Blog Post

Retro Portfolio: Press Your Luck

Modeled after the game show of the same name, my “Press Your Luck” was developed as a way to award prizes to exceptional members of the business unit I was in at TechSmith.

Graphics representing each prize could be uploaded into the system, from which a game board would be created. “Whammy” graphics could also be added.

Upon loading the game, 50 different game boards would randomly be created. During game play, those boards would be cycled through randomly, eliminating the predictability issue of the original Press Your Luck. The initial game board creation was handled server-side but all further randomness and interaction was client side.

The main Press Your Luck screen, showing the title and one of the randomly-generated game boards.
The main Press Your Luck screen, showing the title and one of the randomly-generated game boards.

The game could be started by any mouse click or keypress, at which time the board animations would begin and game music would play. Another click or keypress would trigger a “buzz in” animation and sound. If the player landed on a Whammy, a Whammy noise would play, otherwise a prize sound would play. All sounds were handled via JavaScript and HTML5 audio.

The Press Your Luck prize screen, showing the last randomly-generated game board used and what prize the player landed on.
The Press Your Luck prize screen, showing the last randomly-generated game board used and what prize the player landed on.

The game board graphics were created by one of the company’s designers after my initial proof of concept was tested.


The above text and images were copied directly from my original portfolio as I imported it over to the blog. It was not updated for re-publishing. This project launched in January 2012.

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