From eede6b1f019b10b220a13aeabcf13b3d715cb135 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Michael DiBernardo Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2024 14:54:14 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Update README --- README.md | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 42 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 04d6ef2..4dbf942 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,6 +1,44 @@ # Nora Looks For Bugs -A game in which a 2.5 year old will hopefully look for bugs under rocks before she gets bored. +## TL;DR + +I made a game about finding insects for my toddler niece. It's [here](https://bugs.mikedebo.com). + +## The Story + +My 2.5-year-old niece likes insects. Last week, I saw her zooming into photos of bugs on her mom's phone, and I had an idea for her first "videogame." + +I thought she might enjoy a simple game where she could look under rocks for bugs. But, to keep it surprising, sometimes there should be non-bugs under the rocks. I wanted it to have a geocities-era blursed vibe to it. + +My partner decided that the surprises should be emojis of our niece’s favorite things. + +I chose to make it a progressive web app, because that way my niece could recognize the app on her mom's phone by the bug icon (she can't read yet.) + +You can find the game at [https://bugs.mikedebo.com](https://bugs.mikedebo.com). Make sure to ask your parents if it's OK first. + +I'd love to share videos of my niece playing it for the first time, but for obvious reasons I won't be doing that. There was a lot of excited shrieking involved, which made me very happy. + +## Instructions + +- Scroll around the forest floor and click on rocks to find surprises +- The surprises sometimes peek out from under the rocks for maximum suspense! +- You can hurl the rocks by touching/clicking them to reveal the surprise beneath +- Uncle Mike will announce the insects; Auntie I announces the other surprises. (Auntie I doesn't like bugs.) +- Clicking the surprise will make more funny sounds. + +Enjoy! + +## Things that surprised me + +- Nora is much better at scrolling than I expected! I originally made the map quite small assuming she'd have a hard time navigating, but I was wrong. +- I thought she'd like the surprises, but she seeming dgaf about them. It's all about the bugs. +- Older kids also appear to appreciate the game. I thought it would be too dumb for them. +- It's liberating to make things for pre-literate kids. Eliminating text reduces options by a lot! +- I realized that I've made several games tailored to specific individuals. I guess it's becoming somewhat of a thing. I don't consider myself a "game-maker", but I find making games for specific people is quite satisfying. I can go from idea to "gift-sized" game very quickly. + +## Known issues + +I wanted the map to start focused on the center of the scrollable area, but the combination of myself and claude-3.5-sonnet could not figure it out. If you do, please let me know. I'm sure it's simple, but learning more about CSS was an anti-goal of this project for me. ## Assets @@ -8,3 +46,6 @@ A game in which a 2.5 year old will hopefully look for bugs under rocks before s - Progressive web app template from [here](https://github.com/nikkifurls/simplepwa) - Bugs from [here](https://www.cleanpng.com/) - Bug icon from [here](https://www.vecteezy.com/) +- All voices and sound effects courtesy of Uncle Mike and Auntie I. Thanks to Ms Rachel for "inspiration." + +Thanks to [Cursor](https://www.cursor.com/) and claude-3.5-sonnet for all the help. Claude, I'm sorry I rewrote 95% of your code. It's not you, it's me.