Hey everyone! This is a follow up to a previous article I wrote, Four Games to Exercise Your Brain, I’m back with four more super-fun (addicting!) games, this time with a focus on vocabulary and mathematics – watch out SAT’s!
This is a replication of classic Chinese game of Nim, first documented in the 16th centaury but believed to be much older. In the game of Nim, players alternate subtracting objects from rows (technically “heaps”) and the player stuck with the final object loses. Sound easy? It ain’t. In this version you play against an AI engine with a lovably sinister cartoon persona. Due to the mathematical resolvability of this game, this little character will give you a run for your money, but he is definitely beatable!
The AI character (Juan) adds an immerse sense of narrative to an otherwise purely mathematical game, making it much more enjoyable. Narrative and story telling is an important aspect to video game design that we focus on at iD, as it can easily be over looked.
This is a simple vocabulary synonym quiz in the style of SAT (GRE, etc…) multiple choice format. However, it has heartwarming rewards, for every question you get right 10 grains of rice are donated through The World Food Programme to help end hunger! Though 10 grains is a small amount, every little bit counts and that’s why you should play! To date, nearly 83 billion grains of rice have been donated. At higher levels of vocab (which you can set at any point) you’ll notice plenty of overlap with typical standardized testing vocab lists – why not kill two birds with one stone and get your community service in while studying for your SAT’s – watch out college-entrance resume, BAM!
Recently, the site has included multiple categories of play including Art, Chemistry, Forign Language, Geography, Grammar and Math. Peep them all here: http://www.freerice.com/category
This puzzle is a variant from the “pipe-laying” genre of puzzle games. Get your IT on and assume the role of a network admin who must connect a network router to a handful of computer terminals. The game play entails rotating tiles on a 2D plane to establishing a one-way flow to all of the end points. Most arrangements only have one solution though I’ve found a few with more than one. With three levels of play (in “expert” you can wrap around edges) this game is dangerously addicting and can be played for hours! I would love a portable version of this for my phone, maybe one of our students will program at our Iphone camps!
(Four e’s? This is the last time I do you any favors, Scrabb.ly)
Mental Muscles Flexed:
Vocabulary Building
Like playing scrabble with a friend? What about with four people? What about 4,000+ people? What about 4,000 people in a real-time (not-turn based)? In Scrabbly you play Scrabble on a massive board (like enough scrabble boards to cover the state of Rhode Island) against thousands of other people in real-time, building off of your own words as fast as you can. Despite how crazy that may sound, the game play is actually quite user-friendly and ironically reminiscent of the classic game of scrabble. Here is another screen shot to give you an idea of how big this game is. Below is an “ariel” view of only 1/20th the full size of the game board, the little yellow box represents what you zoom into in-game:
Looks like a Mandelbrot set! Chaos theory anyone? This board is huge – like Canada-sized huge. Did you know we’ve recently expanded our camps into Canada? If not, be sure to check out our Canada camps!
The above four games are a great example of making learning fun, which is precisely what our educational summer camps aim to do.
Hey all! What a treat I’ve got for you guys this week!
A long standing tradition at iD Tech Camps is our staff’s creation of funny videos, usually spoofing popular music videos. This season, “Tik Tok”, by Ke$ha, was a popular target and below is my favorite rendition, made at our very own UCLA camp in California.
If you are interested in making this sort of thing yourself, take a look at our film camps! Not into film? We have camps where you can learn to program too!
Hi All! Summer is in full swing and I’ve been super busy touring iD Tech Camps all over the nation! I’d like to take this time to share with you one of my favorite iD Tech Camp traditions, one that is unique to our Princeton location, in fact, one that I helped to start!
In 2005 I was an instructor iD Princeton teaching Web Design & Flash Animation. The bottom floor of our dorm had a lot of free space and it occurred to me that having a dance party is a great way to end a day of hard work at a computer! Several trips to a party store later, we had outfitted the space as a nightclub, rigged a laptop into a modest DJ booth and iDisco Tech was born. I was excited to see that the tradition is still going STRONG and campers and staff are still having a blast! Enjoy these pics!
