Most Artistic Award Entry

Team 03 (Team Voltron)

Our implementation of GizmoBall is highly artistic. The artistic elements of the 
game are most visible in two places: the themes system and the environmental modifications 
system.

The philosophy behind our theme system is to provide a complete sensory package with each theme.
The user can select from a number of well-drawn, tightly tied together themes. Those of
us who are nostalgic for the 80s can choose a "Super Mario Brothers" theme, featuring pipes,
question blocks, and even teeny Goombas as triangle bumpers. If your nostalgia only makes it
back to the 90s, we have a theme based on the movie "The Matrix", full of flying green glyphs
and blocks. Each theme contains image skins for each Gizmo and ball, as well as corresponding
music (MIDI or sampled).  Additionally, users can easily create their own Themes, music, and images,
by simply creating a file in a custom XML dialect for which we have provided a Schema.
We considered creating a simple application to compile user selected images into a theme, but 
decided against the use of time. However, implementing such a program in the future would be trivial.

The images used in the theme system have full support for transparency and animation. Most gizmos
animate their images, in many cases using dynamic image resizing. All themed elements 
of the game are able to be animated, even the background.

The power of the theming system can be seen in the different gameplay styles suited to the standard 
themes packaged with our implementation.
The Technopoly theme is very nice looking generic, shaded and makes GizmoBall feel like a pinball game.
The Matrix theme is fast-paced, consumes much of the screen, and feels much more active; levels using the
matrix theme are better suited for very fast implementations of the engine.
The Mario theme has a lot of open space, and feels much less action-packed than the Matrix theme.
Even though the underlying engine is the same, the different themes allow the game to take on a different 
feeling. This is essential for a game's replay quality.

The other essential aspect to our games artistic appeal are the environmental modifications. The
physics engine is implemented such that gizmos can fire Environmental Modifications that can arbitrarily
change the physics of a ball inside of the modification. This is taken advantage of by our shocker gizmo,
which when activated sends a radial gravitational shockwave from its center to the edges of the level.

The resulting physics of environmental modifications can lead to effects that are much more aesthetically
appealing than simple bumper reflection. Multiple shockwaves for example can lead to effects on balls that 
resemble floating or wave effects, which are engaging and interesting to watch.  We have even managed
to create a level that uses shockwaves bound to keypresses to simulate the hand-held "labyrinth" game.

But how do we really know that our GizmoBall is the most beautiful of all?  The proof is simple.
While hacking in the W20 cluster, we put our Mario theme up on the large wall-mounted monitor.  Within
seconds, two other Gizmoball teams had appeared from the neighboring rooms to stare, entirely enrapt.
One even claimed that it was the coolest thing she had seen in her whole life. Who are we to 
disagree?