Kickstart Activities

[Thomas Scarsbrook]

Hi,

As you (hopefully) all know, Kickstart is approaching on the 15th October.

In the past couple of years we've provided a number of small activities
for the competitors to get familiar with the kit, general development
processes, and each other.

Is someone able to volunteer to oversee the creation of these activities?

Thanks,
Scarzy

[Oliver Steptoe]

Sure, I'm in Soton.

Cheers,
Ollie

[Peter Law]

Hi,

I realise I'm a little late to this, but wanted to add:
- the microgames are usually based around the theme of the main
competition game, mostly for fun (for the game Sunny Side Up
we had egg themed microgames)
- there's a repo on our git hosting at priv/microgames which is only
accessible via gerrit [1] which contains previous microgames which
is probably useful as both inspiration and a framework for building
the document in
- the old website repo (srweb [2]) also contains copies of some of the
older microgames (usually redirecting from /microgames) which may
also be of use for referencing things we've done in the past

Thanks,
Peter

[1] https://www.studentrobotics.org/trac/wiki/Gerrit#Privategitrepos
[2] https://www.studentrobotics.org/cgit/srweb.git

[Oliver Steptoe]

Hi,

On the topic of old microgames,

I think it would be a good idea to produce a library of different tasks (all of varying difficulties) from which we can pick that year's tasks. It seems to me that many of the competitors are just learning the basics of python and familiarising themselves with the kit during kickstart, so many of the tasks are similar each year anyway. The only difference being the names we give them and that we end up rewriting them again...

By all means, when someone has an idea for a new task then add to the library, but this could save alot of time in the long run.

Thanks,

Ollie

[Peter Law]

Hi,

> I think it would be a good idea to produce a library of different tasks (all
> of varying difficulties) from which we can pick that year's tasks. It seems
> to me that many of the competitors are just learning the basics of python
> and familiarising themselves with the kit during kickstart, so many of the
> tasks are similar each year anyway. The only difference being the names we
> give them and that we end up rewriting them again...

This sounds useful, and certainly more accessible than just the
previous microgames instructions sheets.

Hopefully we do more than just changing the names each year though!
That would get rather dull for the competitors returning for their
second (or third, in some cases) year.

> By all means, when someone has an idea for a new task then add to the
> library, but this could save alot of time in the long run.

I don't think that word means what you think it means:
http://thewritepractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Alot-vs-a-lot1-600x450.png

But yes, it could save a useful amount of time.

Thanks,
Peter

[Oliver Steptoe]

Hi,

I still think the microgames instruction sheets are one of the easiest ways to do it.

To clarify, I would suggest having a few ( >2 ) different tasks covering each topic that needs to be covered.

Each year when we come to decide on the microgames to use we pick a different set from the previous year.

It would just be a simple copy and paste job of tasks we haven't used for a while with minor modifications to adjust them to the theme.

Thanks,

Ollie

[Peter Law]

Hi,

Ollie wrote:
> Sure, I'm in Soton.

Without wanting to step on Scarzy's toes here, what's the current
state of these and how can I help get them done faster?

In order to be in a position to actually use the microgames they
really need to be complete, by which I mean actually shippable to the
Kickstarts, by the end of the weekend. That allows some time for the
various local organisers and mentors to familiarise themselves with
the tasks, as well as for any components to be ordered in time
(although we're already pushing the limits of that).

Let me know if I can help at all.

Thanks,
Peter

[Oliver Steptoe]

Hi,

I have the LEDs and keyboards in envelopes. I just need addresses now.

Thanks,

Ollie