This project was conceived after playing the game Roborally. It was a cool game, but quite laborious to play. I wondered if the game could be automated. For some dark and mysterious reason, I listened to those voices in my head and gave it a go. To give a sense of scale, that was in 2018.
The Robotic Game Board consists of a board that is capable of moving and rotating game pieces. The playable area is around A3, so around 300x420mm. The board can also use up to 8 cardreaders, each capable of reading 5 cards at a time.
Roborally is a race through a factory. Each player is given a robot they can program 5 steps in advance. The goal of the game is to reach points on the map in order. They player to go past all points first wins. The game is basically a race across the map. The complicating factor is that you have limited, random cards to make your program from, and the map has all sorts of obstacles that can either help you or hinder you. The more damage you acquire, the fewer cards you get to make your program from. The real complication is the other robots, which can be in your way, push your robot to unexpected places, or shoot at you. A push from another robot might ruin your carefully planned route. In the original game, all the program movement, factory movement, and managing life and cards is done by the players. For two players this is fine, but the game starts to shine when it is played by 4-6 players, since there is more collisions, and more chaos.
The game I made here resembles Roborally, but has some rules and balances optimized for the automatic board. This game is called Clockwork Derby (since the style I went with is steampunk)
Special thanks to:
Govert Combée (https://glopoly.eu/) for his amazing help with the clanks and the tileset for this game
Sebastien Ritsma for the printing of all the clear parts
To learn the rules of Clockwork Derby, look here: https://ytec3d.com/clockwork-derby-game-rules/
To get a look at the available maps, look here: https://ytec3d.com/clockwork-derby-maps/
The board moves the pieces using magnets. Each game piece has 2 magnets in the base, 1 facing north and 1 facing south. The board itself has a movable head that has the same magnets. The board can move this head in X and Y, spin the head, and move it up or down. When the head is down, the magnets are far away enough that they do not affect the game pieces. When the head is up, it affects a single game piece, but not the ones besides that. The rotation and the X and Y movement of the head are used to then move the game piece across the board.
The cardreaders are used by each player to play 5 cards, and to select what the player wants to do the next turn. The cardreaders also show life and damage using LEDs. To read the card, each cardreaders has a barcode scanner on a movable head. Each card has a 2D barcode at the bottom, which the barcode scanner can read. When a player has selected their cards, they pull the lever on the right, and the cardreaders will start reading the cards. The read head will move to the first card, and read it, move to the second card, then read that. When the cardreader has read all cards, the head returns to the start.
How it was made
If you want to know how this game was made, you are in luck. There is a whole page dedicated to how this project was made, with the files to make your own, should you be so inclined. It was quite a journey getting to a completed game, with some false starts and plenty of changes along the way. It has become quite a bit of text, but I have also included a lot of pictures of the progress. It also includes some future prospects, and some final thoughts. You can go the the how it is made by clicking here, or at this link: https://ytec3d.com/robotic-game-board-how-it-is-made/
License
The project described on this page is licensed under the Creative commons – Attribution – ShareAlike license.