Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Caine's Arcade: Shoebox Version

For our first project of the year, we will be creating shoebox versions of arcade games.  Our goal for this project is to create scale models of the arcade games so that we have prototypes (first versions) that are easily tested and shared.  Also a shoebox is more portable than the constructs we will be making for the Global Day of Play.

Thus, everyone should watch at least the first video of Caine's Arcade in order to know what we're talking about.  When you're done, come back here for the list of things needed.

Original Arcade Game Dimensions:  You need to specify a height, a width, and a length.  They need to be in inches, so you need to convert yards and feet to inches.  If the game has different geometry in places, divide the game into simpler geometry.  So if I was miniaturizing a skee-ball game, I would have the track as one shape, and then the scoring area as another.

Once I have the basic shapes, I would need to do some research (asking google is a good place to start) about the dimensions of the game.  If you use the word "dimensions" you should get clearer options.

Once you've done that, you also need Original Shoebox Dimensions, again in inches.  This will give you an idea of if your dimensions match, or if you need to make the shoebox arcade game dimensions smaller than the shoebox.  Trying to make your shoebox fit the arcade is a bad idea and will probably lead to a lot of extra work.  That said, I won't penalize anyone who does this, provided their scale factor is correct.

Finally, you need to prove that all your dimensions have the same scale factor.  If you don't know what that math term is, don't worry, I'll be explaining it before you have to turn this project in.

So to list it out, the things I'm expecting are:

Shoebox Arcade Game
A piece of paper with the following written on it:
Your heading, Shoebox Arcade Game as the title,
Name of Arcade Game picked,
Original Dimensions of the Arcade Game you picked,
Original Dimensions of the Shoebox,
Dimensions of the Game that fit on/in the shoebox,
Scale factor between the original and small game,
Additional materials used listed.

If you want to create a totally new game, see me and we'll discuss similar arcade games to use as dimensions.

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