[Tux4kids-discuss] Go, Go Garbage Truck (Was re: An ideas wiki?)

[Bill Kendrick]

On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 02:55:16PM -0700, Bill Kendrick wrote:
> So I keep thinking about this idea for a simple game that I'd like to
> write for my 2.5yo son.  (Really, I want to write it for my Atari 8-bit,
> so he can easily play it on a TV with a joystick or some simple digital
> button controller that I could probably create.)

And to briefly put forth this idea...

My son loves garbage trucks.  He sees them driving around about 3 times
per week in our neighborhood.  (Garbage and recycling trucks, hitting
the apartment complex across the street two days a week, and then our
street, and the adjacent one loop -- once each direction, one day a week.)
I bought him a large Bruder brand truck (the sturdier, less realistic one
for younger kids) with a bin and a loading mechanism in the back.
I swore for the first few days after he got it, I was afraid he'd want to
go to bed with the thing. :)

Anyway, my idea is using this very popular device in my son's life to
create a little puzzle game, with scaling levels of difficulty.

The initial idea involved a large controller with some big buttons that
map to joystick controls.  The game would be side-scrolling, with a
large garbage truck in the center of the screen.  The road and bins would
scroll by (along with whatever other cute stuff in the background that
kept things interesting).

Left/Right for forward/backward (beeping when backing up, of course).
A separate "Stop" button, so that left/right wouldn't need to be held.
Up/Down for lifting/dropping bins.

Both the game rules and control complexity would scale.
Control-wise:

* Auto-stop at a bin, or not
* Auto-pick-up of a bin (maybe?)

Game-play wise:

1. Drive and pick up garbage
2. Only pick up garbage that matches the color of a sign on the truck
3. Only pick up gabrage that matches a symbol on the truck
4. Combo fo 2 & 3

You could get even trickier, and do things like:

* Vowels vs. consonants  (e.g. only pick up A,E,I,O,U)
* Evens vs odds  (e.g., only pick up 1,3,5,7,9)
* Greater than / Less than  (e.g., only pick up numbers less than 5)
* Cool colors vs Warm colors  (e.g., only red, yellow, orange bins)

That's about as far as I've gotten, in terms of sketching out the idea.

-bill!