Project 5 - Everyday Olympics

For this project we were set the task of designing an everyday activity at home into some sort of game or Olympic sport.

In Cooking Mama, the player is tasked with cooking various meals using the device's touch screen. Following the instructions of the titular "Mama", the player uses the stylus or their finger to perform different kitchen tasks, including chopping vegetables, slicing meat, flipping food in pans, and arranging the final items on the plate. The version of the game for iOS also takes advantage of the accelerometer in its devices with some similar gameplay to Cooking Mama: Cook Off. Each of these tasks is performed by completing a mini-game which usually lasts less than 10 seconds. The gameplay structure consists of the player progressing through a series of short mini games. The game features a total of 96 different dishes.

Each mini game represents a different activity in the meal preparation, such as mixing, frying, or chopping the provided ingredients. The mini game mechanics themselves range from quickly drawing parallel lines in order to chop items, to a rhythm game where ingredients are added to a skillet or the heat is adjusted at precisely the right time. In many cases, players must look at the top screen of the DS for guidance on what to do next and then perform the task on the bottom screen.

If the player makes a serious blunder or time expires without sufficient progress being made, that step in the cooking process is considered a failure. When this happens, a graphic of an angry "Mama" with flames erupting from her eyes is displayed, along with the caption "Don't worry, Mama will fix it!".

Here I have designed my real life virtual reality version of Cooking Mama. The way in which this works is that I will create a bracket to hang your smartphone up above your cooking /chopping /preparation area and you will open my app, this will then turn the phones camera on which will record your cooking. The app will call out commands which you must follow in time to gain points. You can then watch your cooking game back on the phone to improve for next time.

As you can see from the pictures, the app overlays graphics onto the video. It analyses your movements to see if you’re following the prompts and awards you with points for following them correctly and in time.

Here is the app icon that i designed to be sold on the appstore for £2.99