[ToddF]

I'd say maybe a third to a quarter of the shots made it to video that was posted. When playing with prototypes, there is always a lot of "playing". That's how you begin to get an instinctive feel for what what works and what doesn't, and what sorts of improvements you want to try in your next iteration.

When prototyping, it's important not to draw too many negative conclusions about the feasibility of a design. Prototypes often aren't executed well, and that's just fine. You are asking, "What could this be if we concentrated on making it as good as it could be?" Your goal is to try a few things very quickly, so you can decide which of several concepts deserves your full development attention. It's just as important not to lock in on the first idea that shows promise.

Our shooter brainstorming session generated 15 to 20 ideas. We narrowed it down to 3 ideas worth prototyping. We'll try them all and then make the decision of which will be the one we focus on improving.

We were lucky in that we had this specific hardware already prebuilt, and the only modification necessary to get it shooting was to shim the hood for more ball compression. Our other prototypes will be a bit more crude. It really illuminates the advantages teams with history have over the rookies. This is the first time we have been able to really take advantage of this.