A two-player version of pinball using Lego Mindstorms and 3D printed pieces. The game features, motorised controls and scoring systems. This project serves to tackle the issue of pinball being a solo player game, that lacks friendly competition, face to face while being fun and enjoyable to play.
The project was split into two main focuses, with Adam and Louis working on building the physical base for the game and Cailean working on the digital content and 3D printing.
Evaluation:
The project exceeded the groups expectations, for what we set out to do. In the early stages of the project the group was originally had a small scope for the project, uncertain of all the systems and development required but in the end the group managed to forge ahead and create a great game.
Both Adam, Louis and Cailean were able to develop critical engineering skills such as: critically evaluating design ideas, user testing and adapting feedback in order to improve the state of the game.
One of the biggest challenges faced by the group concerned whacker strength, as the mindstorm motors lacked the oopmh and power that we wanted, this was also reflected in the user testing as our testers noted that the game felt “sluggish and slow.” The solution to this problem was to apply knowledge from our previous projects, use gears to increase the torque in the whackers, solving the problem with only a minor trade off in responsiveness.
If we were to repeat this project again, perhaps more research and theory could be used in order to make a clearer vision and improve on the initial development and designs.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Rob’s Brain for idea stuff
Written by Cailean Treloyn
Extra:
Used Lego Mindstorms for coding and building of robot.
By Cailean Treloyn, Louis Wattson, Adam Barnbaum
