After the unveiling of this year’s game, Rebound Rumble, all of us got right to work. With Kit of Parts in stow, we headed right back to the shop following Kickoff to begin strategizing and planning for the season ahead.
At the lab, the team gathered together to read through all the rules for Rebound Rumble. Thankfully the Game Design Committee decided to make the rules really simple and short, so we were able to breeze through in an hour.
After a wonderful lunch provided by the parents, we got straight to work on strategy. Small groups brainstormed ideas of what it takes to win the game. My group worked out a crude cost-benefit analysis of shooting and balancing on the board. Afterwards, the entire team assembled to share their findings.
After much discussion, we broke up again for a discussion about manipulators we could use. Groups argued about close or far range shooting, as well as how to get the robot to balance on the bridges. We gathered up all the groups ideas and filtered them down to the top six viable ideas.
Everyone ranked the manipulators, and we decided to prototype the top 3: a pitcher, a piston cannon, and a spring cannon. Let’s see how those turn out….