MEAM.Design : MEAM101-10A-P03-104-05

Observation, Brainstorming, & Sketching (3/26/10 – 4/16/10)

Ideas:

For the first two weeks of the project, we spent time brainstorming ideas and were mainly focused on creating a type of game. One idea we thought of was the "labyrinth" type games where a ball is moved around through a maze to get to a goal. We thought of maybe applying this to a cube playing field, rather than the typical plane that the game is seen as. However, we decided too many students in the past had constructed labyrinths, so we went back to the drawing board. Another idea that was brought up was a game somewhat like volleyball, where a ball was bounced over a net by moving the bottom floorboard. This was decided as too complicated, so we kept looking.

We gathered many of ideas from board games that could be translated into the constraints of the assignment. One of the main ideas we became interested in mimicking was a table hockey game. Table hockey is similar to foosball, but the player pieces can be moved in straight lines along the board, as well as rotated in the xy-plane by turning the support rod in the yz-plane (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_hockey_games for more information).

We liked the idea of rotating one part of the game, which would cause another part of the game to rotate in a different direction. However, making multiple copies of such a feature seemed to be a bigger task than the time we had for this project. As a result, we then thought of a new one-player game where a ball would be hit by a flipper (controlled by a similar contraption as in table hockey) up along a spiraling ramp. The ball would then fall into any number of holes for points. The amount of force exerted on the ball would determine which hole it would fall in.

After more brainstorming, we continued with the idea of a flipper hitting a ball and thought of somehow creating a type of pinball machine game. We wanted to put our own spin on it, and decided to make a two-player pinball machine game. We really liked this idea and decided to keep it as the final idea.

Fleshing Out the Idea of Two-Player Pinball:

The game would consist of two boards opposite of each other at an angle (think in the formation of two sides of an equilateral triangle). The object of the game would be to score in the other person’s goal. At first, we were thinking of keeping the typical pinball machine mechanism, whereby the ball is put into play by a spring-driven mechanism. Initially we hoped that we could still keep the alternate-rotation concept in the design for this part. However, designing this mechanism proved to be much more difficult than anticipated; ultimately we had to scrap this and decided that dropping the ball in the middle would be the ideal way to start the game.

For the flippers, which was one of the more difficult parts to design, we decided on a mechanism where pushing a lever would cause counter-movement by the flipper to move up and down.

We were limited in the size of our game, however, because of the 10 inch cube constraints. Our TA, Lucas, however, brilliantly suggested that we could have our game be collapsible in order to fit these dimensions. We incorporated this idea by allowing the two boards to fold together using a hinge. We also decided we would have detachable cross bars to further support the structure.

Later in the design process, we thought it was also necessary to have a cover at the point where the two boards met. We wanted this removable piece to be curved, so decided that a 3D printed piece would be ideal for this part. It would have a ramp and a hole for the ball to drop down to either player’s side.

Modeling (4/9/10 – 4/23/10)

The Board:

The two boards were modeled to meet at a 60 degree angle, and supported themselves by the force of the two pressing against one another. When modeling the game, we had to determine what kind of obstacles we wanted to include for the two boards. We knew we wanted both sides to be identical to keep the game fair.

We decided to include holes where the ball could fall in, rubber bumpers for the ball to bounce against, and walls to control where the ball went.

The Cover:

We also needed a cover over the boards to prevent the ball from flying out, which would cover both the top and the sides using clear acrylic. We also needed space underneath the boards to allow the flippers to work, and so modeled the sides of the boards to extend longer.

We also modeled the ramp piece and submitted it for the printing queue.

The Flippers:

For the flipper mechanism, we decided these would be good parts to machine; we contacted our 150 partner, Nikita, who machined the parts for one side.

Prototyping & Testing (4/16/10 – 4/25/10)

Assembly of the Board:

Once the main components were modeled, we began to cut the ones we could. The two boards, sides, and covers, were laser cut, in addition to the wall obstacles. We ordered rubber for the bumpers and also placed dowels on each side as a peg obstacle. Acrylic circles were cut to place under the holes as walls. Most of the construction was done through press fitting, although some super glue was used when press fitting was not possible, as well as some screws, such as for the hinges and the placement of the rubber bumpers.

For the top cover of the boards, we needed to put a hole at the bottom for retrieval of the ball. When it was first cut, the hole was initially too big; we decided to reduce its size for better function and aesthetics.

Assembly of the Flippers:

The flipper mechanism was not ideal, as there was excessive friction between the top and bottom pieces surrounding the underlying parts for the flippers. Applying some graphite helped to make the movement smoother. Superglue was also used for a couple of the axles for better control of flipper motion.

We decided midway that the flippers could be made out of different materials in order to differentiate the two sides; one would be made out of the metal pieces we obtained from our 150 partner, while another pair would be made out of acrylic.

A Bump in the Road:

In the process of assembly, we found out that our 3D printed piece for the top of the game was rejected due to its size; as a result we needed to determine how else to deliver the ball into the game. Once the pieces were all assembled, we decided it was unnecessary to have the ramp cover: testing the game showed that the ball did not fly out of the top.

Completion

After finally putting all the pieces together and testing them, we found that our game was indeed playable and that everything finally was working together. Success!