Assignment:

As part of learning Processing the previous fall, we had to design and program a game. Peder Torget and I made a two-player game where one person plays a whale fisher, while the other plays a whale. The fisherman wins if he manages to catch the whale without being sunk by protestors, the whale’s goal is just to grow big and survive.

Balancing the game was our biggest challenge. We tried to force the whale up so there would be more player interaction - if it could just stay out of the whale fisher’s reach it wouldn’t be a very exciting game! To make that impossible, we made the whale dependent on air and fish. The whale’s nimble enough to make it hard to hit, but since the fish only appear within reach of the harpoon, it has to stay dangerously near the surface (and fisherman) to survive.

We programmed the to grow a little for each fish it eats. The fisherman can widen the reach of his harpoon by shooting them. That way the whale becomes an increasingly easy target and gets less “safe space” in the deep.

When the harpoon hits the whale, the game turns into a button-mashing tug of war as it is reeled in by the fisherman. The protestors (green boat) are constantly closing in on him, though - if they get too close, he will have to release the whale and use his harpoon to sink them instead.

Above: Sinking activists (whale doesn’t seem to care)

Below: Splash screen (no pun intended) with characters/HUD-graphics by Peder

Though whaling may be a touchy subject for some, the setting was first and foremost used because we found it funny, not because we wanted to express any political views about it - choosing sides is a matter left to the players. That said, players seem to like the “cute whale” more than the “evil whaler”. Damned spermwhales, they’re just too cuddly!