The game works similarly to the classic board game, Operation, where players are prompted to carefully push buttons in tight spaces without touching the “alarm walls”. It’s not meant to be a game that lasts a long time, but one that players can pick up and play a few rounds, put away for a while, and pick back up again later.

 

The game is themed around disarming a bomb, with all its components contained inside a box to simulate the opening of a bomb and the surprises of wires and other components waiting inside. After the player opens the “bomb” and starts up the project, they are prompted by a voice to cautiously press the correct buttons. Random lights will light up on the circuit board indicating that the corresponding button needs to be touched by the player to move to the next step of disarming the bomb. The player must follow the wires connected to the board closest to the lit-up light to the button it is attached to. Once the correct button is found and pressed, the light will turn off and add a point to the player’s successful rounds. The player will then be prompted by the lights to look for the next button. Once the player has 3 successful rounds, the bomb will be stopped, lights will turn blue, and a voice will congratulate the player. If the player touches a hazard, an alarm will sound, and the player will lose a try. Once the player fails a challenge 3 times, they will be prompted to evacuate and lose the game. The voice, lights, buttons, and hazards attached to numerous wires are made to evoke tension in the player and cause partial confusion as they work to disarm the bomb correctly.

​

To make it, I used a combination of programming in the Arduino IDE, the Circuit Playground Express, many wire connectors, and lots of physical plastic/cardboard pieces. Each piece for the layout was first designed and sketched, then cut out with plastic and wooden materials with a laser cutter machine. The "UI/UX" was designed in Photoshop, then printed with sticker paper to be placed in their respective places of the game.

​​

​