AdinkraRush

Inspiration

Whenever I play mobile games, I tend to gear towards science fiction games. However, I never found any Afrofuturism games to play free and felt this was the perfect opportunity to try my hands on this idea in lens form. Despite being a beginner.

What it does

The user taps falling Adinkra symbols to destroy them and gain points, against a ten second timer which ends the game once time is up. The game's design has a sci-fi feel to it, with its Solarpunk background and neon green symbols. It is simple to learn, visually striking, and designed to create an intense, replayable experience in just a few seconds.

How I built it

After laying down the plan of how the game would operate, I used a combination of Artificial Intelligence image generators, Photoshop and free images online to design the background as well as the Adinkra symbols placed in a hexagonal frame.

After changing the game's background, I began with the falling symbols. Using Lens Studio's Particle Effect, I replaced the particle image with my Adinkra symbols, edited the parameters to allow for over 500 hundred particles to fall from above the screen, adjusting the size, speed, rotation and lifetime till I was satisfied.

I then used the Gen AI connected to my Lens Studio version to add a script which created the illusion of the symbols destroying when you tap them, by causing the screen to reset slightly. After, I created a timer which counts down from 10 seconds at the beginning of the game.

I also used the GenAI to create a score asset which increases each time the screen resets as a result of a symbol being tapped. After editing the main script which contains the code for the tap effect, the score and timer, I tested it several times to ensure it would work on as many different types of phones as possible, using the several phone model options provided by Lens Studio, changing codes and asset sizes till the game worked the way I wanted it to.

Challenges I ran into

Initially the plan was to make a 3D game. After modelling the chosen Adinkra symbol which is called Aban; in Blender along with its hexagonal frame, I placed it in the lens only to discover the 3d asset had taken up over 7MB of the provided 8MB for every lens.

I tried decimating the asset in Blender in hopes of reducing its vertices and allowing for more space on my lens but that did not work either. I decided to change my route when I stumbled upon the Particle Effect asset, concluding that a 2d lens would be more feasible to make.

Even then I still had problems. Due to the Particle Effect's API which could not expose per-particle data or allow for true single-particle destruction, I had to figure out a way to achieve the effect I wanted while working around the asset's limitations. By making an invincible boundary at particular areas of the upper section of the screen, I was able to create the illusion of the symbols reacting to the user's tapping.

My final big struggle was definitely disappointing as I was not able to work around it. After installing the Leader board component, I used both the Lens Studio documentation as well as YouTube videos of highly skilled lens creators. Somehow my Leader board component still would not work the way it was supposed to, even though I had tried four different leaderboard components with different versions. Despite this set back, I want to continue with the submission of this lens which I have dedicated every day of the last two weeks to completing.

Accomplishments that I am proud of

I am proud of the problem-solving skills I exercised when I changed my course from making a 3D game to a 2D game. I was also able to encourage myself to continue in times when codes were acting up and my lens stopped working.

What I learned

I gained some Photoshop knowledge as a first-time user of the app, when making my images. I discovered new tools in Blender such as the Decimate tool, and I explored scripting in Lens studio for the first time, gaining some knowledge of how the Script Editor worked and how sensitive the lenses are to respond to slight changes in code.

What's next for AdinkraRush

I will continue working on more Adinkra symbol, related lenses, combining interactivity, culture and Afrofuturism in upcoming projects.

Built With

• blender
• javascript
• particleeffectapi
• photoshop