Taco is a game played in Brazil. The goal is to throw a ball and knock over a bottle, the other team tries to hit the ball away. It is a very casual street game, that is non-competitive. We created a video game played between two people. The game captures many aspects of Taco that we found interesting. Wii sports was our main precedent, we liked how it allowed the player to interact by moving their body. Another precedent was Flick Home Run, a phone game in which you swipe away balls coming towards you. We liked how you can play it on a phone, which gives it that pick up and play feel and also the game play was very similar to ours. In our game, two players play against each other, one controls the ball with an accelerometer and one controls a plank of wood and tries to knock the ball away before it hits the bottle. In our first iteration one player would make a series of movements with an accelerometer and then the other player would try and click on the ball before the time runs out. Then it goes to the mini game where both players would try to score points by tapping the keys quickly. After some thought we decided to not put in the minigame for our final because it was not interesting. We also decided to make it so that the two people would play simultaneously to make the game faster. We used an accelerometer and an arduino for our project. The accelerometer connects to the arduino which connects to the computer which runs a program that allows processing to read the accelerometer. Our game has a few different parts: First, it starts off on a title screen which has a button to start the game, then, we have a how to play screen where the player can read the rules, after that,we have a choose teams screen which determines which player is the ball and which is the stick, then, it gets to the actual game, finally there is a screen which shows who is the winner and has a restart button. If we had more time for this project, we would add a mini game again but try to make it more fun.

Taco is a game with 2 teams of 2 people. The game is a mix between cricket, pickle and Can Jam. Each team sets up with one person from each team on either side. There are 2 bottles set up and one team is the "blockers" while the other team is the bowlers. The bowlers are trying to hit the water bottle on the opposite side of the field while the blockers are trying to hit the ball as far away as possible. If the blockers succeed in hitting the ball past the bowlers than they switch sides and score one point. The bowlers and blockers switch when one of the blockers gets pegged or the blockers miss the ball and it goes behind them 3 times. The game is over when one team reaches the designated number of points.

     1. What are the challenges the player(s) face?

They must out-think the opponent and move faster than them to win.                                                        

     2. What actions can they take to overcome those challenges?

Because this is a skill game the easiest way to overcome these challenges is to play it alot.

     3. What can players do to affect each other?

Because the blockers can hit the ball they can cause the other team to have to run after it and the bowlers can force the blockers to move faster by chasing down the ball faster.

     4. Is the game replayable many times without becoming "just the same" over and over?

Yes it changes every time you play because the people who play it could not make the same decisions over and over

     5. Is the game fair?

Yes because the teams alternate the only way for it to be unfair is if one team is more skilled than the other.

     6. What is the "essence" of the game? (low level eg. skills, high level eg concepts-ideas)

The essence of Taco is to look ahead and to see how your opponent will react but on a high level the essence of Taco is to understand your opponent and who they are.

This game was created as a spin off after the British attempted to integrate cricket into Brazilian society. It was created by people who lived in relative poverty and requires almost no equipment. Because it originated from the lower class it eventually was taken in by the upper class to create a national pride and there are now Taco paddles in addition to Cricket paddles, but they are very similar. It never truly caught on anywhere besides the Brazilian suburbs.