Saturday, February 18, 2023

A STEM Project: Making a ShuffleBoard Game Using a TurtleStitch Created Board Frame

Making a ShuffleBoard Game Using a TurtleStitch Created Board Frame 


Here is a video of the shuffleboard weights in action.

Coding a design in TurtleStitch allows for a dynamic method of creating board games.  https://www.turtlestitch.org/run#cloud:Username=Elaine&ProjectName=Shuffleboard   In this blog posting, I created a shuffleboard game which allows for a collared ball bearing also known as a shuffleboard weight, to glide across the surface of the board when pushed.   Play alternates between two players pushing their shuffleboard weights across the board to the numbered sections.  The numbered sections represent the value which is tallied when all of their shuffleboard weights are played. The winner is the player with the most tallied points.

I believe coding a variable size board frame in TurtleStitch is a valuable tool for creating other board games.  The playing field can be modified for other types of imagined games which require a ball rolling over a playing field. The possibilities of creating a board game are limitless and are only bounded by your imagination.

Cut the Shuffleboard Model Pieces

Here is the PDF.  I used 65 lb. cardstock from Michaels. Six 9mm ball bearings for the shuffleboard weights.

Here is the .Studio file.

Here is the SVG. The entire design is present.  Zoom out to see the entire file.

Make the Shuffleboard Frame

Apply glue to the tab on the frame and adhere to make the piece flat.  Once the glue has dried, make the frame piece into a block.

Glue the sides together at their corners.

I glued the outmost tab first and then applied glue to the three other sides.

Inserting the sides together results in a frame with mitered corners

Glue the orange frame to the playing board.  My printer did not print the playing board correctly so I had to cut the playing board to the correct size. Glue the playing field to the center of the backing.

Apply glue to the frame and adhere to the backing.

Completed playing field.

Make the Shuffleboard Weights

Glue the collars together at their seams.

Apply glue to the washer as shown above.  Place the collar in the center of the washer.  Repeat for all of the game pieces. Please note, there are two sizes of collars.  The collars look like hats once they are glued. The hats are placed into one another to encase a ball bearing.

Allow the glue to dry to a point that the surface of the glue is dry but the inside of the glue is not thoroughly dry.  Place a 9 mm ball bearing into the center of one of the collars and slide the other size collar onto the top of the ball bearing.

The ball bearing is now encased in the collar and can roll freely.  Make sure that any glue that might be present is removed from the ball bearing so that it can roll freely.

The game is now ready to be played. Make your own game rules to further enhance play.

Imagine A New Type of Game

Try to make a new type of game using my TurtleStitch program and the shuffleboard weights as game pieces.  

I can think of a bullseye type of game with a square frame and a circular playing field.  The players try to knock each others pieces out of the  bullseye.

Here is the .Studio file for the bullseye game.

Here is my version of a bullseye game. 

Can you think of more types of games?

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