The Cube Game

Brown: We'll lift our spirits

THERE was no guard of honour for the All-Ireland champions in Portmarnock last Sunday. Meath had their own Royal welcome planned.

They brought so much zest to the stage. They were supremely fit. They were blocking and tackling all afternoon.

Their industry and desire was just so admirable. And nobody was begrudging them their 0-10 to 0-9 victory in the Leinster Senior Championship semi-final.

The sun blazed down on Mearnóg, yet the breeze was tricky enough. There was a decent crowd on the bank. They were treated to a cracking spectacle.

“It was probably exciting for the spectators but not for us on the sideline,” reflected Dublin manager, Tommy Brown.

“I’d rather win a dull game than lose an exciting one. It was a tough match and we came out on the wrong side of it.

“The bottom line is that we lost. We are all disappointed. We’ll be hurting for a few days.”

So will the bodies of both sides. It was a rattler. The teams were level six times. And it wasn’t decided until three minutes into injury-time when Ger Doherty sent over the winner.

Doherty was some sub to spring from the bench. She only entered the action with 13 minutes left, but she contributed three priceless points.

Meath finished the day as they had started it – on a mission. They might have won by more if they had taken all their second-half chances.

Only two minutes into the restart, Shauna Bennett, on the right of the posts, found herself with a clear view of the Dublin dartboard, but her shot sped inches wide.

Dublin had to graft for every crumb. Right corner-back, Sinead Goldrick, had a stormer. Gemma Fay did her best to carry the game to Meath from deep.

Denise Masterson was as composed as an ice-cube, and anytime Sinead Aherne gained possession, all the lights in the Meath jukebox lit up.

But Meath were doing a Tony Christie on it – cutting off every avenue and alleyway. Dublin hadn’t faced such a severe test since their All-Ireland semi-final triumph over Laois in Dr Cullen Park last season.

The Jackies trailed at the break, 0- 5 to 0-4. The tie had been level four times. Elaine Kelly, Amy Ring and Aherne (two) were on target for the Blues.

Early in the second period, Meath extended their advantage to three points following efforts from Elaine Duffy (free) and captain, Grainne Nulty. Returns from Lyndsey Peat and Aherne (two) tied it up again in the 48th minute. The dazzling Doherty then struck twice as the atmosphere sizzled in the heat.

Out of the Cube: Augmented Rubik's Cube

Augmented Reality Rubik's cube . The cube acts simultaneously as both the controller and the game board. Gameplay is controlled by the cube, and game assets are rendered on top of it. Shuffling and tilting operations on the cube are mapped to game interaction. We discuss the game design decisions involved in developing a game for this platform, as well as the technological challenges in implementing it. Ultimately, we describe two games and discuss the conclusions of an informal user study based on those games.

Augmented Reality (AR), where computer-generated graphics is rendered and registered on the real world in real time, has existed as an academic field since the 60’s. As anticipated by Bolter and Grusin [ 1 ], AR is now gaining wider public acceptance as AR applications are being demonstrated in art, entertainment, and gaming.

In 2007, the first commercial AR game was produced. In The Eye of Judgment ( http://www.eyeofjudgment.com/ ) an AR game for the Sony Play Station, a special set of board and cards was designed. Since the Eye of Judgment saw light, a constantly increasing number of commercial AR games are developed every year, motivating research for AR game technologies.

In this work, we present a game technology that extends an existing game platform, a toy. While some game platforms are developed and tailored to support AR experiences (e.g., The Eye of Judgment game board), others can be based on existing ones. For example, augmenting regular cards may lay the foundations for a new game technology based on an existing game platform.

One of the advantages in exploiting an existing game platform (e.g., cards) to create new digital experiences lies in the fact that people are familiar with the underlying game mechanics (e.g., pile cards). In addition, although the game uses a tangible platform, distributing it becomes a simpler task. For example, the software for the game can be downloaded online.

Augmented Reality game technologies that revolve around familiar game platforms can exploit the interactions of the underlying platform. For example, piles of cards could translate to grouping models represented by those cards. In many cases, it seems natural to preserve the meaning of interactions in the underlying platform and map them to the AR experience. Furthermore, new game interactions are made possible with meaning only within the scope of the extended AR platform. For example, tilting a card to one side can cause an augmented model to slip aside.

The Cube

Micro Java game development

Critical squares, games of critical thinking and understanding

Words their way, word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling

Squaring the Circle - 'Thinking the Unthinkable'