How to make TTT Fun

I honestly really struggled trying to find a new and innovative way to make Tic Tac Toe fun AND to make a playable demo for Monday.

I tried working off of a game where you take a piece of gridpaper and you and another player draw a line between 2 dots. When one person makes a square, they write their initials in the square and it counts as a point for them. The game continues until all the area has been claimed.

But unfortunately, that didn't really go anywhere.

What I ended up doing was combining two different games, Tic Tac Toe, and Hangman.

The rules are essentially the same. Both players come up with a word (of equal length) for a game of hangman. At the same time, there is a single game of TTT going on. If one player guesses a letter right, they get to place down a move on tic tac toe.

I also thought about the idea of "if a player guesses a letter wrong, the other player gets to put their move on TTT down" but I felt like this would move the game too fast.

I'm also considering using a 4x4 grid of TTT and making it 4 in a row, just to elongate the game and make the Hang man aspect last longer.

Making Tic-Tac-Toe fun...

Is really difficult. There are a million combinations of ways to make a game lame, and far fewer to make it fun. My attempt, for which I do not have a name for yet, combines the card system from Takenoko and row elimination, which is common in a lot of puzzle games. I'm hoping to eventually laser cut out X's and O's to make play easier, as they are currently scrawled out on flashcards and are rather difficult to pick up and shuffle.We'll see how play testing goes tomorrow- I have a feeling a lot of changes will be made.

-Kristen D.

Team Swashbucklers Reflection (Kelly Wright)

Though our strategy was simple, a lot of work went into the visual design and overall theme. Lindsay had a very elaborate pirate costume, and using treasure chests as intermediary prizes was a great idea. The roles for each person were well-thought out, and the only worry we had was that the person at the start (Lindsay) and at the end (me) would have no way to communicate. This ended up not being a problem because we didn't get a bite. The random person that participated with the Mariokart group almost went for us first, approaching the sign I had attached to the final treasure that read something like: "Want to find out what's in the box? Meet the captain at the Northeast corner of Red Square!" I guess it was much more convenient to save time and start the game closer to her. I hoped that our efforts to look like 'authentic' pirates, coupled with the mystery of the multiple mystery treasures, would be enough to give us a shot.

It was not easy attracting a person from my end. I don't think I saw any more than ten people cross my path the entire time I was guarding the treasure. Just about all of them were students or parents of students waiting to begin orientation, and obviously they would not have wanted to break away from that to play the game.
I really wasn't sure exactly what I might be able to get away with in terms of leading participants my way, and although I was sitting there in a pirate costume with a large treasure chest, I blame myself for not trying harder to get attention. I watched helplessly as the winning team began their journey right in front of my eyes. A couple people have said that our sign was too long to read, but I know how badly Lindsay wanted to win this thing, so whatever the reason was, it could not have been due to a lack of enthusiasm on her part. We were all prepared to get moving... we just needed that first bite and it would be all over for the other teams. If I were to try it again I might make myself more animated for our audience. It kills me that I might have stolen Mariocart's participant.

Team 3 Personal Review

Design Goal:

First off, we wanted to come up with a theme that was well known and that people would feel comfortable participating in. We ended up picking a Mario theme. To catch attention in a easily understandable way, we decided to use the giant, yellow exclamation point that is seen in so many games. By using something that people would recognize, we hoped it would draw more attention to our game. We created a sign that asked the player to bring Mario(a plushie that we let the participant keep) to the castle to save Princess Peach. To direct the player, we made a few signs that were designed around dialog boxes in a video game. The first sign that I made had CASTLE and and arrow written on it, as well as a brief notice that the player would need to stop near the castle for a "screenshot". Each of the castles were placed near flags and had Mario themed miniatures that the player could pick up along the way. After each of the castles near flags, we had another sign that said SORRY, princess peach is at another castle. The last sign was for the Final castle. At the final location, we had Princess Peach (a peach with a crown).

