The Problem

This project is a challenge of mashing two traditional and childhood games we used to play in the old days. The chosen games are Hungry Hungry Hippo and Hangman. Through mashing these two games, I redesigned the way we interact with these games.

Research

Hungry Hungry Hippo is a classic children tabletop game. Hangman is a classic word game. The main research is on the two games because a major key to a game mashup is combining the essence of both games.

Design

Sketching is the best way to brainstorm, especially for a visual learner like me.

Kickstarter Video

I made a kickstarter video using Adobe After Effect. It is a video that conveys the main idea of my design. It is a two-player game. Each player will control one hippo on screen. There will be letters falling from the top in the middle area. The two hippos have to eat as many letters as they can to get the hangman word. The first to get the entire word wins the game.

So the basic workflow of my idea for this game mashup looks like this…

Prototype 1.0

The first prototype is made with Unity, a perfect software for game development. My first prototype consists of very basic features, including one hippo and random falling letters. At this stage, the hippo can move all over the screen. I haven’t figured out how to limit hippo’s movement and user control yet.

Prototype 2.0

For the second prototype, I improved my first one by adding another hippo (second player). I also added letter tiles at the bottom to display the hangman word. In this prototype, I am able to limit the hippo’s movement to within the visible area (within the window). I am also able to add code that features detecting what letter has been eaten by which of the two hippos.

For the user testing of Prototype 2.0, I make use of Makey Makey (a simple tool for digital prototyping) and design a set of physical interaction I want my users to learn to play with the game.

1. Moving the hippo up and down: step on the corresponding foot pads

2. Moving the hippo forward to eat the letters: clap both hands

3. Earth: allows user to stay in control of Makey Makey at all time

Materials include cardboards, foil paper, and wires.

Prototype 3.0

This last prototype, I added even more features and rules to the game. Major changes include:

• If the user eats the wrong letter (i.e. letters that are not in the hangman word), they will be punished by their hippo being frozen for 2 seconds.

• A score keeper is added on the top right corner.

• Another fun element is added—bonus stars will appear randomly on screen for users to eat to get bonus scores.

Evaluation

User testing sessions are conducted following every prototype. For Prototype 1.0 and Prototype 3.0, users have to control the hippos using laptop keyboards (Player 1: A,D,W,S / Player 2: Arrow Keys). There isn’t a big problem with usability. Prototype 2.0 is more of a disaster because the wires were loose, and I had a difficult time taping the wires together.

A major question that arose among the users for the final prototype was:

I did not think this through when designing. I haven’t had time to redesign it, so this question remains unsolved so far.

Project Outcomes

This game mashup project was a fun project to me. I enjoy redesigning the rules of the classic games we used to play when we were little kids. I also enjoy adding different rules to make the game more complicated and challenging for university students, as I am targeting grown-ups, not little kids. My other UX projects encountered more usability issues, and I usually have to spend more time to fix just 1 or 2 issue. For this project, the interactions designed have more of a fun purpose. This is why I can be more creative on the design part, try out different interactions, and investigate different user issue. I have to admit this is probably one of the projects that I have enjoyed doing the most.