Hey everyone, Grizzle here letting you know that this week’s blogs come from one of our very own stellar summer staffers! Rob M., “Mau Mau” has been with iD since 2007 and specializes in our web design and video game creation course. He is hear to today to tell about a very unique program that iD offers…
Hey everyone its Mau Mau, iD Tech’s UCSD Surf and Tech instructor!
Basically, I wanted to use this moment on the iD Tech blog to share with everyone what I consider one of the most unique and fun courses offered here at iD Tech: Surf and Tech.
What is this mythical “Surf and Tech” you might ask? Often times when I tell someone that phrase, they envision the surf part meaning “surfing the interweb” or something like that, but trust me; its much, much better.
Basically, this is a hybrid “Sport and Tech” course offered exclusively at iD UCSD, where campers spend half the day learning how to “shred the nar” (also known as ‘Surf’) on the California coast with professional surfing instructors, and then come back to a computer lab in the afternoon to learn how to make either their very own Arcade-Style video game, or Professional HTML Website. Other fun stuff like Guitar Hero sessions, Ultimate Frisbee games, Online Gaming Tournaments will definitely ensue. Cool swag to take home with you includes your finished project burned onto a CD, a DVD video of your surfing experience and much more.
This combined experience is truly unique; iD Tech is the only camp in the nation that offers this unreal homogenization of activities. Nowhere else can you express both your inner jock and geek quite like this!
If you are from out of state or even country and want to experience surfing in California as well as create some excellent video games on a computer, iD UCSD offers both overnight stay and “Ultimate Gaming Weekends.” What this means is that if you are coming from abroad: you can stay multiple weeks surfing, creating video games and even spend the weekend just chilling out with other campers playing video games and other fun activities without having to go back home until its all over. (sadly!) Spend multiple weeks honing both your surfing and video game creation skills, or mix it up and try some of the other wicked courses that iD has to offer.
Exercise both your body and mind this summer. Enroll in the Surf and Tech program at iD UCSD today.
Big news at Columbia and another Rendezvous Dilemma!!! Hey guys! I just got back from a whirlwind trip to the East Coast, visiting some of iD’s most prestigious locations, Princeton and Columbia. Mainly, I was there to put some finishing touches on our lab spaces at both. Our big news is that due to popular demand, we are adding two weeks to our schedule at Columbia!!!
Also, while at Columbia, I had another amazing chance rendezvous, similar to when I ran into Jen at OSU. However, this one involves one of my oldest friends ever, Jon B. who I met at summer camp(!) just before my first year of kindergarten (which was with him as well)! When I ran into him, he was on duty as a Columbia EMT, safety first!
Below is a then and now comparison, the first is of myself (right) as a lobster and Jon (left) as a fish during a 1st grade school play, the second is of our encounter at Columbia:
Again, I’ve decided to calculate the odds of us randomly running into each other. I’ve made some adjustments to my original equation to suit this scenario. First of all, (for the purposes of this study) we are eliminating the odds that Jon could have ended up anywhere else; the program he is in is highly specific and his choice to enroll was deliberate, so his relationship to Columbia and NYC is given. It is also given that Jon will be spending a significant amount of time publicly traversing the campus as an EMT shift-worker, we will assume that he is working part-time (as being a Ph.D. candidate is a lot of work!) which is standardly 20 hours per week. This equation is much simpler then my original as I’ve reduced almost all of the variables to time and space;
(FYI – All of Jon’s assumptions are contrived, I have no idea what Jon’s actual work hours and habits are!!!!)
We are still missing one thing. Just as we started the equation with the odds of Jon being on campus at a given time, we must also consider my timing on campus. Of the 40 potential work week hours that my visit may occur, only a portion would involve a public part of the campus (as I’m typically behind doors in meetings in the pre-season). I’m going to estimate that variable at half an hour.
