, though this was due to it not being plugged into the brick. The light sensor’s detection proved finicky, and the roll input initially required far more rotation than it does now, and seemed clunky while being played.
In addition to building and coding the BoFFiT, we also 3D printed a button for the button input to make pressing the button quickly while under pressure easier.
Despite a couple of rough patches during development, the eventual result was entirely functional, and received positive responses from both our classmates who tested it and another class that tried out our games.
If we were to attempt the construction of a BoFFiT again, we would likely tweak the difficulty a little – the average score was around four, and the highest anyone ever scored was 29 – but outside of that we are happy with out result.
