I was talking to some of the members on my team and we wondered…
How much of corporate pressure is there for game design in FRC? Do sponsors just ask can we do a game where robots do real world stuff like stack totes (2015), move boxes (2018) and place high precision game pieces (2023) or do FRC like to switch it up and show that we can build these types of robots? If so what games can FIRST cook up in the future?
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I don’t believe there is any public info about the degree to which corporate sponsorships affect the game design. However, my personal impression is that, at least recently (since the 2020 season), the “theme” has been mostly a skin over a generic game which could fairly easily be changed out for something else. The 2016-2019 seasons featured a much more integrated theme which would be harder to switch out, but also prior to 2019 games didn’t have corporate sponsors to worry about tying in. 2019 had some amount of corporate tie-in due to Boeing’s space exploration efforts through ULA, but was much more a “space” game than anything else. 2020 obviously was skinned to match the Star Wars sponsor, but imo that game could have been reskinned for another theme with a small amount of effort. '22 and '23 could have both been easily reskinned for another sponsor, but some of that may be due to changing contracts because of COVID and the oddness of the '21 season.
I’m not sure if this is a common view or not, but personally I prefer the pre-2015 games without themes beyond “pseudo-sport for robots”. In fact, I think the more an FRC game looks and plays like a sport, the easier it is to draw in those less predisposed to be into a robotics competition.
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The previous two games have been 're-skin’s. When Infinite Recharge was replayed in 2021 in the Game Changers season, it was in lieu of the game that came to be called Rapid React, which was to be played in 2021. The reason is that FRC games take two years to develop each- so the development for a game begins two years before the played season. However, since it would not have made sense to play the Rapid React game for the at-home challenges, every game since has been an adaptation of the game that was to be played the previous season. In other words, the Charged Up game was really to be called Rapid React, think about it- an aeroplane elevator for the ‘charging’ stations, boxes from chutes for sorting, cones. Furthermore, Game Changers was to be based around sports and the game that came to be called Rapid React was a mix of basketball and climbing sports. It’s not clear whether the 2024 game, Crescendo, will be the real one or the game that was to be played this year, as the development for it commenced following the restart of FRC operations.
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I think the theme of both of these games were unrelated to their sponsors. While the 2019 FRCFIRST Robotics Competition game was sponsored by Boeing, the 2018-2019 FIRST season overall (FIRST Launch) wasn’t sponsored by any company. As for the 2019-2020 season (FIRST RISE) which was sponsored by Force For Change, the overarching theme of the season was based around cities. Aesthetically, Infinite Recharge got the Star Wars theming, but the backstory didn’t have much to do with the franchise specifically. I suspect FIRST comes up with a theme for the season first, then secures sponsors later.
This is something I’d also like to see a return to. Thankfully, they’ve at least backed off on the 2016/2017 presentation of themes as being something every team should follow along with.
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Whatever the corporate involvement in game design (and I suspect it’s minimal to non-existent) it’s definitely true that FIRST likes to vary game designs to present different types of challenges from year to year. The real goal seems to be to make teams build different kinds of mechanisms and the code that supports and drives them each year, so that students are faced with new engineering challenges as they proceed through their time in FIRST. Just looking back at my own time as a mentor, I can see how they’ve done this:
2015: Recycle Rush - pick-and-place with very large game objects and stacking, no defense.
2016: Stronghold - shooting with medium balls into direct high and low goals, field obstacles, and wall/bar climb endgame.
2017: Steamworks - combination pick-and-place and small ball shooting into direct low and indirect high goals, rope climb endgame.
2018: Power Up - pick-and-place with large cubes on two very different levels and continuous (timer) scoring, confined wall/bar climb endgame.
2019: Deep Space - pick-and-place with large panels and large soft balls on three levels, platform climb endgame.
2020/21: Infinite Recharge - small ball shooting into direct low and high goals and balance bar climb endgame.
2022: Rapid React - medium ball shooting into indirect low and high goals, multiple bar climbing endgame.
2023: Charged Up - pick-and-place with two (very) different objects on three close levels, platform balance endgame.
Every one of these games is meant to force new design choices (or serious adaptations of previous designs) on the team to meet a challenge unlike the previous year’s. Even where things seem to be similar (like the shooting games of 2020/21 and 2022) they really aren’t as similar as they seem. The change from direct to indirect goal shooting between Infinite Recharge and Rapid React made even teams that had well-established shooter designs have to rework them to meet the new challenge. How many of us started with a familiar hood shooter (that had worked great in Infinite Recharge) only to discover that the inherent backspin they imparted was a very bad idea for the new indirect goals and had to redesign in a hurry to get both accurate shooting and a shot that wouldn’t bounce out? That’s the great challenge the game design team is constantly thinking about: how to change things to keep us all working to innovate and try new designs rather than resting on our laurels and just rebuilding the same mechanisms over and over again. Remember that the first two core values FIRST lists are “discovery” and “innovation” and the game designs are focused on making us employ both as much as possible.
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I thought Stronghold and Infinite Recharge both used dodgeballs, isnt that the same size?
sorry for nitpicking on a post i just realized is ancient
BOULDER
10 in. diameter, gray, Gopher SoftiBall
POWER CELL
yellow 7 in. diameter Medium Bounce Dino-Skin foam ball
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thank you! anyway someone should probably close this thread now for some reason I thought it was recent
We were a month away from that happening. Thanks to you, we have another 12 months of fun starting…NOW!
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