I've asked a few questions here about fonts and sound effects over the past few months, so I thought I'd share what that was all about.
About two years ago I decided to teach myself how to use Unity, and I thought a game show project would be a great introduction. Inspired by Mike Burger's Game Show Round (
http://www.mikeburger.com/gsr.html), I decided to create something similar. That project is Game Showdown.
The game is for two teams of 3 players each and lasts 60 minutes (it can be configured to any length). Players spin the Press Your Luck board to earn bonus points, lose points from a Whammy, or determine the next game to play. After playing the selected game, the winning team gets a shot at the bonus round for extra points, and then it's back to the Press Your Luck board.
Besides the Press Your Luck board, I currently have 8 main games and 8 bonus games implemented:
- Blockbusters and the Blockbusters Gold Run
- Chain Reaction (Cullen) and its original bonus round
- Faster (an adaptation of the UK's Wogan's Perfect Recall) and a bonus round based on same
- Only Connect (sets and sequences) with the Connecting Wall as the bonus round
- Password and Alphabetics from Password Plus as the bonus
- $100,000 Pyramid (Clark) and the Winner's Circle
- Split Second (Kennedy) countdown round as main game and Match Game Super Match as bonus
- Wheel of Fortune speed round, and bonus round
The game runs on Windows, requiring two 1920x1080 displays (the laptop screen has the host controls, while the second display shows the game board). I have it set up so that players can use their smartphones to connect to the game via WiFi and receive private info (for Password and Pyramid) on their devices, or I can show that info on the big screen. I also wrote a lockout buzzer system using their phones, but that isn't working as reliably yet. For a backup, I use a wireless Eggspert buzzer system, which unfortunately isn't integrated directly into the software so it doesn't trigger any of the audio/visual effects automatically like the phone-based system does.
I've written enough content for at least 6 plays of each game (more for some games, but damn, good Only Connect content is hard!), and the game tracks used content on a per-audience basis (so I can run it with group A, another night with group B, and another night with group A again and group A will not repeat their content but could get content used in group B's session).
Game selection is random, so it's possible to get the same game more than once in a session. The host can override, however, and choose whatever game he wants. I chose to focus on gameplay, not on recreating every detail of the telecast or set. Each game has only one screen view-- there are no camera movements, no podiums, no title screens. After making a custom split-flap display for Password, I decided to make my life easier by using the same eggcrate display for all other games (though I matched the font for Split Second).
Screenshots!
Just had my first beta test, and I'm looking forward to the first "live" game next month.
- Peter
