Matt Bateman

Flicker

As part of a University course focused on Python, I created an interactive game called "Flicker" using only Pygame. and from-scratch assets. The goal is to help navigate "Sparky" across a failing circuit board.

Case Study

Year: 2015

Client: University of Utah

Deliverables: 2D Sprites, Python codebase, functional and multi-level game with variable progressions with win and lose states

Game Title Screen

I wanted it to be simple but still challenging.

Using arrow keys, players have to make Sparky cross all the red circle checkpoints and then navigate to the green exit point.

Sparky on a circle

But if they move off a circle...

...the pathways will disappear. The challenge is now to navigate to all the red circles and the final exit point by memory alone.

Sparky off a circle
Sparky off a circle

As the player progresses, levels become more challenging.

On higher levels, there are more red checkpoints to hit, and the paths become increasingly difficult to traverse.

In addition to writing the code, I created the visual elements for the character, maps, and title screens. Open-source music and sound effects were implemented to round out the game.

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