Team 2: Sharknado

First participant joined at 10:02 am. Game finished at 10:09 am

Team members:

Zixing

Cassaundra

Tyler

Item:

Soccer ball

Additional Props:

Goal posts

Premade signs

Whistle

The Game:

Hail over pedestrians and have them kick the soccer ball a certain distance and pass along the ball to different people

As our homebase was set somewhere rather secluded, it took a while for someone willing to be able to launch the ball out of the court. We dropped the goalpost idea in favor of letting participants carry or dribble the bar as far as they were willing. This allowed for fewer participants but faster progress.

 Homebase

 Our third participant

 Our fourth participant

 Whistling over people

 Our final participant

Things we could have improved:
We planned to have goal posts so participants could have a short end goal and so the task didn't seem so long winded and wouldn't take too much from their schedule. However, the first half of the campus we needed to cross was rather secluded and it was difficult even getting the first few people to help us. The game changed as we were playing it in order to suit our needs.

The execution and details of our game changed so much from planning phase to the final product that while we were trying to account for roadblocks such as people kicking the ball back to us, we didn't factor in that people would be annoyed by being whistled at. We had experienced moderate success on our test day, just kicking the ball to people at Red Square without the whistle or sports getup. But overall, our changes to the game as it went and enthusiasm attracted players to our cause allowed us to come in with the second fastest time.

-Zixing Guo

Team 1 - Super Dario Kart

Team Members:

• Anna
• Johnathan
• Daniel
• Rebecca

Item:  

• Mario (Dario) Kart - Green

Objective:

• Convince passerbys to challenge "Dario" to a game of "Dario Kart." In this game, we race cardboard karts across campus. The item we need to reach the final destination is the green kart, and is held by the passerby. Two of us race along with him in different karts, following a trail marked by traffic cones. Item boxes are left at each flag in an attempt to slow down the racer long enough for us to get a photo. 

Shy Guy, trying to attract attention

We get a participant!

Race about to start ...

And they take off faster than we can keep up.

Flag 1

Flag 2

Flag 3

Flag 4

As I couldn't find a computer with an SD drive, I then had to take a photo of a screen of a photo being taken of a screen ... The phone is in the way, but you can see the tail end of the car in the left corner of the phone.

Game Results:

• We found eager participants not too far into the starting time, and they ran for us all the way from point A to point B, without needing to find a second participant. Overall, seems like a success. 

 What we would have changed:

• Maybe more signs explaining what is going on, so people don't think we are just street performers and walk by. We would have found help even sooner if our intentions were clear.

Final Thoughts:

• A fun and successful project!

Swashbucklers, Final Project

 Hello everyone. This was the team Swashbuckler's final project. You can find links to the blogs of the other members of my team here:
Zach Marschke: http://gamingthesystemuw.blogspot.com/2013/08/team-2-final-project-review.html
James: http://gamingthesystemuw.blogspot.com/2013/08/group-2-swashbucklers-project-reflection.html

How our game works: 

The point of the game is to stand at red square with pirate outfits holding a main sign that says

Arrr Mateys! I've lost my treasure. Can you please help me find it on campus? I promise I'll give you all my booty if you find it! I lost my voice during the great storm at sea last night so I can't talk.

Please make sure you have at least 10 minutes to spare! I will also show you where my mini treasure chests are located on the way, and would like permission to have your photo taken with them.

Arrgg! Let's so find that treasure!"

The main person, after being enticed by the sign and costumes, would put on the hat sitting on the silver barricades excited to find free treasure. This will be the object and essentially they will have no idea they are transporting it for us. It would be hard to get it off them considering that the other teams can't touch it and I can't think of very many ways to get a hat off someone else without possible risk of injury to their head.

The camera man, who will be with me from the start, will begin taking pictures of the person as I guide them to different checkpoints.

We will have a checkpoint guardian to quickly run and place treasure chests as we go to them in order (doing this in order to prevent stealing by random people).

Eventually we will reach the finishing goal, where the treasure guardian will be with the large final chest. We'll snap a picture and end the game.

