Successful ingredients

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Posted by mike aubry.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Engineer on team #47, Chiefs, from Pontiac Central.

Posted on 8/12/99 8:31 PM MST



Isn't it fun to dream up what next years game could be like!
Don't you think that FIRST could use our collective ideas to assist them in creating a truely fantastic game?
Here's how I would like us to go about doing it.
1st - Identify the required elements of a fun and exciting game!
- fast paced (must encourage motion and movement)
- pleasing to the eye (can see all the action from a specified vantage point)
- colorful (color excites and is easier to market)
- simple, clearly understandable objectives (a calculator is not req'd to keep score)
- teamwork oriented (if alliances are used)
- does not favor or penalize offensive or defensive strategies (one way can't always beat the other)
- does not penalize a good team by aligning with a not so good team (if alliances are used)
- must encourage multiple solutions (isn't balancing the tradeoffs fun?)
- rewards teams that are creative in solving the problem (how to turn the kit into a functioning robot)
2nd - Determine the number of robots that will be playing at one time
- how many teams per alliance (2,3,4...)
- how many alliances (2,3,4...)
3rd - Determine the size and shape of the playing field
- # of sides (3,4,5,6,7,8,...)
- length of sides (14,16,18,20,22,24,28, feet...)
- # of levels (1,2,3...)
4th - What kind, size and shape (characteristics) should the playing pieces be?
- must be large enough to see easily from the stands at Disney
- colorful (red, white, blue, yellow, green) too light and too dark is bad
- mass (weight) sensitive to human player strength limitations
- size cannot be temperature sensitive
- material must be robust enough to endure a battle between robots without being damaged
- must be easy to determine value of score by judges
5th - Determine what and how the playing pieces should be manipulated to produce a score
- where do the start from
- where should they end up
6th - Determine the scoring value
- base score
- multipliers (if used)
7th - Determine where the robots should start from (starting robot position and human positions)
8th - Determine if robots final position should add or subtract or multiply value of score

That's a start - So now, how about some input to the 8 ingrediates? Once these are determined
many of the issues that most of you have written of may now be weighed against the criteria
and those elements that don't fit (like footballs) will leave way to the things that will enhance the
type of successful elements that would lead to a great game.