Test if the game is reading your clicks correctly before starting! On the intro screen, a left click on your mouse or keyboard should cause you to hear a simple beat sound <3

State Machines:

I used two state machines in the code for this game -- one was to manage the states of the enemy (the Lorax), and the other was to manage the states for the player/kissers. The spine for the code was borrowed directly from Chad's code, and that's why the Lorax still has a patrol state. It doesn't add much gameplay wise, but since I am not sure how to add simple animations to Unity and I did want the Lorax to kind of "walk around" a little bit, I ended up keeping the original "patrol" state code in. The other two states for the Lorax/enemy are "idle" and "mad".

Patrol:

The Lorax moves around, the original sprite is replaced, and the character is considered to be "distracted". While in the patrol state, the players can safely enter the kiss state and add value to the timer. The Lorax has a 50/50 chance every two seconds to randomly start idling while in the patrol state.

Idle:

While in the idle state the Lorax is actually not currently being distracted by the trees, meaning if the player's click in order to enter the kiss state, then the Lorax will be triggered to enter the mad state.

Mad:

The mad state will result in a sprite change for the Lorax character, and will also trigger the lose condition and result in a scene change.

I'm honestly not sure if this is how state machines are "meant" to be used, but it seemed to work well enough for this project!

Iterations:

While working on this game, the concept kind of did a 360 (yes, a 360, not 180). I started out wanting to do a cover of Office Love/Kissing at Work but then while replaying, I realized that I had no idea how to program the boss sometimes being distracted by the phone. I think I could figure out how to add a points system based on time, and to keep that timer saved across scenes -- but the boss was stumping me somewhat. Also visually, how to communicate the boss is being distracted with just a few images (since I would not have enough time to create a full animation this week). I decided to scrap this cover idea and attempt something more "original" instead, so I began to work on a game (which was actually what "My Cutie Cage" was supposed to become) where you had a virtual Lorax pet that you had to either coax or frighten with certain items in order to guide it a certain direction. While taking a break from coding to work on Lorax sprite art, the original doodles I did for my cover idea stared at me with their sad eyes -- and I decided to go back to my original idea (there are still so many more other covers that I want to do). The next thing I know, I am erasing and commenting out code and essentially undoing it to return it to the way it was a few hours prior.

Version 1: There was no UI timer, and the original win condition was 30 seconds of kissing.

This play experience was stressful, dragged on way too long, and felt impossible to get the win condition. I did not have fun at all with this initial version.

Version 2: Added an onscreen timer, the win condition is changed to 5 seconds.

I made the win condition too easy now. Depending on your RNG, you could actually just win the game in the first 7 seconds -- not a very satisfying experience.

Version 3: Win condition is changed to 10 seconds of kissing.

Now the game length feels more balanced, but I found myself getting distracted by all the onscreen movement. Players should be watching the Lorax sprite, but I found myself looking at the changing player sprite and/or the timer -- this lead to frustration when my eyes would just automatically wander and miss the Lorax no longer being distracted.

Version 4: Added a sound that starts playing when the Lorax enters patrol/distracted mode (and stops when he exits).
- It seemed that adding this simple sound effect when the Lorax enters the distracted/patrol mode made it easier to react. I felt that this version of the game was the most fun. Now, I could comfortably allow my eyes to wander the screen and be able to check on the timer while also listening for the Lorax's audio cues.

Freshness:

I'm trying really hard to break away from the Asteroids mold that I formed last term. I still do reference my google drive folder where I have dozens of code saved so that I can just copy and paste them into my game, but I'm been attempting to stay far away from the asteroids-centric mechanics. For this project all of our input has to be mouse based, so that in itself made it a lot harder to create another version of asteroids since the version we learned in class is based off of keyboard input

This term I have been starting to create a sort of visual and audible aesthetic with my games, but since the themes I've been trying to keep unique hopefully my games don't start to melt into each other.

When applying to ArtCenter I mentioned how I missed the era of the sometimes gimmicky flash games reigning over the internet, so I've been wanting to try my hand at covering some of my favorites -- and for this project I attempted that goal for the first time. Here is the game that I was heavily inspired by. Not everything in this game is the same, but they are very similar. Truthfully, I feel like the original is still better (although I think mine ended up being weirder). There are many more flash games I'd like to cover, but I cannot remember the titles for all of them (making them harder to replay and study from). I will keep on trying my best so that one day my covers will add something new and fresh from the originals!

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