Audio Cues

In my second iteration of the concept I worked on creating a system to differentiate between mines square and mines diagonally to the dot pressed.

This idea works really well in the visual interface.  It was easy to see which dots were being referred to.  I really like this system too because it added a level of strategy and thought to the game, allowing for more thoughtful play.

But when using an audio interface as I did in the final iteration, I couldn't come up with a nice simple audio cue that wouldn't take a while to learn.  I wanted people to be able to start playing right away with minimal instructions - this game is meant to be a party game and if people have to keep stopping to explain the rules or argue over what a sound meant, then it's going to detract from the game.

I considered putting in a single word audio output like "square" or "diagonal" but it just didn't feel right.  I liked the beeps and the words would still need explanation and I think people would just end up saying "What?" a lot if I followed that path.  Because of this I elected not to use the diagonal and square mine detection in the final version of the game.

P.S.  I also didn't use it in the makey-makey version, but that's because I had such a small mat.