Le Café
Game Design and Development | Academic Project
Role
Tools
Game Designer
Game Developer
Sound Engineer
Java
ProCreate
Audacity
A playthrough of the entire simulation
Overview
Le Café is a simulation for an academic course called Multimedia Programming for Art and Design. This interactive simulation allows the user to experience the many steps required to make a cup of latte and appreciate the complexity and effort involved in it's creation.
Planning
To create the simulation, I researched the steps needed to make a Latte. Then I identified these items and planned the code needed in the simulation. This included the multi-steps the user must complete to create a Latte, the environment, the goal and the main elements of the simulation.
A plan with a description, the various classes and code that is needed.
Illustrations
Seeing as I wanted to create an environment that had depth and perspectives, I created and layered 4 background images in ProCreate. By utilizing the foreground and background, the user could place items behind the grass. This maintains the perspective and adds an intriguing element to the simulation.
The different layers of the background creating depth.
All of the illustrations are slightly green to maintain the nature theme. This hue ensured that all of the illustrations were cohesive. With the background done, I started creating the various objects that the user would be able to click and drag. Seeing that the user can put items in the objects, there needed to be two states. These multiple states were mainly used on the espresso machine and cabinets.
Illustrations of the various interactable objects.
The Code
To enhance the user's immersion into the simulation, various coding techniques were used, such as: Perlin noise, animation, and recursion. To use these techniques to it's full potential, I needed to research the way it's used and how I could use it for the simulation.
Frame-by-frame animation used in the simulation.
Perlin Noise used to mimic steam.
Perlin Noise, is a series of random coordinates restricted within a minimum and a maximum. It was used to mimic steam, when the user steams the milk. The steam starts small but gradually grows in size and floats up till it’s off-screen.
Animation is used for the dial and pouring of the espresso. By having frame-to-frame animation, motion was created to the espresso dial and machine.
For Recursion, the stars that arise during the night were placed accordingly using recursion. Using a for loop, it looks through an array of x and y coordinates to know where to put each star.
Audio
By finding the appropriate sounds for certain actions, the simulation becomes more immersive for the user. To fit the sounds to the simulation, I used Audacity to alter the sounds slightly. Moreover, the background music during the simulation was sung by me, Alicia LeClercq. By using a backing track, I sung along to the song, So This is Love by Illene Woods. I also added some birds into the background to make the simulation feel outside. It’s also the reason why the song feels distant, placing an emphasis on the birds.
An audio recording of the music in the background.
Reflection
Thanks to this simulation, I gained the confidence in working with recursion, Perlin noise and animations. Moreover, by using various techniques, I now know how to use and further develop them. After this project, I look forward to creating a variety of games and exploring what different techniques there are to help optimize and create an intriguing game.