PBS GO
Interactive Pickleball Simulator
Finding itself at the intersection of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, pickleball has become a growing sport across the nation. Seeking to create an online alternative, this simulator is the first of its kind-- creating a unique opportunity to learn a few foundational rules of pickleball and begin practicing the sport. Similar to Wii tennis, PBS GO utilizes remotes, in the shape of pickleball paddles, to play the game.
This project was created in partnership with Haikal Cooper.
Video Demo:
Game Screens:
The game was designed in the programming language Processing and has both a single player game against a computer and a multiplayer game against another person.
Paddles:
The paddles house a custom printed circuit board containing a joystick, Arduino Nano, vibration motor, accelerometer and NeoPixels. The Arduino Nano is a microcontroller that provides the ability to control all of the other hardware. The joystick is used to move the player left and right. The vibration motor is used to give the user feedback that the ball was 'hit'. The accelerometer calculates movement along the X, Y, and X axes and is used to determine if the player is swinging. Finally, the NeoPixels are programmable LEDs that light up and indicate which paddle corresponds to which player on the screen.
The Case:
The arcade case was built to house the game. It was designed in Fusion 360 and laser cut onto plywood. Included on each side of the case is a NeoPixel matrix that was coded in the Arduino programming language to depict the score of each player.
Playing the Game:
In this video, our user tester Sydney is playing the multiplayer game against my partner Haikal. At the end of the video, she scores a point against Haikal which is depicted on the NeoPixel matrix located at the top of the arcade case.
In this video, our user tester Zhu was playing the single player game against the computer. He does not score a point against it but was successful in hitting the ball several times in a row.
User Testing:
For this project, I user tested 4 individuals.
To build a user profile for each tester, I asked each person:
- If they have played sports/ currently play sports
- If they have ever played pickleball
- If they enjoy playing video games
To begin evaluating our prototype, I then asked:
- If they knew how to interact with the game without being given explicit instructions
- If they understood that it could be played both as a multiplayer game or a single
player game
Example testers:
Malynn:
User profile:
- Doesn’t play sports currently and hasn't in the past
- Has never played pickleball
- Enjoys playing video games
Evaluation:
- She was able to automatically know how to interact with the game without instructions, but she had seen it played before.
- She did understand the two-player aspect of the game as well as the single player aspect because of the home screen
Zhu:
User profile:
- Currently plays football
- Had played pickleball but preferred this game to the real sport
- Enjoys playing video games
Evaluation:
- He did automatically know how to move the player but didn't realize you had to swing to hit
- He understood the multiplayer/single player aspect because of the home screen
We used the information gathered from these questions to determine the strengths and weaknesses of our games. A few of these include:
1. We did not find a correlation between past pickleball experience and success in the game.
2. The majority of testers immediately understood that the joystick moved the player but did not realize they had to swing to hit. This was good feedback and if we were to redesign the game, we would make the instructions more explicit.
3. All of our users stated that they often enjoy playing video games and play them frequently play. Similarly, they enjoyed playing this game and said they would play it again.
3. The most frequent critical feedback we heard was dissatisfaction with the cords connected to the paddles. Many users found they were hindering to full mobility and, if disconnected on accident, gameplay would stop completely. If we were to redesign our paddles, it seems that making them wireless would be of huge benefit to our users.
See our code!
