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Could the rasberry pie be used in board game design?

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larienna
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There are tons of things you can do with this mini computer. It's cheap, small and has a lot of gadgets.

http://documentally.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Raspberry-Pi.jpg

So I was wondering if there could be an application to board game design. Either using it as an electronic component, or either for making an electronic board.

Any ideas?

pelle
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PI

Raspberry Pi and Pie are not the same thing. :)

I asked a similar question on TheMiniaturesPage forum a few years ago after buying my first Arduino, but still have not figured out any game-related use for it. The Arduino is of course more low-level targeted at integrating with electronics (makes it VERY easy to build and program your own little electronic things). I know the RPi also has some pins to connect it to electronics, so it could probably be used for some of that as well (although with a full OS running on it it will not be as easy to work with as the Arduino, and it is also more expensive). But still don't know what useful electronics to integrate with a game anyway.

Other use would be to just use it as a small computer, but then you have to ask what the advantage would be compared to for instance using a smartphone/tablet, that almost everyone will have, and that comes with a built-in touchscreen, and often is more powerful. You can find some very cheap Android devices that will probably outperform the Pi plus have a (bad) touchscreen built-in, plus wifi. Sure the RPi can run a real desktop OS (eg Debian), but not sure what you need that for in this context.

Corsaire
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If your designing games for

If your designing games for the kid's market, I know broker/agents want to see games with dohickeys. With Python, an open architecture, and a pretty huge hacker base out there you could prototype any sort of game electronics from card scanners to an active board game to controlling a laser. It is affordable enough to send to some playtesters. Smart phones offer a different avenue, but aren't nearly as open architecturally.

Hmm, laser writing, gives me some ideas... Like if I wanted a huge amount of random events at some point, electronics would become cheaper than cards. Or use a text to voice bit for events.

Thanks for tossing this out there, kinda lets me keep that as a potential tool in game design. I definitely have a few deadends I could consider with this option.

pelle
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Corsaire wrote: Hmm, laser

Corsaire wrote:

Hmm, laser writing, gives me some ideas... Like if I wanted a huge amount of random events at some point, electronics would become cheaper than cards. Or use a text to voice bit for events.

I have posted about that somewhere, using smartphones rather than decks of cards for Card-Driven Games, to avoid the (in my opinion) problem of players learning all the cards after a few plays. I hate games that becomes a meta-game about memorizing good starting-strategies and knowing in advance what cards to play before what other cards etc.

pelle
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One thing I would love to use

One thing I would love to use electronics for in a game, and that I guess could be controlled by a RPi, would be a block game where each block has a small LCD (or eInk) display instead of a sticker. That way you could configure the blocks for many different games, and also of course dynamically update the units when things happen. Sort of the opposite of having a game table with a big screen that you move static unit tokens on, because you could use a static cardboard map, but have all the fancy electronic-controlled stuff happen on the units.

There are companies that produce small radio-controlled displays, like those designed to put on shelves in a store. Unfortunately I do not know of any that are good enough and cheap enough for a game.

pelle
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Guess you could make your own

Guess you could make your own RPi-driven game table with a matrix of cheap small LCD displays (or just one big screen, or a projector, but what fun is that?). It would be easier than the displays-in-blocks idea, and probably a lot cheaper too.

saiyanslayer
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Hrmm

I think a raspberry pi would have been perfect for Space Alert instead of using a cd. Start a game, it randomly links events together. Imaging event cards that actually spoke to you and forced a timely response. The HDMI cable could be connected to a TV to show video as well.

You could also use RFID tags and a RFID reader to input info.

With the right app, it should be possible to network the raspberry pi with tablets/smartphones, maybe even via bluetooth (would need a module add-on though).

Corsaire
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Conductive ink

As you consider possibilities, there is also conductive ink that you can use with a home printer to make active components, game boards, etc.

saiyanslayer
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...which would allow

...which would allow miniatures with a conductive bottom to close circuits. The Raspberry also has 8 GPIO and can support I2C, meaning printing a board with multiple circuit paths is possible. It you need more than 8 pathways (assuming you're using the GPIOs as detectors), you could get an I2C chip to expand the connections. You could tell if any miniature is at a specific location, for example.

larienna
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Conductive ink, wow, it

Conductive ink, wow, it almost feels like the Yugioh show.

Kroz1776
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Replicators (Not the Star Gate ones)

larienna wrote:
Conductive ink, wow, it almost feels like the Yugioh show.

And 3D printers almost makes it feel like Star Trek.

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