This is a clean representation of the original board game and I think it will be immediately obvious to anyone who's played it before what they're looking at.
A few comments:
- This is a lot of IO points - couple that with the number of sensors you will need on the input side of things, and it is one of the most IO-intensive concepts we've seen. I don't have a great solution for this using the current hardware set, but you might need to explore the idea of using a projector to display feedback instead of lighting up pegs.
- This game offers ample opportunity to adjust the difficulty according to player skill. Since the players can't actually see what they hit, it would be easy to give a bit of a helping hand for players who are struggling. :)
I think your instincts are right about how to build and display the board. The grid 'dash lines' that you've imprinted into the board is enough to communicate the grid, without visually breaking up what is supposed to be visually contiguous ships and surfaces.
Your light-up pegs are a great throwback to the original game. I think you may want to do some research though into what that peg might actually look like - especially if people will be able to climb it. You may want to go with a flat LED to avoid the 'It's a rock wall, I'll just shoot a basket from up here' problem.
I like the concept of replicating the original battleship game and making the board look as close to the real game as possible; however, the concept of playing the game just on a board seems to limit what you can do with a whole room - i.e. would've been interesting to explore how to use the full space of the room for the game. For e.g. giving clues about the type of size of the ships by placing 3D versions around the room or making stepping up to the game more of an experience.
I love the huge display board! This will be really cool to see once everything is finalized, and seeing it brings back a lot of memories of playing as a kid! Maybe adding a clock or shot count to the screen will help add urgency as well as make them take their remaining shots into account. Maybe solving the puzzle under a certain amount of shots will give them a higher star rating or something?
The sketch model explores a simplistic concept in detail. I've always loved battle themed games and this one was no different.
I am a bit confused about some aspects of the model though.
1) How do you prevent the participants from going away with the balls that they actually need to throw? I would have considered making balls larger but that would spoil the fun in the game.
2) Also, you mentioned, "game, certain boxes, randomized or changed per visit, will contain ships that the player must sink by tossing a ball into corresponding bins", how exactly do you plan on resetting this without manual intervention?
It sounds like there were some time constraints that prevented you from doing this, but I would have liked to see the full board covered in the white/red pegs. I think it will change the look of the board enough that you might be able to make some early design decisions that aren't evident from just two pegs.
The idea of folding the foam core to create grid lines is good - I agree that the black grid layer was too much. Did you try just drawing in the grid lines? I think there is a middle ground between the folded lines and the grid overlay that will create the right amount of visual separation.
The sketch model incorporates the coloring/look of the battleship game well. I think a print out/drawing to replicate the top half of the game along with the board would have helped to test bringing the player more into the experience. I like the use of the bottles and lights to indicating Hit/Miss. If I were playing the game it'd be very clear what the result of throwing the ball in would be.
This looks great! It was great to see your iteration process and I agree that it looks better without the black grid in between. This was great to get a feel for how the board would look, and I am looking forward to seeing the final board! Once again, I would consider adding a clock and shot count. Other than that, I don't have many recommendations.
The team has put in a lot of work into building the sketch model. It is very well executed and helped me visualize how the game could actually be played when implemented in the Open World.
However, I had a few comments pertaining to the website and the model, it would have been better to mark on the pictures to convey what exact area the creator is referring to. It became difficult for me at times to identify which sections of the model was the author referring to.
