The Hitchhiker's Guide to Cassette Sorting in Space

• 

  Start Screen

• 

  Gameplay

• 

  Win Screen

• 

  Lose Screen

Inspiration

I was inspired by Sudoku, where you need to organize the numbers in special spots in order to solve the puzzle. I also loved the sounds of cassette tapes going in and out so I ended up with a game where you insert cassette tapes into slots in order to solve puzzles.

What it does

So there is a tray bouncing around the screen with 20 cassette slots. You need to place the numbered cassettes in the right place, based on the sum chart in the top left. Here is a successful solve in just under two minutes. https://youtu.be/uDBWoudZH5Y

How we built it

I used the Love2D game engine with Lua and minimal libraries. We used Audacity to make the background music and the sound effects came mostly from SoundSnap. I also used a technique called sprite stacking that allowed me to simulate three dimensions.

Challenges we ran into

We had slight difficulties with time management and collaboration since not all of us were able to use the game framework. Luckily, we compromised and assigned roles other than coding, such as bug hunting, creating music, and brainstorming ideas for the game.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The cassettes came out great! We did not expect it to have such a convincing 3D effect, since it's still two dimensions. We're also proud of being able to use only one library. All other code was written over just two days.

What we learned

Time management is crucial for a hackathon, as well as having an idea of people's roles in the project so everyone works efficiently. Taking breaks is also important to keep up productivity!

What's next for The Hitchhiker's Guide to Cassette Sorting in Space

Definitely more bug fixes. There are probably a few more lurking around. We also considered increasing the speed of the cassettes so they aren't lost off-screen for too long and including the sums on the tray itself so you don't have to glance back and forth as much. Perhaps we could also add more objects floating in space, such as a timer to tell you how long it's been, a cassette player to play snippets of audio, and more.

Built With

• love2d
• lua