My next major product piece to make was a physical prototype of a bomb defusal puzzle. This I at first imagined to use either play doh for the wires in a spaghetti like material but in the end I just ended up using pipe cleaners in different colours to simulate the usual Red, green and blue bomb defusal wire you would normally see in any film or tv show or bomb toy product media. My prototype puzzle was to played like one of those wire looping games which requires the player moving a metal hook around a metal wire circuit without touching the wires and setting off a beep or electric shock.
circuit board of bomb puzzle with all wires looped
another slanted shot of bomb puzzle
side angle of bomb puzzle
side birds eye view of bomb puzzle
My bomb defusal game is called "Wiring Loops and Hoops" as the main gameplay of it is to tie one end of the wire from the left to the right while bending and twisting it through other exemplar wires. These have different difficulties like the Red wire has loops going vertically and horizontally. Whereas the green wire has more zig zag like hoops with smaller spaces to put the wire through. And the light blue wire s the easiest with its more bigger hoops and loops to fit your wire through.
underside of bomb defusal puzzle
close up of top side of bomb puzzle
This puzzle makes the player more aware of their rope and wire knotting skills, their path finding skills and their timing skills. As this puzzle is done over 1 minute intervals and if the player does not complete it, a disc is thrown up through the centre simulating the bomb exploding. I also had other colours in mind when thinking about converting this into a digital puzzle. The player would be able to choose from different shades as well as multi-coloured wires and even some options for colour blind people too.
The bomb exploding game mechanic is shown in the two pictures above, two tubes go underneath the board and carry between them a long strip of paper. On top of the middle part of the strip is a round disc, if coloured in this would be the centre of the bomb when looking at it from a birds eye view. This strip of paper is held by another player who pushes it in if the other player fails to loop and tie the wires. Pushing the strip inwards pushed the disc upwards through the centre of the board and into the players face.