Huge shoutout to Alex Smith ( @htimSxelA ) for creating this game! Get ready for a brand new experience at MKO 2018! Dama Blitz will be going down off-stage throughout the weekend as an additional way for players to compete. One of the only games where a Beginner can take down a Pro. $5 to pre-register, $10 to register on-site Sign up now at mnkendamaopen.com
Super excited for this event! Blitz is super fun, I love how it has the feel of a classic speed ladder. For anyone coming to van jam, we’ll have a Blitz mini tournament on Friday night in the workshop (19+, sorry youngns). Come test it out and give your feedback!
For MKO I think thats the plan. The MKO open is double elim, so we decided that it would be easiest to run dama blitz as single elim, but to make each matchup a best of three battle. Should make organization / timing easier to manage, hopefully. And the best of three still provides a decent amount of play time for competitors
I've tried a few chess clock apps but so far this is the one I like best for Dama Blitz. The only things I'd like to see added are a sound when the clock hits 0:00 and the ability to put in time limits of less than 1 minute to help speed things along in larger groups or with 2 out of 3 contests where things can take a while to complete. Time Control Chess Clock - for Android
As @goenKendama mentioned, you can play the game using a phone/tablet app. Sweets has put a few videos out with instructions on how to play, and I've been ironing out the details of the competition with them over the past couple weeks. That said, I think that the phone app is not as good of an experience as an actual clock. The tactile smack of the button confirms that you hit it, whereas with a screen you just sorta tap it and hope you hit the right spot. It works, but doesn't feel as legit and 'race-like' in the moment. We're working on having clocks available for sale at the MKO though! More details in time, but that is the current goal
Agreed, the tactile nature of the analog buttons on a real clock are superior but having a serviceable clock app in your pocket lends itself to having a DB comp anytime you like. Haptic, audio feedback, and large "button" areas do make things easier in the apps but a DB specific app would really be ideal (hint to any coders out there )
I created a timer app for DAMA BLITZ. Give it a try!! https://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/583526 (Volume Caution)
Good effort! Thanks for taking the time to build this. But it is way too slow to be functional for Dama Blitz
Is there an official "How to" for this anywhere? We were thinking to try it out this weekend at an event we're having. Do you pull tricks out of a hat, which tricks have to reset before trying them? Hard and easy tricks all together or have levels like beginner, intermediate, advanced? What other points make for a good flow?
*Meanwhile at the Gallagher household* "Ok Zack, which level 12 do you want to use for our next game of dama blitz?"
So we gave Dama Blitz a try at our last "Sessions" event and had a blast. We used a 7" Android pad with the Chess Timer app since it could do 30 second runs and actually worked on my old tablet. A couple of things I'd recommend, bigger is better since it's easier to see the button you have to tap. Consider re-purposed/older devices in case a kendama goes flying and smacks the screen. Ours has a screen film and a TPU case that keeps it from slipping around (rubber mat works for anti-slip too). One drawback to portable devices is the array of built-in screen buttons (like Home, Back, etc). We had a number of times where they were inadvertently hit when trying to touch the timer button. I'm going to see if a thin piece of cardboard or gaffer's tape would be a good barrier. A cool positive is if the timer app used also displays the number of iterations. e.g. a harder trick might only be completed 5-10 times and an easy one 20+ times (in a 30 second challenge). We also tried some atypical tricks to good effect. Goldfish scooping and table roll spike are a couple we had fun using; also off-hand tricks. Something that we ran into was "hovering" over the buttons during the trick. In an effort to be a fraction of a second faster some players would hover over the button with their off-hand to be able to hit it more quickly. The only problem was that sometimes they'd hit it too early when they thought they'd landed a trick but had not. Anyway hopefully some of this will be helpful to those of you out there thinking about running Dama Blitz at your next jam or meet-up.
@goenKendama good recap, thanks! Trying to get as much feedback as possible as the MKO contest approaches. re: hand hovering and early hits This is an issue thats hard to remedy in the moment. The current rule for the contest is that if you hit the button but miss the trick, you forfeit the round. Its a harsh ruling, but I'm not sure there is a better way to resolve it. Adding a time penalty or something like that doesn't work well when there is only a couple seconds left.
@htimSxelA Maybe a taped line/box around the timer that the player has to stay outside of would work. Also had to switch up sides to make sure everyone had a chance to be on the "good" side. Unless you find a way to put the clock between the contestants (directly in front of them) there will usually be someone who has to reach across their body to hit the timer. e.g. two right-handers competing with the clock on a table on the left side of them. Ideally a stand or table of some kind directly in the middle of the two players would be best; off to the side isn't ideal but usually the easiest.
Yea, the closer-hand-advantage is definitely a thing. I believe we're going to try to have some pedestals for the contest, that allows a more even matchup. I think the forfeiture rule works well enough, it'd be equally tough to enforce a line the hand has to stay behind in the heat of the moment. In my experience paying too much attention to the clock (such as hovering your hand in anticipation) only increases your chances of missing the trick, and maybe more importantly, of prematurely hitting the button (insta-forfeiture). I'm sure many players will learn this the hard way... We had more concern about the start of the trick: do you wait for your opponent to spike it? Or hit the button? Our eventual conclusion was you have to wait for them to hit the button. That gives a more concrete definition, considering that "when a trick ends" could be a grey area (what if they half-spike, but then the tama falls off a second later, and you've already started your trick?).