Below is the final solution. Sorry for mixing decimals and fractions below (don’t you hate that?), I’m hoping that it may help some people visualize the variables:
Though the solution is an extremely small number, this is significantly higher than the probability of running into Jen at OSU (which was taken to the power of -26). However, with an entirely different equation it isn’t nearly apples to apples.
Can anyone do better? I’m sure there are lots of ways to solve this! Bonus points if you can create an equation that isn’t limited to specific geographical scenarios (as mine are). E.g., it wouldn’t matter whether the rendezvous occurred at one of our Florida summer camps, or one of our Illinois summer camps, or even one of our Vancouver summer camps, it would still employ all the same variables and constants.
I was just shown some awesome pictures taken by the campers at our spring break beta camp and I wanted to share! When I first saw the email, I assumed that these were taken by one of our in-house pros (lookin’ at you Marta) but I was stoked to find out that they were, in fact, the products of campers in our photography course!
I can’t wait to see the photography that comes out of this summer! With such a variety of settings, from our West Coast Washington Summer Camps all the way to our East Coast Baltimore summer camps, I’m expecting to see some awesome photography from our kids camps nationally! In fact, I should say internationally as we’ve expanded in to Canada with our Vancouver Summer Camps and others!
It is College Basketball Tournament season and things are looking really exciting. With all the Bracketology, Prognositcators, and Experts out there, people are probably wondering what iD’s men’s basketball bracket looks like. We like to root on our favorite schools – those that host our summer programs and teen summer camps!
The rules for this bracket are simple:
1. Any school that hosts iD Tech is predicted to win.
2. Win goes to the team that is the higher seed if:
a. Both schools host iD
b. Neither school hosts iD
Let’s look at the Midwest Region. We have THE Ohio State University representing as the No. 2 seed. They have a strong team that’s battled through a challenging Big Ten Conference this year. They’ve got what it takes to clean house and take Kansas out of the running.
In the East Region, we’ll get to watch some Huskies run the court! University of Washington, which hosts iD Tech Camps and iD Gaming Academy (where students learn game design), would be quite the Dark Horse to advance as far as we’d like!
Finally in the South Region, we’ll be rooting for four teams! University of California: Berkeley will have to pull off a pretty big upset to beat Duke in the 2nd round. With iDTC and iD Visual Arts Academy running on campus this summer, we know they can do it! Purdue has had a solid year, but comes in as a No. 4 seed. We’ve been on campus for only two years, but we think the Boilermakers can easily advance to the Elite 8. Then, we get to watch St. Mary’s of California go up against Richmond. If, I mean “when”, they advance, they’ll then be pitted against another of our home teams – Villanova. They’re our favorite spot in Philly for iD Tech Camp and even where we hold our staff training. They should go deep this year.
The iDeal Final Four would be The Ohio State vs. Vanderbilt and Villanova vs. Washington. Are we that crazy to put an 11 seed UW into the Final Four? They’ve got a big cheerleader in their corner to take them far. Championship game would then be Ohio State against Villanova. With the game in Indianapolis, this would be great for Buckeye fans! But since it is a match of No. 2 Seeds, our bracket system is stuck!
Who do you think would win this matchup?
Or do you have someone else in the Final Four? Time to sound-off readers, I want to hear support for your teams in the comments!!!
BIG thanks to Charlie for giving me this iDea and providing the B-ball insight!
Hi Everyone! This blog is a Part II to my Ms. Pacman pizza blog. After making my Mrs. Pac-Man pizza, I had an entire pizza crust so I decided to make the “ghosts” from the Ms. Pacman game!
