CS39K Final Project Specification: Spring 2013
Class Game Design
During the course of the semester thus far, you have participated in numerous people-to-people strategy games:
- The Naval Game--Germany v. England and the Race to Build a Bigger and Better Navy
- The Radio Game--Teams compete on a treasure hunt to collect messages spread around the engineering campus
- The Battle of Britain Game--German preparation for the Invasion of Britain and Britain's force and technology planning to counteract the threat
- The Bomber Game--Allied target planning and the German's efforts to counteract the threat with tactics and technology
- The Red Dragon Rising Game--International tension in the Taiwan Strait (modeled as an update to the Cuban Missile Game)
Still to come is The Islandia Game--U.S. intervention in a chaotic third world country (based on Somalia and the book/film Black Hawk Down).
Your course project this semester is to design your own game along the lines of those you have played throughout the semester. As you know from your own experience, the games are typically organized around two (or possibly three) opposing forces, each given an initial situation assessment (not necessarily identical or accurate for each). The game evolves through two to three rounds wherein the participants are forced to make some decisions. Then the human facilitator (i.e., your instructor!) assesses the decisions made by the opposing teams and needs to resolve how the strategic situation will evolve for the next round. Some ambiguity in outcomes and next steps are natural and to be expected, but it is useful if you consider the possible outcomes from one round to the next.
You must choose a period and conflict from the 20th Century up to today, and remember that information technologies should play a role in it. I would like you to propose this to me via email by April 2. Your game description and supporting handouts will be due at the last class meeting, on April 30.
Here are some ideas for game topics:
- U.S. v. Saddam Hussein/Iraq vs. Iran in the run-up to the first Gulf War (e.g., use of stealth aircraft and smart weapons against Saddam and what he could have - but didn't - do against them).
- U.S. v. Al Qaida in planning a terrorist attack on the U.S. mainland (e.g., nuclear suitcase bomb at the Superbowl, and what could the U.S. do to prevent that).
- U.S. v. North Korea in a situation of rising tensions that leads to a missile launch against Japan (e.g., a variation on Red Dragon Rising with a particular emphasis on theatre missile defense technologies).
- U.S. and NATO Forces v. Russian Confederation Re-invasion of the former Soviet satellites of Eastern Europe (e.g., Russian invasion of Georgia, which actually happened a couple of years ago).
- Run-up to World War I Revisited: U.S./NATO Forces v. Russian Forces in competing interventions in the Yugoslav Civil Wars of the late 1990s. (e.g., the Bosnians succeeded in shooting down one of the U.S. stealth fighters--how did they manage to do that?).
- Cyberterrorist attack against U.S. infrastructure, including telecommunications, internet, power, water, financial, etc. (e.g., an iPhone or Android application that is actually a virus that takes down the Internet - is it possible, and how would you defend against that).
- Reagan-era Missile Defense: 1980s U.S. vs. Soviet Union over Star Wars missile defense measures and counter measures.
- Yom Kippur War: Arabs vs. Israel in the 1970s.
- Israel vs. Iran: Israel launching an attack against Iranian nuclear bomb program.
- India vs. Pakistan over the Punjab territory: two nuclear powers sharing a common subcontinent.
- Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies in Algeria, Northern Ireland, Palestine, Africa (many), South America (many), Asia (many, including the Vietnamese War).
- U.S. interventions in Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Haiti.
- Israeli interventions in Gaza, Southern Lebanon.
- International Operations against Somali (or Indonesian) Pirates off the Horn of Africa (or the Malacca Straits).
These are only some examples focused on more modern times and technologies, but I am more interested in having you pursue a topic for your game that really excites you intellectually. If you let me know what you are planning to do, I can provide you with some pointers and references to get your research off the ground.