Engineering Projects/Poppit/Howard Community College/Fall2011/501 superior

Problem Statement
There are a few methods that can lead the player to sufficiently beat the game Poppit, with only a few balloons remaining. What strategies are most effective at beating this game?

Team Members
Here is a list of links to the USER pages regarding their individual Poppit project pages.
 * Dcalder8983
 * Baminnick
 * Ablomme2125

Summary
Before developing a strategy to beat Poppit, we thought of ways to organize and classify the balloons. We discovered that the most popular method for organizing balloons was to define each balloon by their color, and then whether or not they were grouped in a cluster. This leads to the next step of the classification of a balloon, which is the balloon's location. A balloon's location can be defined by a simple grid system, where the columns and rows of balloons are different axes. After classifying a balloon, we next thought of strategies that can be used to beat Poppit. Several strategies were thought of and experimented on. The method which we thought was most popular was to pop the balloons from bottom to top. In addition to that, the player would have to look for groups of balloons that would lead to the grouping of more identical balloons that could be as well popped. Eliminating a group of two balloons would then raise the balloons up and the balloons would partner up with more similarly colored balloons, and finally ending up with little balloons remaining. Several strategies were thought of and experimented on. In summation, a method for organizing and classifying balloons was developed, and this lead to developing strategies that can now be properly defined and implemented in playing the Poppit game.

Poster
Using these pictures, the method of classifying and defining an individual balloon can be shown. The first step to this process is to develop the grid system, which is simply defined by the column and row numbers of the entire balloon population. Next is the classification stage of the balloon organization method. Since the classification of a balloon based on the color is whether or not it is clustered, we incorporated this into the strategy for beating the Poppit game. By understanding the Poppit game first, and then using the strategy to beat the game, our result was often sufficient.

We started off beginning the game as you can see through the screenshot there are 15 columns and 10 rows all filled with balloons. As the game was started, the balloons were popped accordingly from bottom to top in sets of groups of at least two similar balloons. This would eliminate groups and create a new set of groups and as you can see, the second screen shot shows a game half way played. All the balloons grouped at the bottom were popped and as more of the game was played we reached a point were there were only a few number of balloons left none grouped together that could be popped but the game was won for the most part.

Story
We began working on this project by deciding on what aspect of the project seemed to be the most appealing to us. After we decided to develop different strategies to beat the game, and then test which one was most efficient, we divided the tasks up. Dcaldero8983 was given the task to develop a way that would enable a player to win the game and also lead to the result of very few balloons from the large number of 150 balloons. Baminnick worked on organizing balloons using a classification and defining method. Ablomme2125 worked on understanding the methods the game uses to place the balloons on the screen. The main obstacle that occurred in this project was shared amongst the entire team, it was trying to understand the concept to complete their individual task and to incorporate into how it may reach the final goal. However a solution to this obstacle arrived by "jumping into" the game. By first playing the game, we were able to better understand how the game was to be played. After this we we began our individual tasks working to fulfill the main goal of the project. Once we recorded our findings related to our tasks, we came together as a team and developed a strategy to beat the game.

The results of our newly discovered strategy were conclusive. Since we were able to better understand how the Poppit game recreated different scenarios of balloons, we were easily led to the next step. The second step is the classification of a balloon. By recognizing a single balloon's color, location, and type of cluster; the significance of the balloon being popped at a certain time can be roughly calculated. This step then led to the third and final step, the strategy. The purpose of the strategy is to use the information from the first two stages to beat the game. By completing this procedure, we were able to beat the game more effectively then usual. Our procedure for beating the Poppit game is shown as a list below:


 * 1.  Obtain a general understanding of how the balloons are organized in Poppit
 * 2.  Classify and identify the balloon's based on their color, location, and cluster type.
 * 3.  Implement the strategy, while incorporating the information from the first two steps to beat the game.

Material and Software List
The overall purpose of this project was to become familiar with the engineering process, use wikiversity, and become familiar with working on a team consisting of classmates. The materials used in this project were to fulfill the overall purpose of this project and to develop a solution to the game Poppit. The materials used are:


 * A computer with google chrome
 * Engineering notebooks

Time
Time was spent similarly by each team member depending on their given task. Majority of the team's time was spent on understanding wikiversity, playing the Poppit game, and recording our individual observations in our notebooks and wikiversity pages.

Tutorials
To begin working on this project, you would need Google chrome browser and an engineering notebook to record your information on.

Next Steps
First, start by playing the Poppit game, and become familiar with how to beat the game. And then take it from a different approach. Begin recreating the game by understanding how the game produces the balloons, recognize any patterns within individual games, and how it is generally organized. To do this, the methods of classification and strategies we thought of and tested can be used to recreate the game.