Blindfold Pool: Which Balls to Shoot? (#135)

IEP Technologies :  ECC Games for Visually Impaired Students

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ObjectiveEd.com is our new company where we are building ECC games and interactive simulations for blind students, based on a child’s IEP . 
The student’s advancement in mastering skills in our education-based games will be preserved in a private secure cloud, accessible to the teachers in a web-based dashboard . 
If you are a Orientation and Mobility specialist , press for additional details on using these types of games as part of maximizing student outcomes, relating to their 
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Which Balls to Shoot?

Now that I could tell you which balls have a clear path to the pocket, I needed a better way to tell you which balls to shoot, and which pockets to aim for.
dog lining up pool shot
The first method I came up with was to let you drag your finger around on the screen.  If you happened to touch a ball, it would tell you how many clear shots, such as “Ball 2, green, has a clear shot at 3 pockets”.  You double tap to select the ball, then you move your finger around on the screen, at the game says if you are lined up at one of the pockets.  Once you are, you double tap again, and then swipe.  The faster you swipe, the more powerful your shot is.
If your shot is too powerful, the ball bounces off of the pocket, and doesn’t go in.  If it’s too weak, the ball only goes part way towards the pocket.
The testers liked the direction the game was going, but they wanted ball and pocket selection to be easier.
First I added a pop-up menu for selecting the pocket.  After you find the ball you want, you swipe up with 2 fingers, and it gives you a list of the pockets that the ball has a clear shot to.  You pick one of the pockets, and then swipe.  Everyone liked that method.
Then I added a pop-up menu to give you a list of every ball that has a clear shot, and the pockets it has a clear shot to.  You swipe down with 2 fingers, pick a ball and pocket, and then swipe.  Everyone liked that method as well.
Now that there were several ways to select your ball and pocket, I had to build a computer players.  After all, if you can’t compete with someone playing pool, how can you win the game?
 

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