Roles:

Lindsay- Main Pirate Captain/Main Sign Holder/Leader of Object
Kelly- Final Treasure Guardian
James- Camera man & backup sign holder
Zach- Flag guardian & backup sign holder

Item: 

Pirate Hat, made by Kelly

Home Base: 

The edge of red square along the giant silver pillar things sticking out of the ground

Assigned materials made/gathered:

Lindsay: Pirate costume, make the large main sign, make large final treasure chest, find/make prize for treasure chest, get pirate hat for self (Cookies already eaten & not shown as prize for large chest)

Kelly: Pirate costume, make 2 or 3 small pirate maps (at least one original and one backup), make/find prize for treasure chest, pirate hat for our random person to transport

James: Pirate costume, coin bags, cheap plastic gold coins (number of bags will hopefully be determined Wednesday when the flag marker locations are revealed), prize for large chest, camera

Zach: Pirate Costume, 2 backup signs, prize for main chest, get/make small treasure chests

Photos of flags:

 Game Results:

 We really had no idea what to expect. My hope was that our costumes and signs would get people curious and ultimately have them reading our sign and playing our game. As the minutes went by and people swept past, our enthusiasm turned into disappointment. I found it really difficult that I couldn't talk, and most people didn't want to read the lengthy sign or have the time to play the game. Luck wasn't on our side this time, which is pretty much what we were relying on. 

Playing the Game: 

We played a mock version of our game with Armstrong. I pointed to the pirate hat, he put it on, I gave him his collecting bag, and then walked towards the first flag with him following. Each time we reached a flag, I pointed to it and he stood next to it to have a picture taken. He also made sure to collect the tiny treasure chests when I pointed to them. Just walking the entire course only took 8 minutes, I probably would have been running if we had gotten an actual random person. There seemed to be no problems with the way our game was set up and was executed properly. 

 What we should have changed: 

There's a variety of reasons why the game probably didn't work, and we don't have exact proof leading us to any one cause. Here are some things that we could have changed that might have led to better results:

• Simpler sign: I thought it would be fun to make an entire story on the board, hopefully enticing them to play our game. Turns out no one wanted to even bother reading it. Next time I would probably just add a sentence or two saying Help us find our treasure.
• Don't tell people how much time they need: Doing this probably deterred people away because most claimed they didn't have enough time. I thought I was being courteous by adding it, but our plan only took 8 minutes to get from one base to another and wouldn't really take up much of their time in the first place.
• Change the entire theme of our game: Perhaps people don't really have that much interest in pirates... probably made us seem more like hobos. 
• Better costumes or props: Not all of our teammates were as dressed up, like Zach for instance, who was assigned to run ahead of our participant and place treasure chests. Maybe having a cardboard pirate ship would have been cool? 

 Overall thoughts: 

We all did really well overall. We equally split the work and contributed to the project. We really put a lot effort into it. Even though our game didn't work, we were able to use Armstrong to replicate the game process for our records. It was just a matter of luck, which wasn't on our side that day. 

Swashbucklers (Team 2): Final Project Review

Team Members and roles:

Lindsay- Main Pirate Captain, Main Sign Holder, Leader of Object
http://gamingthesystemuw.blogspot.com/2013/08/team-2-swashbucklers-final-project.html

Kelly- Final Treasure Guardian

James- Camera man & backup sign holder, emergency person finder

Zach- Flag guardian & backup sign holder, emergency person finder

Item: Pirate Hat

Home Base: Silver pillars located on the north end of red square separating it from the quad. Goal destination of Mary Gates Hall entrance.

How our game works: 

The point of the game is to stand at red square with pirate outfits holding a main sign that says:

Arrr Mateys! I've lost my treasure. Can you please help me find it on campus? I promise I'll give you all my booty if you find it! I lost my voice during the great storm at sea last night so I can't talk.

Please make sure you have at least 10 minutes to spare! I will also show you where my mini treasure chests are located on the way, and would like permission to have your photo taken with them.

Arrgg! Let's so find that treasure!"

Once someone starts to play our game the following pictures portray how it should have played out. 

Armstrong at Flag in Red Square #1

Finding the treasure chest at Flag #2 located between the pillars in Red Square

Third treasure chest located in the quad next to flag #3

Flag #4 treasure chest

Armstrong getting to our final destination in front of Mary Gates Hall, finding the large treasure chest!

Game Results Review:

I think it is important to realize that luck does have some say in how every teams game works.  It is luck that determines who walks past your game start point and if they are willing or want to participate.  I think we had really bad luck with this game because nobody wanted to play it.  After trying to flag people down for 20 minutes we eventually gave up and went through the game with Armstrong acting as a random student that wanted to participate.  It was disappointing to have put all that work and effort into the game and have everyone excited to see how it turns out just to see it go south.  In the end though I believe that while we had bad luck there could have been a few things we could have done differently to make the game work better. Even though this game did not work the greatest I still enjoyed the process and the experience.

