Fourlords Field
In a couple of weeks, I start teaching a brand new elective on game development. Students will team up and build a single game throughout the semester. I’ve taught several such courses in the past, but this one has a couple of twists:
- The games must be locally cooperative. These games are intended to be played together, with somebody right next to you.
- The games must be controlled by custom hardware that the students build using Arduinos or Raspberry Pis.
Whenever I teach project-based courses, I always vow to work on one of my own. This semester I’m hoping to recreate a game from my childhood: Warlords, for the Atari 2600.
I spent twenty minutes the other day getting the field laid out. Each of the four players has a castle to defend, with walls protecting it from the enemy’s projectiles. The walls are up:
Small steps, oft repeated. That’s how things get made.