Final Project Descriptions and Discussions
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Projects
Here is a list of the projects:
Virus Attack!
Shannon Iyo, Omair Malik, Ricky Nguyen, Jon Varsanik.
Smallpox is back. And your only cure: be the best damn Pong player out there. Play this exciting game on your Bluetooth mobile handset with anyone anywhere. Combining elements of both multiplayer role-playing games and classic single-player arcade games, this game is sure to keep you up at night -- no matter how much Nyquil you take.
Here is the basic idea. Give us comments, extensions, viruses, games, etc!
Overview
Our plan was to create a pervasive competition - where games can pop up anywhere at any time between two (or more?) players. Also, we didn't want to require a large infrastructure. Finally, we wanted to include simple games that are easy to learn, so it is easy for people to start playing our game.
Each player has up to 5 viruses that they can try to infect other players with. When another player is within bluetooth range, a player may challenge him/her by trying to infect them with a virus. The other player accepts by trying to infect the first player with a virus. If both players accept, then they play a game (decided by a combination of the viruses) to decide the winner. The winner gets points (determined by the level of the other player and the viruses used), and the loser gets infected. Both players can choose to keep both viruses in their collection of viruses to infect other people with.
The effects of the viruses on the loser are different depending on the virus. Some just subtract points immediately, others continue to subtract points until you give the virus to someone else. Others could play funny noises. When a player gets a certain number of points, they get to the next level. They gain access to different viruses and different games.
People could be able to develop their own viruses. But, there has to be a strict framework to prevent everyone making superviruses. Like, you get 100 points to make the virus. To subtract points from the victim once, costs one point. To make funny sounds costs 50 points (leaving 50 to do other stuff). And to subtract a point every hour costs 10 points.
To play across countries, have computers with bluetooth connectivity act as a bridge between countries. Playing across countries gives you more points.
Games We Should Use
- Pong
- Missile attack
- Bricks
- Gorrillas
- Tetris
Viruses
- Flu - Subtracts points once.
- Chicken Pox - Can only get it once.
Virus Attributes The virus effects are limited to a specified library of methods, to prevent malicious code from being distributed. The effects string is checked each time that it is run to ensure its adherance to the rules.
- name -string- the name of the virus
- description -string- a description
- victim -person- an instantiation of the player class - the player who is using this phone.
- effect -string- a string that contains code to be run that enacts the effects of the virus. This is troubling because you are going to run code that people just give you. That is why we have the signatures, that are discussed later.
- is_active -boolean- A boolean indicating if the virus is currently effecting the player, of they are just a carrier
Virus Methods
- Virus (or I guess it is called __init__) = the constructor. Takes a boolean, the player, and the serialized_form. The boolean is True when the virus is first contracted and False if it is simply being reconstructed from a saved game. When a virus is made, it is always active (?- this option can be changed - reason for this choice: what if you win the games, it shouldn't be active. But I like the idea of you having to be the guinea pig for whatever virus you make.)
- showSymptom - executes the code that is in the effect string. And moves the pointer to the next effect.
- goInactive - set this.active to false.
- serialize - produce a serialized form for transmitting or saving
Other Ideas
- Can buy vacinnations from people.
- Online virus tracking - see where people are that have the virus.
Project Discussion
I'm still looking for a group (we need four per team, right?). As for project ideas, I'm leaning toward smarter methods for location tracking where the location domain and patterns are known (like Boggle), but I'm definitely open to other ideas. Anyone else out there still looking for a group that my partner and I could join? Thanks, Csakhil
I might be interested in doing the huge, GPS-based pictionary if anyone else is interested. I also really liked the idea that one of the singapore students presented about knowing when to get off of a bus and would be interested in doing a cambridge version of it (since our buses don't have GPS). I've also been thinking about how we might be able to do a subway version of it since you can't get cellphone tower info or GPS info while underground in the subway system... Would anyone be interested in working together on any of those things? VikkiChou
If I can get a decent number of people interested (esp. singapore people), I'd be really interested in Physical Oregon Trail[1] (http://org.csail.mit.edu/mode/index.php/Location_Aware_Games#Physical_Oregon_Trail) too... VikkiChou
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