Ha! Potato
Team Lead · Programmer · Composer · SFX · Game Jam Project
Overview
Ha! Potato is a chaotic, voice-controlled party game created for the 2024 Global Game Jam by the Maryville Game Developers Club. Inspired by the theme “Make Me Laugh,” the game pits players against a rapid-fire series of voice-based microgames where your only input is a microphone!
As club president, I led the game’s design, ideation, and programming. Built in just 3 days, the project draws from the fast-paced WarioWare formula, with a twist: every action must be performed using your voice. Whether you have to get loud, stay quiet, or say the correct phrase, each challenge is a race against the clock. After each round, the mic is passed to the next player like a game of hot potato. You don't want the timer to end on your turn or you're out!
Gameplay
- Plug in a microphone — your voice is the only controller you need.
- Face randomized microgames that require sounds like shouting, blowing into the mic, or staying completely silent.
- Pass the mic after your turn — don’t be caught holding the "potato" when the timer runs out.
- Designed for quick, energetic rounds and loud, chaotic group fun.
- Perfect for party settings or couch co-op with friends.
Design Highlights
Ha! Potato was designed around spontaneity, quick thinking, and laughter. The goal was to create something anyone could jump into and instantly understand when playing for the first time. I had a lot of fun composing short 5–10 second loops for each microgame that could convey what the player is viewing in just 1-2 bars of music.
With a team of about five artists and three programmers, each artist took on one or two microgames to illustrate using just a few simple frames. This approach let us build a lot of unique minigames fairly quickly, then focus on wiring up the main mechanics. I developed the voice input system to detect volume and pitch thresholds, mapping those to game-specific actions. Each microgame was designed to be quick and intuitive, only requiring a single voice input — whether you're blowing into the mic to extinguish a birthday candle or shouting to fire a laser as (royalty-free) Godzilla.
The game uses Unity’s built-in Windows Speech API via the KeywordRecognizer class, letting us
map voice
commands directly to actions without external libraries. This kept development lightweight and well-suited
for a game jam,
though it limited the game to run only on Windows devices. Since the system only listens for specific
phrases, we designed our
challenges around short, distinct words like “cheese,” “good dog,” or “stop” to ensure clear recognition.
While this limited the input
complexity, it made sure interactions felt fast and funny.
