Shake or Bake

Made for the first annual Nashville Game Jam. The theme for the jam was "Use a controller". Out of the options we were offered, we went with a PS4 controller. We focused on ideas that involved combining features of the controller's input in ways that would be difficult to perform. Originally, we considered a game where your character was continuously thrown into unrelated situations that required different amounts of shaking and gripping. We quickly realized that getting access to the controller's accelerometers was going to be an issue, so we scaled back the idea quite a bit.

On the first morning, we decided to stick with just one situation: saving a cat from a burning building. Your character runs faster if you shake the controller fast and he'll pick up the cat if you squeeze the triggers; however, squeezing the triggers too hard will result in a heavy enough grip to strangle the poor kitty to death. In order to finish the game, you have to shake the controller as fast as possible and very lightly pull on the triggers.

To get the input for the game, we used DS4Windows. The profile for the controller maps the tilt up function to Num8 and the tilt down function to Num2. This means you can't just plug in a controller and get the game to work. You'll have to re-map the controller to use it properly, but the character will not move slowly until after the first shake and standard WASD/Arrow input is implemented. The triggers events also you Num7 and Num9, so all controllers are accessible from a keyboard if you either lack a PS4 controller, can't get it to work, or don't like how obnoxious the game is using a controller and still want to "play through it". Unfortunately, the win state hasn't been implemented, so even if you get outside with the cat, you'll still lose. You can pat yourself on the back, though, if you want to.

Team members include RJ Clarke (setting artist), James Butkevicius (character artists and animator), Matt Greer (music and folly creator), Everett Perry (early concept creation), and Jesse Humphries (programmer).