Sicilian Shoot Off

Although our original design called for players shooting their pieces and landing them onto pizza slice shaped targets, after today's trial run, we changed that. We realized that most of the pieces tend to go too far, and the triangle shaped pizza was not helping that problem. The initial idea was to change the "slices" to a round pie, but once again we found that this design was too small. Then the idea of a square Sicilian pizza pie came up. Each player would lose "bites" from their perfectly square pie depending on game play.


Today we were using smaller checker pieces than we had intended. The smaller pieces are lighter and fly farther than we had intended. Thus we've decided to double the amount of pieces each player gets to flick from 5 to 10.



After realizing the flicking motion packs a little too much of a punch for these light pieces, we've decided to explore other alternatives to pushing the pieces. We are currently tossing around two ideas. One is to implement the use of a pushing device almost like in shuffle board (show in above picture as a pencil). The pushing device gives the player a little bit more control over how much force they apply. The device can be type of pen or pencil with the pizzeria's telephone number on it. The other option would be to continue flicking the pieces as originally intended, but to attach Velcro to both sides of the checkers. We've realized that the idea is somewhat similar to shuffleboard, so we tried using a makeshift shuffleboard "shuffler" (see above photo) using a ruler and a binder clip.





We also realized that a pizza box does not open up in a way that creates a slanted ramp that we were looking for. The remedy for this problem is quite simple, but yet, still needs to be included in assembly instructions. We simply fixed the box closed using 2 paper clips, one on each side (see photo to the right).









Over the weekend we will need to:
-buy felt to create removable pieces of the Sicilian pie
-test out how the surface of the felt changes the gameplay as far as the pieces sliding/stopping on it
-test using poster board instead of felt, while still applying Velcro to the bottoms.
-use paper layouts to explore different game designs as far as amounts of tiles necessary, and the amount of "special" tiles that would make a good balance of gameplay

Progress of the Game

Based on the size and weight, we have decided to use checkers as game pieces to flick off the pizza box. One team will have red checkers to represent their topping as a pepperoni slice. The other team will have sausage slices as their topping, and the checkers will be spray painted accordingly. The goal of the game is a race to the finish and the theme we've applied is two rival pizzerias racing to complete a pizza pie from creation to delivery. Each side of the 4 sided board represents a different stage of the process. Each of the sides will have one themed tile that relates to the actions going on on that side. That specific themed tile will have a little bit more severe consequences than the others. We went over the specific actions that can occur on each of the regular action tiles. We decided to incorporate a penalty action tile that allows your opponent to move you backwards depending on how many toppings they can land, as opposed to simply being told to move back 4 spaces. We realized that there needs to be a direct relationship between the number of specific action tiles, and the amount of "bites" that may be taken out of one's pizza slice. We realized that we need to begin testing the game very soon because it seems the best way to decide how many of the tiles will be "action tiles" is to just play the game and see how long it takes. We are going to test how easy it is to shoot the "toppings" in order to decide 2 things. First, we want to see what size the pizza slice that you're landing on needs to be, and secondly, we want to see how quickly it is possible to move around the game board. We also decided that the rule book will be printed in the form of a menu.

The game begins

Today Jay and I decided to work on his pizza box game. This game involves some skill and chance. Players will have to flick "pizza" toppings off of the ramp that is provided from the box and try to land them onto their pizza. Every player is trying to be the first to reach the finish line. You can advance toward the finish by moving up the board the same number of landed toppings on the pizza. Players can also hinder their opponents success by shooting fly pieces. These are acquired by landing on specific locations on the board. We have high hopes for this game!