Blaster- Arrow keys to move, space to shoot Conflict- P1 and P2 must press their buttons to ready up. After that, first one to 50 clicks wins.
---------SPOILER ALERT--------- Spensa's dad was indeed not a traitor. Q1 BOOK CLUB PROJECT My book club project was about the book Skyward by Brandon Sanderson. It’s a very impressive mix of both Sci-Fi and mystery genres. For my project, I chose to create a video game that helps to understand the internal conflict that the book's main character, Spensa, is experiencing. In the book, Spensa is split between wanting to believe that her dad was a good and faithful pilot, while everyone else says that he was a coward that ran from battle. In my game, I try to mix playfulness and conflict in a fun way. There are two game modes:Blaster and Conflict. The conflict one is very fast-paced and is a 1v1 between two players. The two players symbolize the two different theories that Spensa is trying to prove. The Blaster mode is not related to conflict and is just for some fun. In the story, Spensa has an internal conflict about her dad’s past. In the prologue, Spensa thinks, “By the time I got home, the battle had been won, my father was gone. And I'd been branded the daughter of a coward” (Sanderson 10). In this citation, we get the first glimpse of how the battle affected her. We can see how, in this one moment, her life would be forever changed. Later on, we learn about how everyone treats her and thinks about her. In the second chapter, Spensa thinks, Everyone always wanted to ask about him. What was it like to live as the daughter of a coward? Did I wish I could hide from it? Did I ever consider changing my surname?”(Sanderson 27). In this passage, we learn the different parts of how people treated her and what they thought of her. This is reflected in my game by the fast-paced speed of the conflict portion. It symbolizes how Spensa always needed to dodge questions from others and how her life always felt like a frenetic one. Further in the book, we start to see how Spense realizes how lucky she is to be able to overcome the challenges and get into flight school. Later, Spensa thinks,” I felt kind of warm and gooey (in a good way) ” (Sanderson 139). This passage helps support the fact that SPensa was enjoying herself in the flight school, as she was talking to boys and actually enjoying flying the ships. This part of the story was seen in the calmer part of my game, called Blaster. This was a fun part of the game that focuses solely on trying to control the ship and shooting down the enemy ships. This part was really fun to play, as well as code. Next, there was the time in the story when their flight instructor, Cobb, was making them work VERY hard in order to get them ready for being an actual pilot. Later, Pensa thinks again, “Cobb kept his promise-he worked us hard that day” (Sanderson 187). Here, we can see that there was no time to rest, as the cadets were kept busy by the constant and rigorous training. I recreated this attitude by making the Conflict game require concentration. If you stop or pause for even a second, you will lose the game. Finally, I used the ending screens in a calm baby blue color to symbolize the soft outcome of the story. After a very intense minute or so of clicking, the game pauses and shows a soft baby blue color to encourage the players to take a rest and reflect. This is also present in the story. Toward the end, Spensa says, “Two hours later, I sat in the DDF command center, holding a blanket around me, with my legs up on my seat” (Sanderson 507). Here, we can see the calmness after the very tense and exciting battle, sort of like the rainbow after the storm. The same idea is conveyed in the ending of my game. In conclusion, my game, titled “Skyward”, attempts to use symbolism, fun, and creativity to convey the theme of the story. It uses colors, game types, words, and more to help the player truly connect to the story and understand the tough internal conflict as Spensa tries to sort out her thoughts and theories on her dad. Works Cited: Sanderson, Brandon. Skyward. New York, Delacorte Press, 2018.
