Burger N' Bite is an interactive and simple web game where users could fill their role as a cook, gathering all the required ingredients to complete the recipe of each unique burger. The user is in control of the plate on the bottom of the screen and using the left and right arrow keys, they must catch the correct ingredients needed for the recipe. If an ingredient that is not indicated on the recipe is caught, the player loses a heart, however if the recipe is completed, the player moves on to the next level where the ingredients begin to fall faster. Once all three hearts are lost, the game is over and the player must start over.
- Create an entertaining and fun game concept.
- Learn the back end code that allows the game to function.
- Find a way to raise the difficulty of the game using
levels.
- Implement a way to record players' high scores.
- Create promotional advertising for the game's launch.
As this was our first time really working on the back end of a game rather than just a regular website, it was definitely intimidating to start learning the specific code to make the game run properly. This became one of our main challenges as we had to really understand the code and know what we would have to implement into our code for certain game elements to work such as the speed of the falling ingredients, the plate moving side to side, the additional levels, and especially the high score feature. In addition, there were also minor challenges when it came to the organization of creating this game as we also had to create promotional advertising material to go along with the game's launch. With all of these deliverables to meet, my team and I had to make sure we would be able to complete each deliverable in a reasonable amount of time before the official game launch.
We started the creation of Burger N' Bite by analyzing the simple game provided by our professor to be able to see the code he used and implement these same features into our game and tweak elements to fit with our own game concept. From there, we began creating our game proposal, detailing the theme of our game, the concept, and the code that we believe will be needed in order for the game to function.
Once we got the green light, we divided the tasks amongst the team, so that the back end development, ingredient illustrations, and the advertising material were all being done simultaneously. With much finetuning and help from our professor, we established the back end code for the game, and later proceeded to add the illustrations, background image, sound, and other elements into the game to bring our concept to life.
After the actual game system was completed and functional, we continued working on the last step before the game launch, which was the promotional material. For this, we came up with a few different ideas to promote the game, such as a cropped version of the burger icon, and the ingredients scattered around the game title. These images were to be used on many different social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter to help spread awareness about the new game that would be coming to all computers very soon. Overall, this process did have a few bumps in the road, however we ended up coming out with a very satisfying and entertaining game for everyone to enjoy.
To help ease the challenges that we faced during the creation process of Burger N' Bite, we turned to our professor and other peers for guidance while creating the game. As we were being introduced to a good amount of new code that we had not previously seen before, it was hard to understand what code was needed to build an entire game system. But, with the questions we asked our professor and fellow peers, they were able to give us more insight into what functions the code provides and help us implement them into our game to be able to make our game work the way we intend. Also, with the short timeline from the beginning of this project to the game's launch, my team and I had to be very organized so that we could stay on track with the deliverables. So, it was important for us to divide the tasks so that we could each give 100% of our effort into that one part of the game. This tactic really worked well for us as each of us worked on the part where we felt our skills worked best and this made the overall process much smoother than if there was no division of the tasks.
Burger N' Bite turned out to be a very colourful and entertaining game! We felt that the our original game proposal matched the final outcome entirely and that the actual game concept and theme was a fun twist on the original simple game we were first provided. The game is simple yet has an increasing difficulty component where after each recipe is completed, the ingredients fall faster, making the game more challening and more fun. The illustrations also worked really well with the game concept as Burger N' Bite is really playful, and the illustrations have a very bold, fun, and playful look to them. In general, Burger N' Bite became a project that my team and I were very proud of and have gained a lot of experience from when it comes to illustrations, back end coding, and lastly promotional advertising.
Did we grab your attention yet? Stop for a quick bite and try our game!
