‘The Bowling Game’ Cardboard Arcade Project Reflection

 

This is a bowling game. The point of the game is to get the metal ball from the ramp to knock down the cardboard bowling pins into the box behind it. Each pin is 10 points, and you have 3 tries.

My biggest success for this design was the design of the pins. It was difficult at first because we weren’t sure what kind of design we should do, because normally bowling pins are specifically shaped. However, we acknowledged the fact that it would be much harder to make with cardboard, so we decided to make pins out of the cut cardboard pieces slotted together, making a ‘X’ or ‘+’ cross shape. It was easy to knock down, and stable enough to stand and stable itself without help. It was also simple to make, but also effective for gameplay.

My biggest obstacle was developing. I wasn’t sure how to design it, as I wasn’t sure what kind of mechanics cardboard could make. I was unsure if the design could work, and what kind of designs are needed. We had bottle caps connected to the bowling pins in our initial design, because we weren’t sure if the bowling pins could stand on its own. We weren’t sure if we should add a stick to the ramp, so players could move it around, because we weren’t sure if it would work or not and what kind of materials I needed.

One thing I’d do next time differently is how we designed the colors of the cardboard arcade. We used colorful masking tape for it to be more attractive, but next time I want to use colorful pens or other forms of art. For example, more patterns or better colors.

Some advice I’ll give for future students is to advice them to plan simple and make it more complicated if you have more time or the materials. This is because we ended giving up a lot more of the complicated designs in our game half-way through and had less time to do the more important components. Focus on the most important things and the decorations, you can improvise later on.