[FRC Blog] When is a Game Hint not a Game Hint?

[Ari423]

When is a Game Hint not a Game Hint?

Blog Date:
Friday, October 2, 2015 - 17:46


There are probably a few good answers to this question, including:

1. When it’s not preceded by words equivalent to “This is a game hint”

2. When it’s a video teaser for the season

Answer number one I think many of you are familiar with, as we’ve said something along those lines several times in this blog.

Answer number two is probably new to you.

We’re trying something very new for the 2016 season, something many folks at FIRST HQ are excited about. Game hints have a long history in FRC and are enjoyed by many. However, while they can be fun, it would be hard to argue that they ‘make FIRST loud’ by reaching outside the tent to people that are not already familiar with FIRST and FRC.

We are currently having a video teaser produced for the 2016 FRC season. The teaser is almost, but not quite, like a trailer you might see for a new movie or game being released. Like the folks that make game trailers, we’re keeping in mind people outside the tent, folks that don’t already know a new game is coming out and already plan on ‘lining up at midnight on release day’ to buy it.*

Folks inside the tent have not been forgotten, though! While the details of the game will still be secret until Kickoff on January 9th, you will be able to learn much about the upcoming season by watching the teaser. It is season-specific, and not something we will be able to use again after the 2016 season is over. Folks interested in hints will likely find plenty. Hints, and more than hints.

The teaser will be ready in a couple weeks. Look for details on how it will be released soon, and start thinking about what an epic teaser release party would look like.

Frank

*Been there. On the sidewalk outside the GameStop in Epping, NH. OK, with my sons, because they wanted to. That’s my story.

This could be interesting...

[jkelleyrtp]

Originally Posted by Ari423

It is season-specific, and not something we will be able to use again after the 2016 season is over.

Whoa I'm already excited for the 2016 season but now I'm afraid these CD people are going to figure out the game before Jan 9. As much as I want to see game hint, I sure hope it's not too revealing.

[Foster]

Oh I can see how they could create a video that would you would never think it was a FRC game. Matter of fact there are lots of video's lasting 2-3 minutes out there today with robots moving around. Lots of you have seen them and you are still going "Wait, stacking totes, is that a game?!?"

Looking forward to seeing the "trailer", just hope that I don't see any trailers in it. (aka Lunacy)

[lriddick]

"""TENT""
TNET T-net tennis net, volleyball, water polo. yep its a water game. yes i had to go there

[EDesbiens]

It could have a link with the fact that it is the last year with only one CMP...

[bearbot]

Oh wow were getting a video hint this years that is filled with many hint so excited to see the video in a few weeks

[GeeTwo]

The correct answer is:

ALWAYS

Even the official game hints are (heretofore) actually hints for the game titles, which doesn't really tell you much about the game. Looking at the last eight:

• 2015 Recycle Rush: Rushing is the worst thing to do, and most teams score more by littering than recycling.
• 2014 Aerial Assist: robots didn't fly, and assists as scored in the game were a completely different thing than they were in the sports the clues were based on.
• 2013 Ultimate Ascent: It used Frisbees, but wasn't much like Ultimate. Well, we did ascend as an endgame bonus, so about 1/4 of a hint.
• 2012 Rebound Rumble: I don't recall seeing any rebounds; balls were usually picked up after they had become stationary. Not much of a rumble either; probably the least defensive interaction between 2001 Diabolical Dynamics and 2015 Recycle Rush.
• 2011 Logomotion: Sorry, those logos didn't move, just the individual elements.
• 2010 Breakaway: I don't get this name at all. It would have made more sense as a way to describe the endgame of Logomotion.
• 2009 Lunacy: Had nothing to to with the moon, though it did call the sanity of the GDC into question.
• 2008 First Overdrive: But you drove under the overpass. Though it was the one game where pure speed was a winning strategy.

I'm taking my time with this one to try to convince myself to not obsess over the game hint (again) this year. To paraphrase The Animals:

Oh, mentors, tell your children, not to do what I have done: spend December in CD misery, in the thread of Game Hint One.

[Justin Montois]

This is going to be very.........interesting.

I would be curious to see if anyone with some time on their hands to make a trailer using any prior years game that wouldn't give away 90% of the game.

I feel like this is going to create a situation regarding teams prototyping based on this trailer, especially seeing as though it will be "ready"(Released?) in just a couple weeks.

Over 2 months before kickoff seems like a lot.

[Caleb Sykes]

This should be awesome. I'm looking forward to it.

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by Justin Montois

I would be curious to see if anyone with some time on their hands to make a trailer using any prior years game that wouldn't give away 90% of the game.

What do you mean? The game reveal videos don't give away 90% of the game; probably more like to 30-50%. Just looking at Recycle Rush, the game reveal video gave no clues about problems and activities that were crucial to many teams' success or failure:

• How much litter got in the way of driving and scoring (and occasionally got caught inside a lift or other mechanism).
• Tetherbots, whether active stackers or passive ramps (or butlers or nets).
• Pre-capping stacks, or even scoring pre-built stacks.
• Can Burglaring, much less can battles
• Noodling cans over the wall.
• How small, cluttered, and messy the field would be.

And things people thought about or were explicitly shown in the video, but were not useful strategies:

• Robots throwing things across the step
• Vortex cannons
• Noodle Nets
• Really tall stacks (more than 6 totes)
• Noodle cones
• Robots manipulating noodles

[PayneTrain]

No one's talking about the big story = the vanilla version of the game was developed before November.

[Basel A]

I honestly don't see any way this turns out well. If they reveal very little of the game, it's just more fodder for the game hint-crazed crowd (which I once found interesting, but not in the past 4 or 5 years). If they reveal some of the game, it gets into a "longer build season" situation, because if I think I know what the game piece, I'm going to start working on how to manipulate it. And you probably will too.

[asid61]

If a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is at least 24 pictures per second,
CD is going to explode into a 2,000 page thread come December.

[RufflesRidge]

Originally Posted by Justin Montois

I would be curious to see if anyone with some time on their hands to make a trailer using any prior years game that wouldn't give away 90% of the game.

Someone did it way back in 2009: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2PVBqi9dyE

[GeeTwo]

Originally Posted by PayneTrain

No one's talking about the big story = the vanilla version of the game was developed before November.

I seriously expect that this is the case most years. Some of the more credible rumors indicate that games are at least rough-planned three or four years in advance. They just keep it under wraps until the last minute. Sometimes, the small size of the "need to know" group shows, as with the noodle agreement last year.

And as far as useless game hints are concerned, the 2009 video cited above gave no useful clues at all about the game or game pieces until the final still, when the empty cells and super cells were shown (without any sense of scale).