Battleship Model
Play battleship on paper to develop the model.
The process for developing a model is always the same:
- Background knowledge: understand the rules and decide what you want your game to look like when you play it. We will play Battleship on paper.
- Draw at least three scenes from different stages of the game. In this case, you will want more – include a win screen, a lose screen, and three others.
- List the information necessary to draw the scenes.
- Write down the model you will use.
Step 1: Battleship on paper
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Make two 8x8 grids, one for your ships and one for your attacks on the opponent.
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Number the rows and columns like a computer screen, beginning with (0,0) in the upper left.
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Place your ships. Each ship can go either horizontally or vertically. The number and size of ships varies in different versions of the game. Today we will use this list:
- Aircraft carrier (5 squares)
- Battleship (4 squares)
- Cruiser (3 squares)
- Destroyer (Two, each 2 squares)
- Submarine (1 square)
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Play at least ten rounds with a partner. Keep going until at least one ship is sunk.
Step 2: Develop the model
For developing the model we will think about only two ships. Later you can add the rest.
- Draw five different situations, including a win and lose end game.
- List information you need to draw those situations.
- Discuss what information must be remembered (the “independent variables”) and what can be computed (the “dependent variables”).
- Write the model that corresponds to each one of your scenes.
- Save this paper! Check in your work and don’t lose it.
Step 3: Check your model
- How do you represent one ship?
- How do you represent one shot fired?
Interesting variations
You can explore these ideas later in your game.
- Some games allow you to shoot multiple times in one turn: one shot for each un-sunk ship you have.