Aggressive Scholar

Battle against papers, quizzes, virtual lectures, and the final exam to complete the semester. The stress has never felt so real.

Controls: Left/right arrow keys - move; Up arrow - shoot pencil; Down arrow - activate forcefield

Design/development process:

We reskinned the Atari Phoenix arcade game to make it about a student completing
assignments, quizzes, tests, and of course the final exam boss. That’s the player’s role in the game. They may move left/right but not up/down, shoot pencils, and activate a backpack shield to protect them. All these mechanics are in Atari, but the last two are represented by a white projectile and shimmering forcefield. We believe the theme is a good fit for the reskin because it’s fun to put an action-based spin on something like writing papers or finishing homework in real life. The game plays a joke on how stressful it can feel for work to be stressing the student out and “attacking” them. The system provides a few types of enemies that each move differently, including papers, quizzes, virtual lectures, and the final exam boss.