Translating Affordances — Cut the Rope!

This week we were given a task of a digital affordance into a tangible object. The whole idea of backwards design was familiar to me from “Design process for learning” class, however, I have never thought of how the interfaces, video games, applications actually come from physical prototypes. This is what I was exploring this week.

Brainstorming

I started brainstorming and thinking of games I used to play as a kid (also, such a coincidence, watching Squid Game). Everything that came to mind at first was already created from the physical object and games that exist in real life like Solitaire, MahJong, Memory, Chess etc. Of course, games like MarioCart, SmashBros, Halo, Fortnite are really difficult to make in real life. So I had to dive into my school years and think of apps on my phone that I used. Cut the Rope came to my mind! It’s a game for a smartphone that was really popular in my middle and high school. It is pretty simple, there are ropes that need to be cut in order for a creature (presumably a frog) to catch the candy.

Screenshots from Cut the Rope by ZeptoLab

Preparation

Then I had to think of what is needed, I installed a game and made some sketches of first 2 levels.

Sketch on the left is for a warm-up level, pretty straightforward, sketch on the right is for the first actual level

After the first rope is cut, the candy is moving to catch the star to the right and then after the second rope is cut, candy is moving to the left to catch the third star and then we cut the last rope and the candy falls into creature’s mouth.

Sketches helped me visualize the step I need to make and think of what props I need. I needed:

• Ropes
• Stars
• Something to hang ropes on (hooks)
• Candy
• Creature

After I found all the props, I cut out stars from paper and painted them using yellow marker. Then I attached tape to each star. I also attached tape to each hook and placed them on the wall (see below)

Warm-up level on the left and first level on the right. Also, found the creature on the left!

The most important part of the process was to make sure the hooks are secure, I also had to measure the lengths of each rope to make sure if I cut, I would actually fall the way I intend.

Testing and iterating

At first, I used just one hook and did a warm up level to test if the candy actually falls into place straight. It was a success!

So I went on the next level and set up 3 hooks, attached ropes to each of them, following my sketches and placed the stars. I knew that it may not work from the first try, so I tried cutting the first rope, however, the candy didn’t collect the first star, I still kept cutting the second rope to make sure it collects the second star which it did and then I cut the third one to see if it collects the third star and falls into place, it did.

So I had to do some iterations to the first star, I moved it a little higher and to the left to make sure the candy reaches it. I had to retie new ropes, too.

In my second testing it actually worked and collected all the stars! However, my creature left at the moment when it was supposed to catch the star. But I think it is not a big deal since she is a live creature and I can’t make her sit there for this whole time :)

The live introduction and me showcasing the game can be watched in this video:

Conclusion

Overall, this project gave me some insights on how design could be done backwards and how actually any technology that we use nowadays was once a sketch, then a prototype and then it was tested, iterated and eventually became a product. It is important to remember and be aware of the affordances that each media, app, video games carries and sometimes we could even get away without using digital objects and using actual physical objects instead!