Competitive Analysis
Players sail between islands, with the goal of reaching Treasure Island. Each island has two departing ships, and the players have to choose which one to use. The players can’t see the departing ship and their destinations until they reach the island. The goal is to determine all possible paths that reach Treasure Island (or possibly the quickest path). One of the drawbacks of this activity is that the players are for the most part simply exploring the map blindly, not trying to “solve” it. Another drawback is that there is only one map to play, and no larger goal. Treasure Hunt is a game that you physically play in real life as a group.
Manufactoria is a finite state machine simulation game; it uses a manufacturing/robotic theme, with different manufacturing components to illustrate how to create a finite state machine that accepts a particular input. There are a number of levels that branch outwards in a tree-like structure, with different paths that the user can choose from to play the next level. The game has a steep learning curve; there is a tutorial, but it is very easy to skip. The early puzzles are too difficult, making it hard to engage with the game. Manufactoria is a Flash game that can be played on a website.
Kara is a game that teaches one how to program with state machines. The user programs a ladybug that can collect leaves and other things. The learning objectives of Kara are to teach the foundations of programming and finite state machines in a graphical program. The interface for programming the ladybug is fairly complex; the player essentially designs a FSM using state diagrams and state tables. Kara is a desktop program. The game designers claim that Kara is used successfully as an educational tool at many schools from secondary school to universities.
Kara does not load on my computer, which is a big problem for a game to have.
See the High Concept document for our descriptions of our game, which was designed with the problems of each of our competitors’ games in mind.