Earlier today I was listening to a fascinating interview on ABC radio with Jim Bell, an astronomer and planetary scientist, who was the lead scientist for the colour cameras on the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. If you would like to listen to the interview, you can find a copy here. It got me thinking about two ideas for games. One based building and sending a rover to Mars and another based on the idea of planets "swapping" rocks between them. Since the first one is pretty intensive, I'll talk mostly on that one and save the other one for next time.
Life On Mars
This first concept is about trying to find life on Mars, modelling the process of putting together a series of unmanned missions to Mars to find signs of life. There are a couple of different elements that make up the game, making it more a cooperative than competitive style of game, which can be categorized into different roles. These roles are Public Relations Officer, Engineer, Programmer and Scientist. Each of these roles will be further discussed below.
Public Relations Officer
Every mission requires financial backing and that is the sole purview of the PRO. He is in charge of extolling the virtues of the Mars rover program (both in terms of the possibilities of finding extraterrestrial life, as well as the findings once they have been beamed back to Earth). He must do this within the halls of Congress, as well as the hearts and minds of the populous in order to gain the necessary funding for the Engineer to spend. Without a steady flow of money, the Mars rover program would simply have to shutdown and the players lose the game
Engineer
The Engineer is the one of the roles that consumes money. Her purpose is twofold. Firstly, she must design and construct the vehicle that will carry the Mars rover to its destination and then also the rover itself, based on what the Scientist is looking for. For example, if the Scientist is looking for water, then the Engineer needs to include instruments on the rover that are able to detect water.
The Engineer is limited, however, in what she can include by the amount of money available to the program and the mass and volume restrictions of the vehicle she has constructed to transport the rover to Mars. So, she must balance the needs of the scientist with those required by the rover itself (such as solar panels and batteries, which determine how quickly the rover can recharge and how much power it can hold, essential information for the Programmer) and the money available for each of the parts. Jim Bell states in the interview that the cameras on the rovers cost a cool $400 million.
The Engineer is limited, however, in what she can include by the amount of money available to the program and the mass and volume restrictions of the vehicle she has constructed to transport the rover to Mars. So, she must balance the needs of the scientist with those required by the rover itself (such as solar panels and batteries, which determine how quickly the rover can recharge and how much power it can hold, essential information for the Programmer) and the money available for each of the parts. Jim Bell states in the interview that the cameras on the rovers cost a cool $400 million.
Programmer
The programmer is in charge of the rover once it has safely landed on Mars. He talks to all of the other roles to determine what actions need to be taken by the rover in the search for extraterrestrial life. His only concern is energy, which represents the critical resource for the rover. At the start of every round, the programmer must wait a certain number of turns for the rover to fully charge its batteries, which can be affected by a number of factors including the weather and rover functionality (something may go wrong with the rover).
Energy is then consumed across two sets of activities, those that occur during the day and those at night. Day activities include moving the rover to a new position, using any of the instruments on the rover and transmitting that information to the orbiting receiver positioned high above the surface of Mars. The information gathered can be data for the Scientist or pictures or video for the PRO, which he can then use to further the cause. A quantity of energy must be kept in reserve each night, however, to power the heaters that maintain the insides of the rover at a toasty -40°C (-40°F), stopping the instruments from being destroyed by the chilly -110°C (-166°F) outside.
Energy is spent by the Programmer providing a set of commands to the rover. These cannot be provided in real-time. Therefore, he must compile a list of commands, using cards that present the energy consumption for each action they wish the rover to take. Once received by the rover, the actions are executed in the order they were received. One of these action cards sends back information about the status of the rover's systems.
Energy is then consumed across two sets of activities, those that occur during the day and those at night. Day activities include moving the rover to a new position, using any of the instruments on the rover and transmitting that information to the orbiting receiver positioned high above the surface of Mars. The information gathered can be data for the Scientist or pictures or video for the PRO, which he can then use to further the cause. A quantity of energy must be kept in reserve each night, however, to power the heaters that maintain the insides of the rover at a toasty -40°C (-40°F), stopping the instruments from being destroyed by the chilly -110°C (-166°F) outside.
