LIVE FEUD GAME TWO

[JasonA1]

I see your points, gentlemen, but I still don't agree with them. And I think that's where this discussion will have to settle. And that's fine. :)

lol. All right then. :)

Lemme ask John then - is your new Feud software derivative of the Amiga Feud '94 application at all? They kinda resemble each other.

-Jason

[jrjgames]

[quote name=\'JasonA1\' date=\'Dec 21 2003, 09:57 PM\'] Lemme ask John then - is your new Feud software derivative of the Amiga Feud '94 application at all? They kinda resemble each other.

-Jason [/quote]
Yes Jason the PC feud software works VERY much like the Amiga game did, but the PC one can do so much more.

Again, the important part of the software is the game KNOWS where we are at all times in the game.  So for example, if TEAM 1 buzzes in and gets answer 3 worth 15 points the game passes control to TEAM 2 for an answer.  If TEAM 2 gives the number 4 answer worth 10 points,  the game knows that TEAM 1 is in control and we are now out of the FACE OFF round and into the main game.

Instead of having seperate keys for the strikes, the ZERO key is the stirke and the game knows that if we are in the FACE OFF round that the center strike shows, once in the main game, the strikes come left to right accordingly.

After a steal the game knows where the points must be added.  This avoids having the operator have to know how feud works PLUS how this control works.  The arrow keys to add to a players bank works well if the controller is sitting infront of the set as an audience member.  Left family wins, press left arrow...but what happens, as in my show, where my operator wasnt in front...it would be confusing as to which side gets the points.  Again my hope was to let the GAME do most of the work.

After the 3rd strike each teams scores are placed at the top of the screen, this way I can see the scores and make any verbal cues as to "if you get this you will win the game..."etc.

The game also takes the next question in the database and continues from there.  There is a regular batch of questions with many answers which are used for the SINGLE AND DOUBLE rounds.  There are special TRIPLE questions whcih have only 3 or 4 answers.  Plus the game will continue to pull the next TRIPLE question and continue the game until a winner is found.  This way you dont have to set a certain set # of questions in a GAME.

The game can also instantly disqualify a question and reset the next one at a moment in the event of a problem where a question must be "thrown out".

The game keeps track of each players totals and how much they will be playing for in Fast Money.  The game has the option to play WITH or WITHOUT bullseye and if the STEAL adds to the bank or not.

These little elements might not seem important to you, but I;ve been doing these feud "shows" with family and friends at parties and these problems have come up, so I would tweak the software as needed.

The bulk of the software was written in just 3 days.  I was asked to do a show way back when at the local college and I had 3 days to whip something up.  Originally the face off would come up and once someone buzzed in the game would switch to the reveal answer mode.  What happened one day, as happened in the live show, a wise guy decided to press the button to play with it.  Now I was dead, the sofware moved to the reveal answer mode and now I couldnt RESET the buzzers nor could I disqualify the question since I didnt have that in yet neither.  So now the game can allow MULTIPLE buzzins until the first answer or strike is revealed which then shuts them off.

So its these little things that I need which Ive included over the years which I don't excpect Todd to have.  His game is WONDERFUL and he deserves all the praise he's getting.  If we can ever get some special tweaks for me, Id love to use it...another reason I couldnt was my laptop couldnt hack Todds game and right now its easier for me to bring my TV enabled laptop to an event then a full blown computer...and unless I sell a TV show, I won't be buying a new laptop just yet!

Well that was long winded...wasnt it!  I hope that clears up some things!

Enjoy the rest of the games from Live Feud, we have about 4 more games to go which I will upload soon!

Thanks!
John

[Card Shark]

[quote name=\'tomcat\' date=\'Dec 21 2003, 10:48 AM\'] [quote name=\'Card Shark\' date=\'Dec 21 2003, 10:00 AM\']
Oh my God did he ever! I played Family Feud with my students on Friday using his software. I don't know if I or the kids had more fun. We had quite the audience though...the principal and assistant principal and many of the older kids were intrigued and stopped in to watch. [/quote]
Not to send the thread off topic, but I work at a school district, and I'm curious to know how you use the game with your class.  What are some sample questions/surveys you use?  Undoubtedly this game can help learning ... anything to get the students interested in participating!

Brian [/quote]
As I told Todd, I've been running Feud games for the last five years. I started on my college campus after having polled students on campus issues. When I got in to education, I started playing Family Feud as a review tool. It doesn't work with math, but with novels and mainly Social Studies, it is a great review tool. I make up the questions and answers and make sure the questions have the proper survey results. So, in short, that's how I do it. My students watch GSN and know about Dawson FF and have pointed out how they've seen Richard on MG. So, this fact certainly helps. To answer your question, I teach at a Jewish day school and the game we played the other day had questions revolving around Chanukah. So, let's make this easier on you and give you an example of when we played to review for a Social Studies test...

I teach in Maryland and the first unit was on the geography of the state of Maryland (physical features, boundaries, etc.). It apparently has three regions (I'm not a native of the state) and one of the questions I asked for a triple round question was "Name any region in MD" and put the three answers up with phony survey results. So, I hope this helps.

[Card Shark]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' date=\'Dec 21 2003, 04:42 PM\'] And, "leaning curve?" C'mon. Word processors have a "learning curve". With a cheat sheet, I could have a board op who had never seen the program before ready to run my show inside of a half-hour, tops. TOPS. That's not a learning curve. [/quote]
 To further prove your point as to how easy Todd's program is to use, I had one of my nine year old students working the board when I've played it. It took her all of five minutes to learn back in October the first time we played it. It took her a few more minutes earlier this week, but that's only because the first time we played it, Todd didn't have Fast Money on his program. I had since updated it and now have Fast Money. That took her a little getting used to. But, when it came to game time on Friday, she ran the board like a pro!

[MrGameShow]

And while John goes to the corner to catch his breath, I'll throw in the short version of what I meant.

Having now have worked ON a TV Game Show (SCRABBLE CHALLENGE v2), I was like everyone else thinking "Oh, I only need to be able to play the game". BOY WAS I WRONG!

There are so many elements that could go wrong in a show that the software must be able to "step back" however many steps needed to before the mistake to retape it.

For example, Kennedy tried jumping my cue by adding up the points in her head; she mistakenly said the wrong total, which caused the infamous "HOLD PLEASE!" yell from the Floor Manager.  I had not programmed the software to "step back" for anything like that. I had a workaround, but for other problems that came up, I needed that "undo" function. A couple times I just literally had to shut down the program, restart it, and run through the game playing it via my touchscreen by the S&P person's notes.

Now - being a LIVE event, you don't have that luxury. And if someone makes a mistake at the controls, you have to make sure that you can correct it so the game remains fair to everyone. From the audience standpoint, if you've got to watch people correcting mistakes, it reflects bad on the people hosting the show.

Thus my reasons for saying why Todd's software is not as 'show ready' as people like John need it to be.

[jrjgames]

[quote name=\'MrGameShow\' date=\'Dec 22 2003, 12:26 AM\'] And while John goes to the corner to catch his breath, I'll throw in the short version of what I meant. [/quote]
 Well I just thought I'd give some insight into how the software works as people seemed interested in the mechanics of it all.

John