Wake on button press to random game [UX Idea]

Development The Future
#1

Think about it, how cool would it be to pick up your Arduboy, press any button and a random game would play?

How cool would it be?

  • 5 Cool: I like it a lot! I also only play the Arduboy in short bursts, find programming to be annoying, and like to try new games
  • 4 Sure: But I’m not sold on the random game idea
  • 3 Medium: I have no strong feelings one way or the other
  • 2 Eh: Don’t mess with it, it’s fine
  • 1 No: This is clearly a bad idea for too many reasons to count

0 voters

No power switch, and all the games automatically go back to sleep if you are idle. So you can just pick up and put down an Arduboy whenever you feel like a distraction for 30 seconds, but you don’t even want to bother selecting a game because there are so many good ones. This would be from some curated list like the Purplecart.

This is just an idea, the games would need to be modified to have the auto-sleep code. But I’m actually thinking into the future where maybe they already have to be rebuilt for the SAMD51. So this idea is kinda based on the theory you’d have plenty of extra code space available.

Just purely a UX thing. Because, I think usually when I actually play the Arduboy I’m just bored as heck and I don’t know what else to do, and I see it on the table or whatever so I play it for 15 seconds to 1 or 2 minutes. If you remove the time it takes to turn on and off the console, that saves you the time and the mental energy of worrying about it. If you get a random game each time, you are constantly provided with a fresh and unexpected gaming experience, which in most cases is WHY I’m playing the Arduboy in the first place instead of something on my gaming PC or mobile.

1 Like
#2

Heathens! None of you know the true power of this. I think the playdate might show a bit of how something like this could be cool.

1 Like
#3

I’m a believer.
With my short attention span i only play games for short periods :crazy_face:.
Would be nice if the arduboy could help me in my indesisive-ness, I’ve got Google already to fill the gaps in my memory…

It’s good that the captcha’s i click keep telling i am not a robot…

#4

I’m still convinced this is an incredible idea. I’m fairly certain people would enjoy and play their Arduboy more often if they had the emotional connection to it starting up with a new game each time. I think the curiosity would take effect.

Maybe not, but I think so. Would certainly help it feel more different. But then again the frustration of being like “no, I just want to play my one game!”.

For sure I want to have a “select random” option from the bootloader.

#5

All joking aside, your idea is truly good i am interested.
But then you must integrate a memory module, to give it a real surprise factor.

#6

Maybe mr Blinky could intergrate a “wheel of fortune” mode into his bootloader :smile:
With a tilt sensor “shake for game” mode…

#7

I like the idea, but I want it to be a setting that I can enable or disable… Boot menu, most recent game, or random game… :smirk:

#8

Sure it has to be a option.

#9

you can always close your eyes and press the directional buttons randomly to pick a game :stuck_out_tongue:

2 Likes
#10

Or U could:

Create a list of unnamed game sketches
Pick a random one
Compile
Plug in your usb cable
Upload the game
Play

But where’s the fun in that?

Ask not what u can do for your arduboy, but what it can do for you!

#11

If you’re emulating them instead of running them natively you can sleep whenever you wanted. :wink: ARM can execute code from RAM also so technically you could LIVE trans-pile the [native Atmega32u4] binaries into native ARM code, vs emulating them - though that’d be a MUCH harder project.