Little Chefs

Project Lead, Game Designer, Programmer

Educational Game

Group of 4

1 month in Unity

Developed for HoloLens 1

Overview

The final assignment for my second year in Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

Little Chefs is an educational game for children ages 6 and above. It was made to teach children how to make a simple breakfast of pancakes for their parents, and was developed for the HoloLens 1.

Without needing to enter the kitchen, children could learn and follow step-by-step as they try to make some pancakes. The levels are graded and the steps have been condensed into 5 simple steps.

Gameplay

The game has a simple structure.

It consists of 5 minigames, each teaching one step of making pancakes. The gameplay loops can be seen below.

As this was a prototype and more of a proof of concept, we only implemented one recipe into the game.

In the final game, ideally, children would be able to choose from a range of recipes, play through a series of minigames and complete the recipe successfully. This is meant to be a casual game that would see a lot of expansions in the future, introducing recipes for special seasons or festivities, like Father's Day or Mother's Day.

We thought starting with pancakes would be a good first recipe to learn, since they are fairly easy to make and is a very popular breakfast choice.

Minigame 1

Minigame 1 is the preparation step, where players have to look for ingredients as stated and drag them to the correct positions.

Here's what it looked like:

The player had to:

Take a bag of pancake mix from the shelf
Get 2 eggs
Get a box of butter
Identify the unexpired milk carton

Once all ingredients have been placed on the table in their respective spots, the minigame ends.

The player is graded based on how much time they took to drag every ingredient to the right spot.

I did the programming for this minigame, and it was a little challenging as it was the first time I worked with the HoloLens 1.

However, it is one of the simpler minigames that requires simple dragging and dropping, so it was pretty manageable still.

Minigame 2

Minigame 2 is a simple step that requires players to crack the 2 eggs retrieved earlier into a bowl. The eggs crack differently depending on how hard the player hits it against the bowl.

Here's what it looked like:

The player to take note of how hard to crack the egg:

If the egg was cracked too hard, it would splash and players would have to retry
If the egg was cracked too softly, it would crack a little and players would have to retry
If the egg was cracked just right, players get to move onto the next egg

Once both eggs have been cracked, the minigame ends. The player is graded on how long they took to crack the 2 eggs.

Minigame 3

Minigame 3 is another simple step, which requires players to pour the right amount of milk into a measuring cup.

Here's what it looked like:

The player had to pour the milk retrieved from minigame 1 into a measuring cup:

If the milk does not reach the red line, the player has to retry
If the milk goes above the red line, the player has to retry
If the milk is just right at the red line, the player passes the level

Once the player finishes pouring the milk correctly, the minigame ends.

The player is graded based on how long they took to pour the right amount of milk.

Minigame 4

Minigame 4 is one of the more challenging steps. Players had to combine all the ingredients from the earlier steps, and mix them into a huge mixing bowl.

Here's what it looked like:

The player had to alternate between stirring and pouring in the ingredients:

According to the bubble above the bowl, players had to pour the ingredients in the right order
If players stirred when they were supposed to pour the ingredient in, they get negative feedback but do not have to retry
If players poured the wrong ingredients in or did it when they were supposed to stir, they get negative feedback

Once the player finishes mixing all ingredients in the correct order, the minigame ends.

The player is graded based on how long they took to mix in all the ingredients in the right order.

I also programmed this minigame. One of the main challenges I faced was trying to get the trigger zones to all align, so that the ingredients could be tilted easily.

Another problem I had was trying to figure out how to detect the direction of the stirring, and I got a little help from my other programmer for that.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this minigame turned out.

Minigame 5

Minigame 5 is the final step in pancake making, and involves cooking the pancake to end off the recipe.

Here's what it looked like:

The player had to pour in the pancake mix and cook it well:

The player had to pour in the right amount of pancake mix and proceed to the next step
If too little or too much pancake mix was poured, players had to retry
The pancake had to be cooked perfectly on both sides
If one side is undercooked or overcooked, players had to retry

Once the player finishes cooking the pancake on both sides perfectly, the game ends.

The player are graded on how long they took to cook the pancake perfectly and are given a final grade based on their performance throughout all 5 minigames.

Conclusion

Overall, this project was very fun to work on and it was a great learning experience.

I've never developed for the HoloLens 1 before so having to learn how to use all the plugins and built-in methods was challenging. That being said, I would like to work with the HoloLens or Mixed Reality again in the future.

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