Wow Nice Teeth

For this prototype, I created the game “Wow Nice Teeth”. My first prompt for this project was to have the player play as a toothbrush. My second prompt was to use the WASD keys, but to have the keys do unexpected things. I thought of creating a game where you are using WASD to move a toothbrush around to brush some teeth, with the twist being that the WASD keys would have all their functions reversed.

            At first, this game was a lot of fun because it had a goofy premise, and the reversed WASD keys made the game challenging. But I saw that after playing for a minute, the player got accustomed to how the reversed WASD keys worked. To overcome this design challenge, I decided to have the keys randomly swap functions with each other, throughout the game. With the keys frequently switching function, it would be impossible for the player to become accustomed to their new layout, and the game would never become too easy.

            Another mechanic in the game revolves around using toothpaste as an ammo system. After the player brushes their teeth for too long, the toothbrush runs out of toothpaste, and needs to be refilled. To refill, the player must bring the toothbrush over to the toothpaste on the corner of the screen. This mechanic added a lot to the game. If the player had unlimited toothpaste, they would move the toothbrush from one side of the mouth to the other, easily cleaning many teeth in a row. But since the player must leave the mouth and coming back when their toothpaste runs out, they are able to only clean a few teeth at a time. And upon return to the mouth, the player must once again get their bearings in their new surroundings. Like the key-swapping mechanic, the toothpaste mechanic contributes to the player’s sense of confusion and bewilderment.

            Once I added the toothpaste mechanic, I decided to streamline the game by making the keys only their swap function when the toothbrush is refilled. I then added some small levels of polish, such as making the eyes follow the toothbrush, which I thought contributed to the humor and atmosphere of the prototype. A final thing I did was create a small diagram in the bottom right corner of the screen which shows which key is being pressed. I thought this would be useful for people spectating the prototype, because otherwise they may be unable to appreciate that the key being pressed does not correspond with the movement of the toothbrush in the way they might expect.

The sounds were provided by Freesound.org