Dressage

Short game made over a few hours on a Friday night. I'd realised all the games I'd made so far were just learning tools or cloning ideas. This isn't a problem, but I wanted to try to make a game about something I'm really interested in. I'm also currently editing my book draft on phenomenology and videogames, and this morning was editing the chapter on input devices and dressage and how we quickly develop rhythms to incorporate them and not pay attention to them, but instead pay attention through them.

This little game is my attempt to explore that. A random string of characters appears on screen, and you have to press them in order, quickly. After a few seconds they disappear but you have to keep going, trusting your fingers to remember the pattern. After a while you get a longer pattern.

Screw up and you have to restart the string of character. Points are awarded for each complete input of a string. A life is lost each mistake made or if too long passes without pressing the next button.

(In 2017 I am challenging myself to make 50 little videogames to get more familiar with the tools. I make no guarantee that any of the games are good, but that's not really the point. This is game #12 of 50.)