Leap Motion Mayhem

Leap Motion powered arcade game using Arduino, LEDs, and a cardboard box

Overview

This was a project built for the 2019 HackCU Hackathon and won the first place prize in our category. It is an arcade style game that combines hand tracking with an Arduino powered LED interface for a fun an unique game experience. The game is displayed on an array of LEDs with red LEDs representing enemies. Players must use hand gestures to aim, shoot, and block incoming projectiles.

For the hardware we decided to utilize the Leap Motion hand tracking module and Arduino. The interface is mounted on a cardboard box which houses a series of 12 LEDs that act as the display.

The three green LEDs in the bottom right corner indicate the number of lives the player has while the five LEDs that line the top represent the enemies. The line of LEDs down the middle are used to indicate whether a player is being shot at by an enemy.

There are three gestures which the player can use. The first is aiming, which is performed by rotating the wrist laterally so the fingers point towards the active enemy. The second gesture is blocking, which is performed by raising the hand in a "halt" pose and which players must perform in order to block incoming fire. Lastly, the player can shoot by pulling in the thumb to the hand.

Development
Gameplay

Enemies are spawned at random, one at a time. The player must shoot the lit enemy within a certain period of time or the enemy has a chance to shoot at the player. If the player is shot at they must block and if they fail to block in time, they lose a life. The player has three lives and must kill as many enemies as they can before losing all three lives.