| |
On the morning of April 10th, 1999, a group of 150 people gathered at the top
of a nondescript parking lot on the Stanford campus, not knowing what to expect.
Along with them was a faction calling themselves Game Control, who would dictate
their fates for the next 24 to 36 hours. Unfortunately for the players, Game
Control was only marginally more clueful than they were.
Our first attempt at running a Game didn't quite go as smoothly as we
planned. There were a few more run-ins with the police than we wanted. There
were a few more problems with clues and locations than we expected. And there
was a lot more rain than anyone could have possibly imagined. However, despite
all the troubles, we weren't horrified enough to scare ourselves away from the
possibility of thinking about considering running another Game.
There is an excellent summary
of Amnesia, The Game created by Team Advil. It's so good, that I don't feel
obligated to give a good summary of Amnesia. We also sent out a wrap-up of
Amnesia through email, which I have formatted slightly into an HTML
version of our wrap-up.
Team Advil's summary is missing samples of some of the clues, which I (having
stored most of them on my computer) can easily provide.
So, on with the list:
 | Seeding problem: Number Weave
When I came up with the number weave, I though it was a pretty good
open-ended problem. Then, I sat down and tried to come up with a solution
and realized that it wasn't all that difficult to mathematically determine
the optimal solution. Then I though about it a little more and realized it
was possible to get a super-optimal solution by bending the rules slightly -
that is, by not taping the strips together and slipping the ends of other
strips in between the fold. One team came up with this idea, and we let it
fly, allowing them to slip past a whole bunch of other teams that had been
tied for 1st place on this one. |
 | Seeding problem: Pipe Cube
I'm quite happy with how the pipe cube problem came out. I actually just
distributed the curves on the cube randomly, though I now realize that it
could have been a much tougher puzzle with a little bit more planning. At
least there weren't as many ties for first on this one as there were for the
number weave. |
 | The art clue (8.5MB .zip file)
This was a cool clue. And the solution to this clue is one of the
coolest, unknown locations on Stanford's campus. |
 | The mirror clue |
 | Analogy clue: Page 1, Page
2
I just have to say that the grid we used for the analogy clue was the
first one we completed that fit. I think with work, we could have come up
with a much better grid - especially one which didn't contain multiple pairs
which used the same analogy relation (Opposites was pretty badly abused in
our grid, I think). Still, I think the art I did for this clue was pretty
cool. |
 | The maze clue |
 | The rebus clue |
 | The different pictures clue: Page 1, Page
2
I had tons and tons of fun coming up with the words and drawing the
pictures for this clue. I wanted to make the clue harder, but some of the
other GC members objected. |
 | The Morse code clue
A simple clue put in only as revenge for the previous years' Morse code
clues - which our team invariably failed at. Additionally, we have failed at
Morse code clues since Amnesia, as well, tripping up in both Espionage and
Willy Wonka due to Morse Code. |
 | The food clue |
 | The colored letters
As bad as this clue looks on a computer screen, it was way worse during
twilight, printed on paper. |
 | The letter grid |
 | The time clue
I wanted to make this clue harder, too. Good thing we didn't, because it
was apparently pretty hard the way we presented it here. |
|