Remember, never cook with out an adult present. I am no exception to this rule. Fortunately, my good friend, adult and former iD Tech UCLA director, Jeff was still around to help me out:
1) SHAPE THE CRUST
The difference between this and the Ms. Pac-Man Pie mainly the shape of the crust. Each pizza crust will yield two ghosts, so start by a cutting a line right down the diameter of the crust, thus halving it:
Next, make two vertical cuts on either side of the crust. How deep in to make the cuts will depend on the size of your crust, the distance from the edge should be about 20% the width of the pie. Then, to round out the top a bit, shave a bit off of the edges:
PROTIP – Don’t waste food! Dip the excess dough in the sauce you are making while you wait for the pizza to bake – yum!
Next cut out three triangular shapes from the bottom of the pizza:
(again, an example of “real life” subtractive 3D modeling, a modeling method taught at our 3D animation camps)
And repeat on the other half of the pizza.
2) MAKE THE SAUCE
Next is time for the sauces, unlike Ms. Pac-Man, we actually have some options other than making an Alfredo “White” Pizza depending on which ghost(s) you want to make:
Blinky – the red ghost – Just as I was about to stir up some red food coloring I realized that I could just use the most fundamental of all pizza ingredients – tomato sauce! A pizza that only has tomato sauce as a topping is called a “tomato pie” (my favorite, a Philly tradition), however as we’ll be adding mozzarella slices for the eyes, this will be a “margarita” pizza.
Pinky – the pink (duh) ghost – for this we can use an “blush” sauce which is usually used for pasta, typically gnocchi and ravioli. A blush sauce is a mixture of tomato sauce and Alfredo (more or less). Refer to my Ms. Pacman blog for an Alfredo recipe or just use your favorite off the shelf!
Sue (or Clyde in the orignal Pac-Man) the orange ghost – for orange, you can also use a blush sauce however , you’ll want to vary your ratio of tomato : Alfredo sauce. You’ll want to use more Alfredo sauce and possibly even add some cheddar.
Inky – The blue ghost – No “natural” options here. Time to get our the blue food coloring! To achieve light blue a little bit of color goes a long way. Fill a small bowl with Alfredo and stir, stir, stir:
Once the sauce is made, pour the sauce on slowly and smooth it out with a knife or spoon, remember to leave room around the edges:
I decided to make Blinky and Inky.
3) ADD DETAIL
Next, for the ghosts eyes. You’ll need a tube of mozzarella. Cut down a slice of it into a rectangular shape:
BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN USING KITCHEN KNIVES AND ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT PRESENT
Next, simply cut a black olive in half and place each half in the corner of each eye:
4) BAKE THE PIE!
Now it is time to bake! Preheat the oven 450 degrees and let Ms. Pacman bake for about 10-15 minutes, checking frequently as cooking time will vary depending on what kind of crust you are using.n While you are waiting, you should get some fresh air and do something outside, like gardening:
DO NOT LEAVE AN OVEN UNATTENDED! MAKE SURE YOUR PARENTS ARE WATCHING THE OVEN WHILE YOU GARDEN!
6) TIME TO EAT!!!
Another master piece! Now let’s eat those ghosts like we were Pac-Man!
Hey guys! I know these types of videos are all over the web but this one comes from my good friend and guitar prodigy, Gabe Deutsch and it is pretty rockin’:
As promised, here is the long anticipated Ms. Pacman Pizza recipe. The preparation for this is a bit less intensive than my Pacman cookies and one has the option of using prepared bread, sauce etc… So sit back and learn how to make a pizza that even the Mario brothers would be proud of.
First, do not cook or use the oven without an adult present!!! As I am no exception to this rule I asked my adult friend, former iD Tech UCLA Director, Jeff to come and supervise me:
First you need to make or buy pizza crusts. I can guarantee you that the whole throwing the pizza dough in the air thing would not have ended well for me, so I simply bought some pizza crust:
As alfredo sauce is white, it takes up food coloring really well so we’ll be making this an alfredo, white pizza. Here is a great recipe for alfredo that I found:
2 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 dash ground black pepper
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons grated Romano cheese
Melt the butter in your sauce pan then mix in the other ingredients and stir until they are all mixed in. I recommend a low heat and make sure to take it off the heat before it browns.