Reflection:

Once the game started, we were a bit worried about getting someone to actually pick Mario up. We had a lot of the tour groups look over, but were not able to participate. Other than the tour groups, only a few people walked by and actually looked at what we were doing. We had signs facing both directions along the path, just in case someone was willing to backtrack. Turns out, that actually happened. Our participant ended up being incredibly into the idea and was interested in the entire process, even when we temporarily lost track of where we were leading her. We all just ended up laughing about it, and she understood what was happening even though we couldn't tell her. We moved through the course a lot faster than I had expected. She picked up Mario around 10:05 and reached the endpoint by 10:18, after stopping at 3 flags along the way. Other than struggling to move the castles ahead of the player, everything went pretty well. In future runs, it would probably be better to have castles for all the flags, and possibly try to reach more of the flags.

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

Team 3 Post Game

My responsibility was to build the castles and the blocks and to obtain gold coins. I originally wanted to get chocolate gold wrapped coins, but they are very scarce these days, so I found medallion party favors at a party store and removed the ribbons. The boxes I obtained from my work place and painted a brown color and a brick pattern. I also created a sort of costume for myself that I had hoped would attract some attention to our group.

I have a shirt that parade workers wear for the Midosuji parade in Osaka. I cut up an old T-shirt and drew a logo that I pinned to the back of the shirt over the original graphic so that it would fit our theme. I also handmade some fans with Mario themed objects.

We intended to get the player to participate by prompting them with the universal symbol of the quest alert: the yellow exclamation mark from Metal Gear asking for help so that Mario could save Princess Peach. We would then use cards designed to look like RPG dialogue cards to give the player an idea of what needed to be done. We would set up castles at three flags and then the finish line and have the other boxes and coins set up along the course to help guide the direction. We also provided little incentive prizes: little Mario and pals figurines that the player could collect.

The results were better than I expected. We were able to attract someone only a few minutes after game start and we were able to keep her involved throughout the entire course. I feared that prospective participants would not want to deviate from their route. It was even better, though, because our homebase was near the meeting point for the first year tour group and they wanted so badly to play the game but could not leave the group. We essentially demonstrated UW in action.
What didn't seem to go so well was that the game moved too quickly. I was only able to make two castles that had to be moved as the player passed each point. I ran ahead to drop off a castle at the third flag and immediately lost my group. Fortunately, the others found their way and finished the course. If I had more time, paint, and boxes I would have made more props and we would have had a more clearly defined course.

All in all, we had a great time, the player made off with some nice prizes (including the Mario plushy), and we had the satisfaction of being creative, designing a game that was familiar, and overall successful. Despite limited time, we were all able to execute our responsibilities.

Team Elbow Drop (#1): Reflection

Who did what and what not:

Rebecca: made the Super Dario Kart banner, item boxes, and the Ghost Kart, and acted as a plant to entice other people to join.

Johnathan: Played the titular Dario, and put together a color-matched Dario outfit and Kart.

Daniel: Acted as the "Shy Guy" and put together the challenger's Kart.

Anna: Acquired cones for the race course, created flyers to advertise the race, and helped recruit others to photograph and document our progress.

Our checkpoints were small blue item boxes placed along the course, as you can see above.

How we hoped the design would work:
Mario Kart is an incredibly well-known franchise, especially among college-age individuals. It's something that has a lot of nostalgic value and we intended to capitalize on the popularity of Mario Kart to get someone to bring an item across campus. To raise "awareness" beforehand, we placed posters around campus, though in hindsight this wasn't really necessary. The idea was to get a passerby to stop once he saw the relatively familiar Mario (or "Dario") iconography, and upon seeing a list of previous challenger's times (obviously fabricated), would be compelled to put on the challenger's Kart and race Dario to the finish line. The object we need to move was one of the wheels on the challenger's Kart, which ensured that any challenger would be bringing the object to the finish line as quickly as they can. The challenger is guided along the course via a series of multicolored cones and brightly colored Mario-esque Item Boxes. Since we weren't allowed any form of communication with each other or with the participant, we communicated via overly-exaggerated body movements.

