On adapting Road to Clean into an Ipad game.

Adapting our Road to Clean! game to the Ipad will definitely be a difficult process in itself. The tricky part is going to be not including the board itself as most concepts go along with the board. My first thoughts for the Ipod adaptation are to keep the idea of having questions that were originally featured on the cards. I would also like to incorporate some other way of using the PEST cards so that it makes the game more of a challenge. My thought here is to possibly have the ipad version play out with adding and subtracting points if the PEST card says move 5 spaces back, the spaces could simply serve as movement points. The person who answers the most questions correctly and therefore accumulates the most points will win the game. The Ipad version will allow 1-2 players as 4 players would feature an online concept. 

As many Ipad games do, this will feature a start screen. The screen will introduce the title and consist of  a Start button as well as an instructions button which players will be able to tap. Following the instructions button will allow the player(s) to browse through the rules of the game. Once the player pushes the start button, they will then be able to select a color that they choose to play with. They will be able to select the color by scrolling through them with their index finger. After they have chosen, an arrow directing them forward will take them to the Wetlands.

 In each land, the player will be asked questions about that land and will either receive 1 or 2 points for answering it correctly. Each question displayed upon the screen will contain the color code of the land. For example, Wetlands will feature either one or two blue dots which will signify the amount of  cleanly points obtained If they answer incorrectly, the player will remain at 0. The more points that each player obtains, the further they are getting to becoming uncontaminated. 

In gameplay, the player(s) may use PEST points against the computer or the opponent player. These points may be used to add or subtract points from you, the other player, or both. If a player receives a screen featuring images, they obtain even more attack opportunities or subtract significant amounts of points from opponent players. 

Each player's color will be displayed onto the actual map of the land that they are in. If the player draws an image card, they will need to touch the image on the map in order to determine the information on that particular play piece. For example, if the tomato appears on the screen, the player will tap the large image which will take them back to the map. The tomato will blink. Once the player taps the blinking tomato, their action card will then occur onto the playfield. For example, if it double's points, those points will automatically be added for that player's turn. 

In order to present the iPad game, I will use the Upstage app so that I can display my images onto an Ipad frame. It's truly amazing what a piece of software such as this can do. I am thinking about applying more features from the Ipad into this game. As I have never really played around with the actual unit, I'm not sure exactly how it will work out. I know that I will want to include some interaction such as shaking and turning the pad. This could possible something that the player needs to do between each question.

Just like in the board game, the Ipad version will end when the player with the most questions answered correctly and the most points wins. This may take some tweaking, but so far, these are my ideas for adapting Road to Clean! into an iPad game. 

Adapting the game to Ipad

There are various aspects I'd like to see in the Ipad adaptation of my group's board game.  I would like to see the game play remain educational in the fact that it features information about contamination. On our board game, there are six types of land: Farmland, City, Wetland, Swampland, Forest, and Wasteland. I would ultimately like to keep the initial idea of the board as there are six colors for each land. If the game were to have different modes on the Ipad, it would add more variety to the way it can be played. For example, we would obviously want a mode where friends and family can gather around the ipad and use customizable rules. Another mode could be to play against the computer which would allow for tips and tricks to help each player strategize for future games.

Cards are marked with dots (which are color coded) just as the spaces on the board are. For each card drawn there will be either one or two dots of color which represent certain types of land. For each card with one dot, there will be natural disaster information represented by that area. For each card featuring 2 dots, there will be contamination information. Whichever player draws the card will move their piece to the closest space (or spaces if they draw a double dot card) on the board. Following their move, the person to their right will read them a question regarding watershed (hence, the informative information on the cards involving whichever colored land dot they have). If they answer the question correctly, they may remain in that spot. If they incorrectly answer, they must move back two spaces.

                                 

                                   photo by: chesman1

The questions featured for the players will be determined by whichever type of card is drawn. These questions will regard information about contamination and water pollution in accordance to Chesapeake Bay watershed. The possibilities with Ipad are beyond amazing. I think that with an Ipad on our side, we may be able to make this game a lot more interactive with whichever features that we do decide to use. The interaction from person to Ipad itself will probably make this game a lot more entertaining and may even draw a lot more engagement if it features online play. Even levels of difficulty could be adapted through the Ipad interface. We could therefore feature levels of difficulty which would make the game a lot more interesting. It would also be interesting to have an automatic rotation feature for each time a player is on the spot.

All in all, I believe that this game is fully capable of an adaptation to the Ipad. I think that technology such as this benefits the player to player interaction and overall experience of the game's outcome. Kids would most likely be more engaged with the educational information which will be provided to them via Ipad screen. There seems to be a great appreciation for anything adapted to a more recent technology. Hence, people can enjoy the classic games as well as other adaptations with similar aspects of the game.