Babel

Babel .xo Bundle – Babel-1.xo Kirk Israel, Jon Beilin, Bobby Powers, Martha Wechsler

Babel is a tower-building and -destroying activity...

Description and background

Babel is a simple physics game based on building as tall a tower as possible in 60 seconds, and then bashing that tower with as few slingshot shots as possible. It is based on the engine of the "phsics" activity. It is meant to be mildly educational, but also as a study in the joy of slinging bricks and slinging shots.

The player is given a small selection of bricks for stacking.

After a minute, the player is given a slingshot.

The score is based on how high the tower was divided by how many shots it took to destroy.

Once the game is done, press Restart to try again.

Downloads and files

Media:Babel.xo

Screenshots and design images

the game in action

Here are also some designs Martha worked on for a future edition!

intro storyboards 1-5 for a future Babel + Kings game

intro storyboards 6 & 7

intro storyboards 7-9

Development

The game was a result of the 2008 OLPC Physics Game Jam. Originally envisioned as a 2 player game, with slingshots to fling rocks at the other player's tower, the end result was simplified because of lack of time, lack of Python and engine experience, and technical constraints.

Team

The team was "Cowsome Loneboys"

• Kirk "kirkjerk" Israel
• Jon Beilin
• Bobby Powers
• Martha Wechsler

Todo List

There are many ways of cheating.

A two player version would probably still be way cool.

External Links

Kirk's Development Notes

Activity page

Activity Summary

Icon:	Sugar icon::Activity-Babel.svg
Genre:	Activity genre::Math and Science
Activity group:	,|x|Activity group::x}}
Short description:	Short description::Babel is a simple physics game based on building as tall a tower as possible in 60 seconds, and then bashing that tower with as few slingshot shots as possible.
Description:
Maintainers:	,|x|Contact person::x}}
Repository URL:	Source code::http://wiki.laptop.org/images/9/94/Babel.xo
Available languages:	,|x|Available languages::x}}
Available languages (codes):	,|x|Language code::x}}
Pootle URL:
Related projects:	Related projects,|x|Related projects::x}}
Contributors:	,|x|Team member::x}}
URL from which to download the latest .xo bundle	Activity bundle::http://wiki.laptop.org/images/9/94/Babel.xo
Last tested version number:	Activity version::1
The releases with which this version of the activity has been tested.	,|x|Software release::x}}
Development status:
Ready for testing (development has progressed to the point where testers should try it out):	,|x|Ready for testing::x}}
smoke tested :
test plan available :
test plan executed :
developer response to testing :