[Official 2005 Game Design] Game Elements and Subtasks

[Tom Schindler]

Realizing this is a REALLY old idea, i would love to see bowling pins be in the game at one point or another.

People recognize bowling pins, which would make the game a lot easier to explain to people new to FIRST. Robots could have to set up certain pins in certain areas, while knocking down certain pins in other areas...

Also,

Bring back the torroids! Anyone around in '97 remembers these awesome game elements, we had way too much fun practicing for human player that year...

Enough about game elements,

an ideal game to me, would be one where the members of an alliance are FORCED to work with eachother. Such as having a barrier that teams are not allowed to cross, and moving game elements (Bowling pins, torroids, balls etc) from one side of this barrier to another will score points. This could allow for completely defensive, completely offensive, or mixed matches. Many gameplay strategies...

And my final thought is, as a game element, use dippin dots! they are readily available at many of the competition venues, especially the nationals! When the match is over, the field reset people get a treat!

--Tom "where's my dippin' dots" Schindler

[Stephen Kowski]

I've always been partial to the idea of footballs as game objects. I always like hanging, but I doubt I will see that again next year since i saw it this year. I also like the idea of having zones on the field (2002) where you score by being in....

[Andrew Rudolph]

I would like to see somthing thats Not inflatable. It seems that the inflatable things we get are too inconsistant and pop often. The Floppies from 1999 are a great example.

I like how this year involved more human input into the score.

I think when we had robots Limbo and Robots Climbing over things it was fun to watch, nothing like seeing a arm that folds under 18 inches reach 10 feet. It also made a nice challenge.

I would like to see somthing that would involve a creative drivetrain. Suspension, Extendy Bits, Retracty mabumgles, things like that.

Finally i would Liked how this year the field was interactive in a motorized way. If you ever watched Robot Wars (**GASP**) Then you saw how they had elements that a bot could run into that would activate somthing somewhere else on the field. Just like this year it might be good for autonomous.

[Ryan F.]

An idea I really liked is a sort of "capture the flag" element. It would be something that you had to trigger, and exists on both sides of the field (one per alliance). Robots would have to manipulate or trigger these, which would either be a bonus to them, or a penalty to the other team. This would cause teams to have to think much more about defense, and strategy would be a must to protect your undecided trigger thing . This would also cause much more exciting matches.

[Joe Matt]

You know, that brings up a cool idea, remember at the team party this year, there was a game where there was a large wall, and the people had to work together to get things at the end, and the people were attached together. That's a cool idea.

[Ken Loyd]

I like multiple tasks in the game.

I like the idea of scoring zones.

I like two robots against two robots.

I am waiting for the auto mode to be at the end of the game.

I like the multiple levels for the playing field.

I have often thought of huge popsickle sticks (both ends rounded) that both robots would need to work together to make the sticks stand up (by leaning against each other.)