Project Proposal: Lucca Says

The final project of this class seemed daunting to me at first. However, I now feel like I have a vision for what I wish to build. This will essentially be a build off of the currently existing game, Simon Says, in which there are four colored buttons that when they light up, you are meant to press on it. As the game progresses there will continuously be added on another direction for you to follow and the amount of button presses will progressively add up by one. For my final project, I will be taking this and adding my own personal twist to it. I intend to make the different colors stand on their own individual pillars that stand anywhere from an inch to six inches above the standard platform housing the Arduino. Underneath each pillar will house a button. When the user presses down on the pillar, the button will be pressed and the computer will acknowledge the fact that that button had been pressed and check to see whether it was within the sequence that had been developed by the computer or not. If it follows the sequence then another element on the random array of instructions will play along with all the previous instructions for the user and the user must get all correct to move on to the next level.

This project definitely has an iterative process for being able to house many different sequences for the user to accomplish in the course of the game. It will not just occur once unless the user gets the first element incorrect. However, it will start the game over after a sequence of flashing lights to see if the user would like to restart the game or not. I will also have a dial (potentiometer) that will allow you to control which level you are playing on. There will be three levels – novice, intermediate, and expert. Based off of which level you select, there will be a different delay between how much time you have between each color being shown and how much time you have to play the sequence out yourself. There will also be a speaker to play the tone associated with each of the colored buttons. As the pillars increase in height, the pitch of the tone played will increase. There will be a potentiometer to control the volume of the speaker that will range from a very low decibel range to a fairly large decibel range. I will also be getting an amplifier for my speaker to allow the decibels reached by the speaker to be much louder than the ordinary range. Furthermore, I hope to be able to program some sort of start-up music and mistake music to let the user know when they have turned on the device, and when they have selected the wrong button.

The purpose of this project is to create a fun and interactive game that will continue to challenge the user. The intended user’s for this kind of device will be eight-year-olds and up. I know a few adults in their 70s that still love to play the Simon says game and I know quite a few little kids that are eight and up that enjoy it as well. I think that it is a universal game that can draw many user’s attention.

Parts Already Have:

• Obtained from SparkFun

  • Arduino Board

  • Protoboard

  • Metal Knobs

  • Amplifier

  • Speaker

• 10 kΩ Resistors

• Multiple colored wires (hollow center preferred but can use solid as well)

• Other resistors for specific LEDs (however, will most likely end up using NeoPixels)

• NeoPixel strips

• Buttons (provided)

Parts I Still Need:

• Either frosted acrylic rods or just frosted acrylic plane (try for 1/8th of inch for pillars and 1/4th of inch for base)

• Or Nylon, as it has a lower density than acrylic and will hopefully prevent unintentional button presses

For the enclosure, this is where the possible acrylic or nylon will come in handy for building a durable yet elegant design (you can see the possible materials in the box next to the sketches).