Rush Hour

Hi my name is Natalie Hsu. I’m a 4th year student at Northeastern University, studying Computer Science. The game I created called Rush Hour is about a panicking student rushing to get to class on time despite the many challenges they face. I wanted the game to capture the stressful feeling of feeling like you are always running late, while also showing the relief and satisfaction by making it right on time. The classroom can represent reaching your goals despite all the responsibilities and pressure along the way. This game idea is also personal to me because I am currently a college student approaching graduation and have experienced a lot of these struggles myself.

I first chose a countdown timer because I wanted the player to actually feel a sense of urgency rather than casually going about the game. The timer recreates the same kind of pressure a student might feel when they realize they are late to class. I didn’t want the game to be completely open-ended because that would take away from the central idea of urgency. Another design was adding bonus coffee cups! A fun nod to the fact that coffee is a recognizable part of college culture and represents some of the little things students rely on to get through a long busy day. This addition also gives players a reason to take risks in the game, instead of simply only thinking about going directly to class. Another design I defend is adding a celebration moment at the end. I wanted reaching the classroom to feel like a reward rather than a chore. This celebration represents that feeling of relief when you have finally made it to class on time after trying so hard.

The collaboration was definitely real at the start when Claude contributed plenty of ideas and details that went beyond my first original prompt. Being visually creative and interesting was a good example that really helped communicate my feelings of rushing across campus better than my original prompt alone. Despite that, I still had to make decisions about what could be kept in the game and what had to be rejected. It was still myself deciding whether the ideas and concepts fit within the experience I imagined.

I would say that I authored the concept and creative direction, but not the code itself. I had come up with the central idea, meaning behind the game, main objectives, and overall feeling I wanted the player to experience. Claude had then taken my ideas in a form of a prompt to turn it into an actual functioning game. I personally would not claim that every technical aspect of the game is mine because I did not personally write the code. One could say that I was the creative director, and Claude acted more like the developer implementing my direction.

Prompt 1: The challenge is that the player must avoid students, construction obstacles, and other random campus distractions. A countdown timer creates urgency.

Prompt 2: The feeling I’m after is relieving and satisfying, like barely making it to class on time. The player gets a fun celebration when they reach the classroom, with a higher score for having more time left. The game represents the chaotic feeling of being a college student constantly rushing between responsibilities but somehow managing to make it through the day.

AI Disclosure — At first I used Chat GPT to explain the assignment in simple detail, as I found the original instructions to be a bit confusing. Then after I used Claude chat to help brainstorm game ideas, starting by asking it to refine my original idea into one that fits a game properly. Then I used Claude code as instructed to to complete the assignment remainder.