Where's Whiskers?

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  Whiskers

Inspiration

My cat kept darting out of the house! We were stressed trying to get him to come back inside. We were worried that he'd get hit by a car, and once he even did, but he was ok. We finally made the back yard escape-proof and let him out there. But we know how important it is to keep our cat safe, and how much we looked for him.

Adventure games are fun, especially with different results every time. So, that was the inspiration for creating this game to find Whiskers, the cat.

What it does

Alexa gives you options to look in different places, and then tells you what is there. You can keep looking until you find Whiskers. The game offers variety and surprises along the way. There's always a happy ending if you look enough!

How I built it

I used Storyline, a new no-coding app that integrates with Coggle mindmap, to create the flow and options. With some help from the awesome developers of Storyline, Vasilis and Maxim, I got the Skill running and tested it out a lot. It's now approved and live on the Amazon Skills list. I keep adding new options, surprises, and twists and turns to keep the adventure fresh.

Challenges I ran into

Looping, randomizing, and re-directs were sometimes challenging, but I got the hang of it. Also, making sure that Alexa can hear the difference between "Whiskers" and "whiskey" was a consideration - haha! Alexa, where's whiskey would have a vastly different answer than opening this program.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I think it's a fun game, and I'm proud that I even developed it, though it's my second skill made using Storyline.

What I learned

It's important to be specific, and to know the flow of the game before starting to enter it into Storyline. I drew it out on long pieces of paper first, which was really helpful.

What's next for Where's Whiskers?

More places for Whiskers to go, and more surprises along the way.

Built With

• coggle
• storyline