Reaction Game
My project began with a small idea from my brother. My brother is currently taking part in a clinical study with the company Neuroscape. He has an iPad where he does a number of tests in the form of a video game. One of the tests includes two different types of bugs. One he is supposed to press, the other he is supposed to avoid. The bugs appear at random spots on the screen and start small and get bigger over time, and he has to hit them before they get to the screen. This tests visual reaction time, visual recognition, and other parts of the brain.
This project inspired me. Although I knew I wasn’t going to be able to replicate the work of a million-dollar project, I wanted to try my own version. In this year of i2, I researched, modeled, designed, and attempted to create my own, much smaller version. I didn’t get anywhere close to what my original goal was, but I learned a lot. I dove into C# and learned a lot about how the language is used. I also started using the game development program Unity which was really useful in turning my program into a downloadable app.
Even though I wasn’t able to reach my initial goal, I learned a lot about the development progress, research, actual programming, and game design. It gave me another perspective on how much work it is to make an application. Many of the apps we use in our everyday lives take hundreds of hours of work from tens to hundreds of developers just to make them.
