Bot Creations was showcased at the third Game Day event in Brazil. Game Day is a free game-tasting event organized by Conquistar - Catalyst Brazil, a member of the Integração Group. There were three new games presented at Game Day in May, one of which was the all new “Bot Creation”.
Bot Creation is a team building game in which teams design and assemble a robot. To be successful the robot must have specific attributes and be able to complete certain goals in a finale against other team’s robots.
Based around design thinking, Bot Creation teaches teams to design for purpose. What pieces should we use to make the bot do the task at hand? And, with limited resources teams are challenged to apply frugal innovation to the task. As the robot needs to be tested and modified in order to develop an effective working robot, collaborative process improvement skills are sharpened.
Bot Creators can be tailored to suit desired learning outcomes. From collaborative challenges that all bots must work together to perform to competitive challenges. Take for example a Sumo style, knock-out of the ring. Just like the agility and flexibility of modern-day Sumo’s opposed to their less agile bigger predecessors, the winner may end up being a small more agile bot.
At Game Day, the final challenge for the Bot Creators was a race around an obstacle riddled race course. Again it wasn't just speed that was required from a large motor. Agility and lightness to navigate the obstacles proved to be an important design feature.
Participants at Game Day hailed Bot Creations as a "now" product. It is an engaging and enjoyable team building activity that challenges effective communication, team dynamics and innovative thinking - all of which are very relevant to modern teams.
