[Tux4kids-discuss] Go, Go Garbage Truck (Was re: An ideas wiki?)

[Caroline Ford]

I need to get a photo now of one of our bin lorries with wheelie bins  
hanging off the back! Very silly the first time you see it!

Caroline

Sent from a mobile device.

On 25 Jul 2009, at 23:13, Bill Kendrick <nbs at sonic.net> wrote:

> On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 02:55:16PM -0700, Bill Kendrick wrote:
>> So I keep thinking about this idea for a simple game that I'd like to
>> write for my 2.5yo son.  (Really, I want to write it for my Atari 8- 
>> bit,
>> so he can easily play it on a TV with a joystick or some simple  
>> digital
>> button controller that I could probably create.)
>
> And to briefly put forth this idea...
>
> My son loves garbage trucks.  He sees them driving around about 3  
> times
> per week in our neighborhood.  (Garbage and recycling trucks, hitting
> the apartment complex across the street two days a week, and then our
> street, and the adjacent one loop -- once each direction, one day a  
> week.)
> I bought him a large Bruder brand truck (the sturdier, less  
> realistic one
> for younger kids) with a bin and a loading mechanism in the back.
> I swore for the first few days after he got it, I was afraid he'd  
> want to
> go to bed with the thing. :)
>
> Anyway, my idea is using this very popular device in my son's life to
> create a little puzzle game, with scaling levels of difficulty.
>
> The initial idea involved a large controller with some big buttons  
> that
> map to joystick controls.  The game would be side-scrolling, with a
> large garbage truck in the center of the screen.  The road and bins  
> would
> scroll by (along with whatever other cute stuff in the background that
> kept things interesting).
>
> Left/Right for forward/backward (beeping when backing up, of course).
> A separate "Stop" button, so that left/right wouldn't need to be held.
> Up/Down for lifting/dropping bins.
>
> Both the game rules and control complexity would scale.
> Control-wise:
>
> * Auto-stop at a bin, or not
> * Auto-pick-up of a bin (maybe?)
>
> Game-play wise:
>
> 1. Drive and pick up garbage
> 2. Only pick up garbage that matches the color of a sign on the truck
> 3. Only pick up gabrage that matches a symbol on the truck
> 4. Combo fo 2 & 3
>
> You could get even trickier, and do things like:
>
> * Vowels vs. consonants  (e.g. only pick up A,E,I,O,U)
> * Evens vs odds  (e.g., only pick up 1,3,5,7,9)
> * Greater than / Less than  (e.g., only pick up numbers less than 5)
> * Cool colors vs Warm colors  (e.g., only red, yellow, orange bins)
>
> That's about as far as I've gotten, in terms of sketching out the  
> idea.
>
> -bill!
>
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