Next, you’ll be using food coloring to achieve the ubiquitous Ms. Pacman yellow color. I started off adding the food coloring conservatively:
But that just wasn’t cutting it so I added a bit more:
And that didn’t work either so I just went nuts and kept dripping it in until I achieved the color I needed, be prepared to use about quarter to a third of a standard bottle:
Stir thoroughly until the color is uniform:
Then carefully pour on to the pizza:
I spend a lot of time trying to smooth out the sauce and distribute it evenly around the edges and throughout the pie. Make sure that the sauce contours the crust otherwise Ms. Pacman won’t look properly round.
Next, there are several toppings we need to include to distinguish this pie as “Ms. Pacman” as opposed to simply “Pacman”. Those items, along with the ingredients you’ll need are;
A bow – Roasted red pepper slices and a tomato slice
A beauty mark – A black olive
Eye liner / eye shadow – Several sliced black olives and half of a green olive
Lipstick – 2 quarters of a tomato slice
Also, arranging items on a circular plane can be a bit confusing so I’ve provided a layout guide to demonstrate how Ms. Pacman is arranged. As you can see, the edges of her bow can be used to approximate the placement of her various design items:
As we are using the bow as the reference point for the rest of her details, we should start with that. For the sides of the bow we’ll be using a bouquet of roasted red peppers. Buy ‘em that way or roast ‘em yourself.
Note: BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN USING KITCHEN KNIVES AND ALWAYS HAVE AN ADULT PRESENT.
Cut them in half and lay them out flat. Cut around the edges to try and achieve this shape:
Make six and arrange three on each side in second quadrant of the pie (using the center of the pie as your origin), loosely arranged around a line that follows:
y = x + b, where b = the radius of your pizza crust:
Next, cut a thin slice of tomato and place it at the intersection of the following lines:
y = x + b (b = the radius of your pizza) and y = -x
That’s a pretty bow!
Next up is the beauty mark, which will be a whole black olive. For its placement, find the intersection of x = b/2 * -1 and y = b/2 * -1, where b is, again the radius;
Next is the eye shadow. Carefully prepare several black olive slices (I used 5) and half of a green olive. We will place the green olive first and then arrange the black olive slices around it.
Place the green olive at the intersection of y axis and the point along the tomato slice with the most negative value:
Finally, we will place the lips. Before we do, we have to determine the angle of the slice that will be removed from the pie to create her mouth. We are looking to achieve a 45 degree angle, I used pieces of spaghetti to help me approximate. Once it looks right to you, put your slices in place:
And it is time to bake! Preheat the oven to bake at 450 degrees and let Ms. Pacman bake for about 10-15 minutes, checking frequently as cooking time will vary depending on what kind of crust you are using. While you are waiting for it to bake, you should do something fun like playing hide-and-go-seek:
What I love most about this recipe is that it is not actually complete until you’ve eaten one of the pieces. If you used spaghetti as guides, the lines should still be there. Cut carefully and go over the cut several times, we need this to be clean! (Once again an example of “subtractive 3D modeling“)
All done!
Happy holidays! If you try any of my recipes, please send me pictures, I’d love to post them!
Expertise: Photoshop, Illustrator & Graphic Design, Prairie Dogs, Corn, Driving Tractors, Moonwalking, and Guessing the Quantity of Random Objects in A Jar
(Four e’s? This is the last time I do you any favors, Scrabb.ly)
Hey everyone, Grizzle here letting you know that this week’s blogs come from one of our very own stellar summer staffers! Rob M., “Mau Mau” has been with iD since 2007 and specializes in our web design and video game creation course. He is hear to today to tell about a very unique program that iD offers…
That’s a pretty bow!
