Introduction movie

how to play

The game starts when you turn any cylinder on the title screen. When the game starts, the train will start running automatically. The panel on the screen is linked to the cylinder, and when you turn the key, the panel also rotates. You cannot rotate a panel when the train is on the panel. When the train hits a dead end, it will turn around. Your goal is to collect all the coins within the time limit.

Controller

The controller has 9 cylinders, and you can turn any cylinder with one key. The rotation range of the cylinder is 90 degrees. So the cylinder has two status, Up and Right.

The outside is made of laser cut MDF (55mm thick).

The controller system consists of a Raspberry Pi Pico and multiple photo interrupter modules. The photo interrupter module can recognize the cylinder status, and the Raspberry Pi Pico collects the status from each photo interrupter module. Then the Pico sends this information to the game (PC).

One cylinder has two photo interrupter modules. Therefore, this controller uses 18 photo interrupter modules.

The controller (Pico) and PC are connected by USB cable and use serial communication.
The development language is C++, the program is very simple.

Tips for making this controller is to adjust the height of the cylinder and photo interrupter module.

There might be a way to use a physical switch. But this controller has a lot of cylinder turning. There were over 7000 key turning at BitSummit 2024 for 3 days. the controller still works fine. If I had used physical switch, it might have broken. I think my choice wasn't wrong.

controller circuit

Video Game

There is a game by SEGA called "kikansha to-marazu"(きかんしゃトーマラズ) in "Puzzle & Action: Ichidant-R"(イチダントアール). This game is inspired by it. Bacause I think that the game fits with my controller.

This game is developed in Unity. The game program is very complex. Because the route chenges dynamically by user operation. So there are some limitations. For example, no rotation when the train is on the panel.

Level

The level is selected by the cylinder you turn at the start. The time limit is 60 seconds and the coins you should get are 4 at any level.

• Easy (left column)
  Small map, all coins are displayed from the starts, very easy.

• Normal (middle column)
  Small map, only the next coin is displayed, easy.

• Hard (right column)
  Big map, only the next coin is displayed, very difficult.

The map and coin placement will be randomly selected from those available.

prototyping

Prototypes are created for validation before this project begins.