What we should have changed:

First off I believe that our initial sign used to flag people down had too many words on it.  I noticed people stopping to read it and then walking past when they were done.  It should have been more simplified such as "Help me find my treasure" and not so detailed.  Most people that showed interest in our game didn't want to play because the sign said it would take 10 minutes and people didn't have that time.  I also think that we should have possibly rethought our flag down process.  Instead of stationing each other in different zones or positions we should have all been fully dressed in pirate clothes and all holding signs jumping up and down to get more attention and find people to play the game.  I will be honest in the fact that I wasn't dressed in pirate clothes but that was because I was supposed to be ahead of the game and more discrete about how I was placing the treasure chests by the flags before the participant got there.  We should have also maybe rethought our whole pirate theme idea.  I think we could have thought of something different that would have appealed to more people.  The last thing I would have changed is I would have made our start point in a different location of our zone 2.  I think we should have put it in the quad by the stairs leading up to the art building.  I believe that art students would be very excited to participate in our game and it would have worked well to try to flag them down plus the quad gets good foot traffic at almost any time of day.  

Final thoughts:

Overall I believe our group did a great job and it just was mostly luck that caused us to be unsuccessful in this game.  I believe we had good teamwork and that we had a good game idea and  I wish it could have worked out better for us.  I really enjoyed this final project and this class!

Team Sconado! Project review

Team Sconado!

Group members:
Cassaundra
Zixing
Tyler

Initial set up:
1 Team logo sign at Home-base
1 soccer ball
1 whistle
3 referee-like outfits
2 cones
4 signs ("Dribble the ball", "Carry the ball", "Up the stairs", and "Across the street").

Home Base

Pre-game show

Helpful signs "Up the Stairs" and "Across the Street"

Game Play:
Game started at 10:00 am.
Participant joined at 10:02 am.
Number of participants: six total (4 females, 2 males).
Passed 2 flags - One in Group 4's territory and one in Red Square.
Game finished at 10:09 am.

Tyler guiding victims down the path to the ball (cones/goal post across the street)

This man did not help us but we got his picture anyway.

Flag one! (That stick-like figure at the bottom right).

Non-verbal "Thank you" to a participant.

He left his daughter to bring our ball across the street and up the stairs.

Ball makes it to Red Square. (Turns out there was a flag at the very right edge of this picture).

A lot of whistle-blowing.

She ran past with the ball in her hand but she was so fast we missed her in the picture (you'll just have to trust us).

Carry the ball up the stairs to the finish line!

Finish!

10:09 am on Wednesday, August 14, 2013.

We had hoped to be able to easily grab many different people along the way from home-base to home-base to throw/kick the ball once and pass it on. It ended up being easier (particularly at 10am in the morning) to have one person be able to bring the ball further because there was no one else around for them to pass it to. Had this taken place around 2pm this might have been different and people might have been more likely to pass the ball off to another person. We wanted it to seem more spontaneous, (and it turned out to work better without the referee outfits on our trial run before the challenge), as if we were "just those guys with the soccer ball", and not seem like "some sort of improvisation art". We had initially wanted a goal post/cones that we could move to ensure the ball had a goal for each person (once the realization that 10am in the morning doesn't have enough passers-by to pass off from one person to the next), but there was confusion as to who would bring the cones, and we were without them on challenge-day. Fortunately we had enough signs and tape to create our own cones very quickly before the start of the game. Unfortunately we ended up not needing them past the first person because people were more happy to pick up and run with the soccer ball than to try to dribble it from location to location. The whistle was good to attract attention, but as I have previously stated the game would have had more volunteers had it been played later in the day. On the downside, we were very lucky to have found the flags because all three of the group mates had come into class just late enough to have not seen what the flags looked like, thus were unsure whether the other team's cones were flags, or if there were hidden flags in plain sight. If we could do it again we would want to definitely start later in the day, have a different ball rather than a soccer ball (since people preferred picking it up to kicking it), and would have made it to class on time to be able to see the flags previously and been able to pick them out quicker (we had just missed one that was very close to us without realizing it).


Thanks to Dominic for making this project possible, Tyler for providing the idea, the ball and color-coding his shirt with his shoes, Zixing for creating the signs and providing the time, and Cassaundra for providing the whistle, and photographing/documenting the event. We hope to see you all around campus!

Group 3 Game Documentation and Results

Group 3:
Rachelle
Courtney
Diana
Armstrong

Game started at 10 am, finished at 10:18am. Participant joined at 10:05 am. Passed 3 flags: flag near Group 2's border and two within Group 2's territory.

We were fortunate to have a participant start and finish the course. There was a hiccup where gameplay was faster than setup. Initially, there were lots of people interested, but were unable to participate. We feel this was due to a large, noticeable sign and concise instructions.

Pre-game planning

The attention grabber

To the first flag

Stop for some coins

Flag 1

On to flag 2

Flag 2

Flag 3

Finish!

Mission accomplished