Ruke Kart

Ruke Kart is an experimental karting game with deterministically generated gameplay. It samples and visualizes data collected from its developers and was made to satisfy the project requirements for the "Visualize Yourself" assignment in Plan 221. 

Pink powerups belong to Becca's data while blue powerups belong to Lukas' data. The game portrays the narrative of a student's life and physical/mental well-being as they travel through the first half of winter term 2, 2022 at UBC.

Depending on the day, powerups might be positive; negative; or neutral. They might impact your controls (such as Lukas' roller-skates) in such ways that you need to learn to compensate for the hurdles that are thrown at you (such as, in the case of the rollerskates, a massive speed boost if you take advantage of the lowered wheel friction).

Additional data narratives include the difference in safety, mobility, and confidence felt by Lukas as a white male and Becca as a POC female; the feelings of mental fatigue as students during the COVID-19 pandemic; and confusion.

Some examples of symbolism include:

• Randomly selected music = random variation of good or bad days.
  • Some days are jazzy and fun, other days rushed and stressed.
• Upwards spiral of road = levels of safety.
  • Inspired by elevator and layered city concepts.
• Tendency for inhibiting functions for Becca’s movement power-ups = restraints to movement due to gender/race.
• Tendency for boosting functions for Lukas’ movement power-ups = lack of restraint/carefreeness of movement due to privilege as a white male.

Data points were collected from January 1st to March 1st and include:

• Bedtime
• Waketime
• Money Spent
• Presleep Activities
• Respiratory Rate
• O2Saturation
• Minutes Asleep
• Minutes of Quality Sleep.

Powerup location, impact on gameplay, cooldowns, and length are all impacted by the current day as displayed in the upper right corner of the screen. 

Description of power ups

Icon	Name/Stat	Description
	Time Warp	Randomly selects a date from January 1 - March 1 (period of data collection). All power ups following the collection of this power up will correspond to this date until the next time warp power up.
	Bedtime	The later the time we slept, the longer you will ‘fall asleep’ (lose the ability to control the car). Because sometimes, you fall asleep when you don’t get enough sleep!
	Waketime	The earlier or later Becca's wake-up time, the more or less sleep deprived you are... Wake up early enough and it will seem like everything you try to do happens backwards; likewise, sleep in and the day seems to be over too fast!
	Sleep Quality	The lower the quality of sleep is for that day, the more the car slows down in speed. After all, that’s what poor sleep does to you!
	Spending	Releases gold coins that add time upon collection. The more money spent that day, the more coins that will fall. And so, if no money was spent that day, then no coins will fall. Time is money!
	Respiration	Adds time based on Lukas' average respiration count per minute of that day
	O2 Levels	Blood O2 Levels are highly correlated with physical well-being. Some days you are healthy and highly maneuverable, others you’re sick and sluggish.
	Movement (Lukas)	Gives you a speed boost! But only if Lukas went out that day. Some days Lukas barely moved at all (speed penalty)
	Movement (Becca)	Causes difficulty controlling the vehicle depending on if Becca went out that day.

Keep in mind, some of the power ups could actually be good (or bad) depending on the day!

The game is playable via a controller or keyboard. 

• Vibrational feedback available on XBOX controllers

Controls:

• A/D: Left/Right
• W/S: Accelerate/Brake
• TAB: Restart Level on the current day