The race in action:

Reflections:

I'd say the project was a success. At first we felt discouraged because a lot of people looked at us and walked past us, but nobody seemed interested in picking up the Kart. But we did get someone interested in running the race and from then on it went mostly as planned. They ran the path we laid down and ended right where we intended. We had no unexpected situations, but there was one thing that didn't go exactly as planned. The item boxes placed near the flags contained items, and the idea was to get the racer to stop, pick up the item, and continue (slowing him down enough for us to snap a picture with him in close proximity to the flags). However, they didn't stop to pick up the items, but we still managed to snap a photo with him close to the flags. If I had to change one thing, I would probably put a bit more work into the Karts and the costumes in order to get more people to recognize our setup and be more willing to participate. Other than that, it went quite well and I'm glad to have participated in such a fun project.
 - Daniel

At first, people looked confused by our display, and couldn’t quite figure out what was going on. Without vocals, it was hard to convey that anyone was allowed to jump in for a race, and that we weren’t just street performers. However with hand gestures, I was able to direct a group of runners to our race, indicating we needed their help. The runners cooperated, and the one who got into our Luigi Kart ran straight from start to finish without hesitation, and cooperated wonderfully. The only unexpected situation was that our runner did not stop to pick up the items from the item boxes; this meant that we had a hard time getting our photos, but thankfully we were able to adapt. Because of this, however, the game didn’t work exactly as we wanted it to; the game was to collect the items from the item boxes in the race, then trade them in for a prize at the end of the race. Our runner took off to catch up with his friends immediately after the race, however, so the prize and item boxes were left untouched. This was probably an issue only due to lack of vocal directions, and we probably needed more signs (they came from the direction facing away from the signs explaining the game). In the future, we would hopefully have vocals, and clearer explanations of the games objectives. 
-Anna

At first, it was easy to get people interested and respond to us, but difficult to get them to want to participate, understandably. Luckily, within the first 8 minutes, there was a group of cross-country racers (?) who were up to the challenge of a race. So they took it very literally (and did not see my signs to get all the 'items') and ran as the guy ran as fast as he could, leaving me trying not to trip down the stairs in my clunky box, far behind (lol). So I didn't really see much of the action, more like a blur, but success none the less. I made the banner and signs, the boo kart, the item boxes, and put mario kart themed items in all the boxes (hoping the challenger would stop at the boxes, planted by the flags, long enough for us to take a picture at them, but no such luck). Overall I'd say we were quite successful and I think that was partially because of luck. We probably should have made more banners and signs so they could be seen from all angles, and the tasks could be more understood (to stop at the flags), but other than that, it went really well.
-Rebecca

Group #2 Swashbucklers Project Reflection

                                                                   

Our Objective: For our assignment we went with the theme of pirates, the objective of our group was to have a pirate hat (our object) moved from one side of campus to the other. Our team dressed up as pirates and created a sign to attract possible participants. The player would have to wear the hat and have it moved to the other teams flag. In order to motivate our participant to capture the flags placed around the campus we placed miniature treasure boxes with plastic gold coins, and at our finishing point was our main chest filled with various objects from each team member. Each team member filled a specific role as listed below:

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 

Results:

So to be perfectly frank our project was basically a disaster as far as the execution went, and there are a number of factors to consider why it did. But basically I feel one of the largest contributors was the whole pirate theme, not to say that it wasn't a good idea but as the project progressed and watching the results of other teams it became somewhat apparent that pirates are perhaps more passe and unattractive than our team may have realized. Another factor that probably weighed us down was the location, again not to say that it was a bad decision but as per our theme it began to feel like we would have had more luck trying to attract much younger participants than college students and adults who obviously had more pressing matters to attend to (This theory I feel is further enforced by the fact that as we headed to our home base we passed a group of kids who seemed very intrigued by our costumes). It was a shame that no one in a younger age group passed by our home base. It also seemed that our method of attraction might have also been flawed the sign we had may have been too long and people simply might not have had time to read it, were it shorted I feel we may have had a much higher success ratio. And there was also the sheer factor of luck which simply did not apply to our team that day. 

Once we finally did get a participant things went a lot smoother the course ran approximately 8 minutes and our participant executed their role perfectly. This did bring forth the realization that there was not a problem with the game itself but simply the execution of getting a participant in a timely manner.

The biggest changes that would affect our game if we tried it again would have to be a different theme that might be more appealing, something that perhaps should have been researched beforehand. And a smaller sign that would be shot sweet and to the point would likely be a good idea. I didn't feel there was a problem with our location as we had a wide variety of people passing by who mostly just seemed to be uncomfortable with participating.

Overall there's a ton of things I felt could have gone better with this assignment there were no issues as far as team mates and each members contribution went or in the actual course of the project and planning was fine. It basically was a matter of luck, theme, and even timing, and many of these things unfortunately did not apply to our team.