As part of my final project, I focused on the idea of “disconnection” between people and how they sometimes avoid talking to each other. I used the scenario of a person going home on the subway and trying to block out the outside world as a way of showing a basic example of how even with something so mundane, someone could be going through a lot, they just don’t want to talk.

Player One is trying to keep their sanity for two minutes as they try to avoid talking to anyone during their train ride. Player Two is trying to lower their sanity just enough to get them to talk. There is an exception to their where neither player wins which is the “secret” ending. I found this ending isn’t as secret as I wanted it to be. The players would actually collaborate to open the door to the train and leave the train to get the secret ending which I found amusing.

The game portion ended up being partially functional with the same start, reset, and one of the ending functions working. Most of the graphic and audio components were functional as well, such as the passenger talking to you or the dog barking and affecting your sanity randomly.

As for the controllers, there were made of laser cut acrylic that created a phone console for Player One and a train operator console for Player Two. The inlays on the phone console acted as the contact points for buttons and the other console used normal buttons connected to the Makey Makey. The inlays on the phone were not perfect, but can work in theory with adjustments to how the conductive paint is applied and how the copper tape to create conductive surfaces. Overall, I loved the idea of the inlays though, with the idea of conductive shapes being engraves then painted into the acrylic.

Each of the options the players were presented with had a random chance of working or not. For example, if the train controller hit “Dog” the dog may bark angrily, lowering the other player’s sanity further or increasing it if the dog likes the person. This happens with other objects as well such as the stranger, and interact.

The project was fun, and I would love to polish it even more into a fully fledged game, and to see my friends be able to mash the buttons even more.

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