Assignment 2 – Extensible Gameplay – Tap Dance
Posted by Andrew Wegener on October 9th, 2012
^^^^^^^ click this link to download my game design document for “Tap Dance”!
A brief back story: I have a group of friends that frequently comes over to my apartment for game nights. Typically, we chat, eat, and scream while playing Mario Party 1, 2, or 3 on the Wii64 (N64 emulator on the Wii). A few nights ago, as we were reading the instructions for a minigame, Bri (the friend I mentioned in my post of my journey here, my first friend!) misread the directions as saying “tap A to dance.” For some reason, it hit me. “Tap A to dance!” I stated. “Tap A to dance!!!” I exclaimed. I stood up and started dancing around while singing “Tap A to dance, tap A to dance!” As I humiliated myself, my friends literally ROFLed (and I never use that term) at me. Everything hit me at once. A mobile game where you tap the screen to dance. I explained to my friends the concept of the game. They wanted me to call it “Tap to Dance.” But similarly to Justin Timberlake saying in movie “The Social Network” about dropping the “the” from “the Facebook”, I decided to drop the “to” (or as I was quickly singing it, the “tuh”). Thus, “Tap Dance” was born.
I researched some existing dance games, and while doing so, I stumbled upon some research saying that dance games can improve concentration skills and academic performance. I liked this idea a lot because more often than not, people assume gamers are lazy, stupid bums. I consider myself a gamer, but I definitely don’t consider myself stupid. In fact, games have expanded my vocabulary, taught me invaluable problem solving skills, and helped me develop a social life and not be (too) socially awkward.
I want Tap Dance to be a game that improves concentration skills without the player knowing the benefits of this seemingly “just for fun” game.
I hope to develop this idea further and publish a version of the game. Hopefully see you all on the app store soon!