Dots Knot Notes - A Physical Musical Game Experience

Demo Video:

Dots Knot Notes is a game based off the classic game twister but adding a musical aspect similar to guitar hero with instructions on a screen. The concept inspiration was how to bring in a digital aspect to a previously purely physical experience and have teamwork. Each dot on the mat corresponds to a musical note from the G major scale. There is a free play mode where players can press whatever dots they want to explore and create their own music. The main game is the multiplayer mode where 3 players can choose a speed option and then are instructed specific dots to press, as well as what left/right hand/foot to use so that all three players holding the notes together make up a chord. The chords follow the chord progression of the song All of Me by John Legend which we chose because it’s a popular beginner song for guitar/piano that only has 6 chords. The twister mat layout is displayed on the screen through processing 3 times, once for each player in video game split screen style, so that each player can look at their section for instructions on which note to play next.

We purchased a normal twister mat and created our own soft pressure sensors, 16 in total, one corresponding to each dot on the mat. To create the sensors we used thin foam squares with some holes cut into them. By placing conductive tape on both sides of the foam this created a 'button'. When the dot is pressed the foam squishes and the conductive tape forms a circuit, when released it springs back up disconnecting the circuit. The sensors are connected to an Arduino microcontroller which sends the values to a processing sketch to play the different notes based on which dot is pressed. I did the coding and helped my partner with the fabrication for this project.

Making the sensors:

Sensors attached to the bottom of each dot on the twister mat: