Inspiration
My game Notle is similar to the popular word game Wordle, but it has a major twist--the player guesses music notes! The purpose of the game is for players to guess the correct music notes according to a melody that is played! Perfect for any avid musician looking to hone their listening skills, Notle provides a fun and engaging way to do so.
What it does
Based on the melody the player hears, they can then input keys using a piano keyboard at the bottom of the screen. After entering five notes, the player can press enter, and the app will reveal hints for them to find the solution. If the tile turns green, that means that the note is correct and in the correct place; if the tile turns yellow, that means that the note is correct, but in the wrong place; if the tile turns gray, it means that the note is incorrect. The player has five tries to guess the melody!
How we built it
I built it using Java and xml in Android Studio. I used many classes for the various elements in my game, such as a Board class that contained a 2d array of GuessBoxes. There is also a Button class, which FnButton (play, enter, and delete buttons) and PianoKey (takes in user input) inherited from. I created a logo for the app through Canva. The home screen runs using MainActivity, which uses the activity_main.xml file to display the logo, welcome message, and level buttons. Once the player selects a level, NotleActivity starts running, and the run, sleep, and draw functions in NotleView incorporates the other classes and their functions to make the game work.
Challenges we ran into
Surprisingly, the actual mechanics of checking the player's guesses were one of the easiest parts to implement. Instead, I found it quite challenging to take in user input, as well as add in the melody. Moreover, there were many issues with IntelliSense when I tried to rename different parts of my project, which took a long time to fix.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I’m proud that I was able to complete a working game from scratch in time, as I wasn’t sure if I would be able to when I initially started. It was especially rewarding when I finally got the music to work and got rid of all the IntelliSense errors.
What we learned
Although I was already familiar with programming in Java prior to this project, I learned a lot about Android app development, including concepts such as Activities and xml files.
What's next for Notle
I want to make sure the game works on all screen sizes. Currently, while some parts of it are automatically fitted to the device size, some elements are fixed and may not work properly on all screen sizes. Moreover, I want to add more levels, and potentially generate the melody electronically instead of adding it in a mp3 file.
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