Smash That Emoji!

Created for the 48th Caritas Macau Charity Bazaar

In the electrical/mechanical department of my high school, it is a tradition to make simple games with some form of engineering.

Under my teacher's supervision, I chose to make a reaction-based arcade style game, similar to wack-a-mole. When a light lights up, the player presses its button.

What seems like a simple core mechanic can be extended into different game modes. For single-player, the player has to get X points before the time runs out. If the player gets past the threshold, they reach the next stage - this repeats 3 times until a "frenzy" happens. Frenzy lasts 5 seconds; during frenzy, each correct input is worth 2 points, but one incorrect input terminates the frenzy.

For multiplayer, a "tug-of-war" 1v1 mode was implemented. Each player control half of the board, each correct input "pulls the rope" towards them for 1 unit, and they win if they have a large enough lead in score. If the players are similar in skill, deathmatch initiates - the first player that gets 5 correct inputs wins, but one incorrect input loses them the game.

The physical position of the buttons can be changed for customisability. In fact, since the event lasted for 2 days, I changed the setup for the next day so players from the previous day would get a fresh experience - muscle memory will not take over for them.

At the event, a scoreboard was kept on a whiteboard to encourage players to try their absolute best. It was also tricky to balance the game for the general audience since the skill range was so wide. I was on standby both days so that I can tune the values in the program and hot-reload it on the fly.