Energy is spent by the Programmer providing a set of commands to the rover. These cannot be provided in real-time. Therefore, he must compile a list of commands, using cards that present the energy consumption for each action they wish the rover to take. Once received by the rover, the actions are executed in the order they were received. One of these action cards sends back information about the status of the rover's systems.
Scientist
The Scientist's role is to interpret the information returned from the rover. Every time the Programmer uses an instrument, they draw a card from a deck, which simply has a representation of the information that the rover has retrieved about this area, presented as a signal. When that information is transmitted to the Scientist, she interprets the data by taking out a paired card from a deck of his own. This ensures that the Programmer does not know the usefulness of any information produced by the rover and therefore cannot decide whether or not to send that information back to Earth, except in the circumstance that there is insufficient energy to do so).
Once the information has been received and interpreted, the Scientist needs to determine whether there was anything of use in data recovered, whether there are signs of life present in the data and finally, what the rover needs to do next (where it needs to go, what instruments it needs to use). The Scientist can also send their findings onto the PRO in order to help raise additional funds for the program.
If a status report was sent, the Scientist may forward the status of the rover to the Engineer, who can than inform the Programmer of the status of the rover (which may affect the quantity of energy available, rate at which energy is replenished or consumed, or the functionality of any of the parts of the rover). The status report that the Scientist receives is converted from a signal into an Engineering report using a paired deck. The Engineer then converts this into plain English using a paired deck of their own.
Scientists also consumes money to research new technologies that help the Engineer to build more reliable, lighter and more efficient rovers and rockets. This brings into play a balancing act between the Scientist and Engineer about how the money should be spent and between these two and the PRO as to what kinds of fundraising they should attempt.
Once the information has been received and interpreted, the Scientist needs to determine whether there was anything of use in data recovered, whether there are signs of life present in the data and finally, what the rover needs to do next (where it needs to go, what instruments it needs to use). The Scientist can also send their findings onto the PRO in order to help raise additional funds for the program.
If a status report was sent, the Scientist may forward the status of the rover to the Engineer, who can than inform the Programmer of the status of the rover (which may affect the quantity of energy available, rate at which energy is replenished or consumed, or the functionality of any of the parts of the rover). The status report that the Scientist receives is converted from a signal into an Engineering report using a paired deck. The Engineer then converts this into plain English using a paired deck of their own.
Scientists also consumes money to research new technologies that help the Engineer to build more reliable, lighter and more efficient rovers and rockets. This brings into play a balancing act between the Scientist and Engineer about how the money should be spent and between these two and the PRO as to what kinds of fundraising they should attempt.
Having considered the roles of the players, I have been thinking about the mechanics of the game. Could you play this as a board game? Probably, it would be one of the more crunchy games that requires a whole dining table just for all the playmats and pieces.
Or, how about as live-action roleplaying (LARP), where teams, representing the different nations of Earth compete to be the first to find life on Mars. Here, a group of people could also play as sentient aliens, do their best to confuse the rovers as they search for life. This could be a Megagame, as made by the Megagame makers. The crew from Shut Up and Sit Down played one of their megagames, which you can watch here.
If you want to use this idea, please go ahead and do it! I'd love to see what you make, so long as you send me a link afterwards. Even more, I'd love to work with you to make it. If you've enjoyed this blog post or any of the others, please share this with your friends, like my Facebook page or follow me on Google+.
Or, how about as live-action roleplaying (LARP), where teams, representing the different nations of Earth compete to be the first to find life on Mars. Here, a group of people could also play as sentient aliens, do their best to confuse the rovers as they search for life. This could be a Megagame, as made by the Megagame makers. The crew from Shut Up and Sit Down played one of their megagames, which you can watch here.
If you want to use this idea, please go ahead and do it! I'd love to see what you make, so long as you send me a link afterwards. Even more, I'd love to work with you to make it. If you've enjoyed this blog post or any of the others, please share this with your friends, like my Facebook page or follow me on Google+.