Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

2011 is the 2500 year anniversary of the marathon and the international year of chemistry. Combining marathon with chemistry, the game is to build a fuel cell powered robot that can move continuously for the full 2 minutes 15 seconds.

I know what you are thinking, that's almost as dull as Lunacy but for the robots that stop moving, an onboard motion sensor triggers an explosive charge (air bag module) and the robot gets blown up. Too bad for them but very exciting for the spectators. Bring plenty of spare parts next year.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Bill mentioned the new game again

"I’m exhausted. The Game Design Committee met on-site this weekend and covered a lot of territory. The 2011 game has changed again. I can’t tell you how, but the elements engineering prototyped for this weekend are being moved to storage, procurement is looking for different game pieces his morning and we’re developing scoring for the new design. Of course the game could change again by the next meeting, but right now we’re all focused on the ideas from this weekend. Luckily we had enough Haagen-Dazs to keep everyone fueled. Unfortunately, Paul Lazarus didn’t get any because he logged in from a remote location."

All I see from this is nothings set in stone yet, but there seems to be a general concept. Also the game pieces must be something that there are a lot of different types (footballs?, bean bags?). That's all i can get from this, I'm sure people will start looking for connections to Haagen-Dazs though.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Wasn't Haagen-Dazs one of the running "hints" from Bill's Blog last year?

I disagree about the different types. If they have to work out an entirely new method of scoring, then they probably completely changed the game piece from one object to a completely different one.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Heres a clue to next years game. Hear the word FIRST alot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdLtWVy1DQI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdLtWVy1DQI

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Haagen Dazs doesn't really jump out as something important in that message. Instead, the words fueled, remote, and location are extremely striking. The more I think about it, the more I believe it has to do with the oil spill in the gulf. Fueled is pretty self explanatory. Remotes are what they used to control the under water robots that repaired the leaking well. The well was a mile under the sea, so that could be a remote location. Maybe the game will involve blindly(well, using the camera) positioning something from a difficult location?

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

there could also be some control lag involved, if we have to rotate a valve wheel while using a camera, i can't wait to finish my personal project and have the team take inspiration from it.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Sounds more like Lunacy to me, considering the source. (outpost-->remote location, refueling station-->fueled)

TERRITORY stands out more to me (and not just because I capitalized it).

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Territory...capture the flag? The team with the most Haagen-Dazs tubs wins?

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

I've been expecting a CTF (capture the flag) game type for the past few years now. That would be the most advanced game by far in my opinion. There are endless possibilities to make a CTF game for FRC fun and complex.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Keep in mind that the GDC is trying to design more spectator-friendly games. Breakaway was a fantastic example of this. We'd like a game where we can bring people who've never heard of FIRST before, and they can instantly understand what is going on. A blind target game sounds slow (like fixing the oil spill) and not necessarily conducive towards audience engagement. Let's be honest, who here watched the entire feed of BP trying to fix the riser pipe?

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Keep in mind that the oil spill happened long after Kickoff, which I believe is when the GDC begins working on the next year's game. They might have found a way to weave the oil spill concept into the game, but I doubt that's what the game's "theme" is.

Those are really good words to weed out, though. They remind me A LOT of Lunacy...I'm sure that was on purpose.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Ok so what game is easy to watch and has a lot of game pieces?

I don't think it will be a sport however because we had that this year. Maybe something like building a pyramid (something more stable then the boxes in stack attack) or a puzzle or something.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Tanagrams?

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Tanagrams would be interesting. I don't think that's too much of a spectator sport though; seems like it'd be slow paced.

Re: anyone have any ideas about next years game?
 

Maybe more of a puzzle-type game. Tanagrams is less based on strategy and more based on the creativity of the person (or people) behind the glass. Puzzle-making is also creativity, but maybe a game could be a modified version that just involves interaction between game pieces for bonuses. Maybe tossing a bean bag chair into an elevated box at the end of the game, or something like that.