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1. Object Oriented Programming with C#

2. Game and Level Design

3. Organization and rapid High-Quality Development

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This half puzzle, half platformer game was made in collaboration with two classmates (another programmer and a writer) for Biology 12. Unlike my other posts, I won’t be going into how this game was made, but outline how the aspects of the game model the human brain. Although this school project was made within a small timeframe (with other subjects ongoing), I’m very proud of how I was able to work with a team and bring my vision to life through a high quality product — precisely why I’ve decided to show it here today! This was also my first Unity game and introduction to object oriented design, so I’ve learned a lot from working on this.

1. Quick Introduction

This neuroscience-based game takes concepts from the brain and turns them into interesting game mechanics and puzzles. In fact, it interacts with the player’s mind itself, making the game an application of psychological concepts as well. The game is called Potential, since the player controls an action potential within neurons around the brain (scientifically, it’s the flow of ions through neurons), depicted as this cute pink orb.

2. Puzzle 1: Skill Development and the Growth Mindset

Our first puzzle faced players with a new challenge they’ve likely never experienced — when prompted a letter, say “C”, they had to type the letter 2 positions behind it, in this case “A”. However, instead of gaining points, they were given 20 points to begin with, and the longer they took, the more points they lost.

After completing this, either our player has lost all 20 points (or more), or they still have some points remaining. The game then prompts them with the same task — this time however, if they pressed the key quick enough, they would gain 3 points.

We then gave the player the chance to decide — do they take the gamble and try to win their points back, or would they accept their losses in hopes to gain points later? For the majority of players we tested this puzzle with, they decided to take the risk, even though they had lost several points — this exhibits the growth mindset and also the strengthening of new neural connections as they got better the more they played the game.

3. Neurotransmitters and Synapses

As the potential goes through different lobes, it travels from neuron to neuron. In fact, the potential in each neuron is a new potential character, triggered from synapses from a previous neuron.

Players may wonder why they can’t travel to the next lobe so easily. Well if you’re travelling from one neuron to another, then you must send some neurotransmitter! This puzzle takes place at every gateway between neurons.

In this puzzle, you are instructed to send a specific neurotransmitter. Each circle represents a neurotransmitter receptor, and you must click on the correct “neuron” to send the correct synapse.

The first time you do this puzzle, it may seem arbitrary. However, the more you do it between neurons, you will see the specified receptors appear more often, and larger. Why is this? This feature implements neuroplasticity, and how neural pathways develop the more we go through similar networks of neurons. That’s why building neural connections in this game become easier over time, and the act of going from lobe to lobe becomes less tedious.

4. Spatial Awareness and Memory

This is my personal favorite! A screen appears with torches, rocks, and bricks scattered around on the background (below). This creates distinct areas to remember.

Then, the camera zooms in close to the player’s character, and begins automatically moving around the map until it hits some border. The player has limited visibility of the background, and so they must use spatial cues to understand where the character is going.

Once the random movement sequence is complete, the player must draw the path they believe the character took. After this is done, they can replay the sequence of moves that was originally done, and compare it with their drawn path to see how accurate their spatial awareness is. Here’s another example:

In this example, I completely forgot where the character went initially (you can see from my hesitation), but I remembered the it crossing past one of the log sprites (above the red bush). Knowing the start, I was able to slowly remember the rest of the path. I think this minigame is a really powerful demonstration of how our brain remembers key points and fills in the blanks.

5. Other Puzzles and Mechanics

In the temporal lobe, we enabled the synapse to move faster throughout the level. This is due to myelin sheaths, which wrap around the axon of a neuron. Since synapses move faster through myelinated neurons, we thought it would be an interesting mechanic to implement within the game.

Our game also included a small memory game, which simply tested the player’s memory by asking questions about the recent school year (first lab, date of trip, etc.)

At the end of the game, we included an interactive Learning Objectives page to express where biological and psychological actions of the brain manifested themselves within our game.

6. Conclusion

I will admit, being my first Unity project and introduction to OOP, I may not have taken full advantage of the utility C# can provide. When I first thought of this game, I was not sure it could be done without experienced game developers in the time frame we were working with. However, I’m proud of being able to lead a team to rapidly execute a vision to create a, in my opinion, well polished product. As I learn more OOP mechanics and Java for CPEN 221, I can start to see the power object-oriented programming holds in game design.

Best,

Ebrahim