xo games

The OLPC Games team are all currently busy with graduation or working at startup companies, and so the site has not had a lot of attention lately. Particularly, we understand a few of the games may not be working. We’ll be working on getting the core games working very soon. Thanks for being patient. And please check out this useful site that goes over the current state of functionality of available XO activities.

Did you get an XO recently? Are you looking for games for it? Then visit the games page and download some games!  This site will continue to stay current with games available for the XO and subsequent systems produced by One Laptop Per Child. Additionally, most games on this are also open-source and will eventually also be available for most other operating systems.

Our team has wrapped up our semester with our final presentation. We have had a great ride these last 4 months, and will continue to update the site with our games and any newer versions of the games from the Jam. Thanks to everyone at the ETC for their help this year; we would not have done this without them.

Sincerely,

The XO Games Team

Games can be downloaded as Windows Installer EXEs AND as XO Activity Bundles. If there is not an XO file yet, be patient, we are adding them today (27-11-07)

Team Thailand did a four-player randomized maze where you are looking for your XO avatar’s head. The maze is revealed as you move. (Windows exe Download, 4 MB) ( XO Activity Bundle Download 1.6 MB)

Team Ethiopia did a game where you gather fruit and avoid hungry primates. (Windows exe Download, 4 MB) ( XO Activity Bundle Download 2 MB)

Team Tibet did a game where you help a bird get to her eggs by creating a path of clouds for her to follow. (Windows exe Download, 4 MB) (XO Activity Bundle Download 2 MB)

Team Peru did a physics-based game where you gather stars by trying to shoot a ball at them and get as many as you can in one shot. (Windows exe Download, 2.5 MB) (XO Activity Bundle Download 700 KB)

Team Libya did a game where you have to navigate a boy balanced a ball through various mazes. They also added a level editor. (Windows exe Download, 4.7 MB ) (XO Activity Bundle Download 2 MB)

Team Argentina did a game where you are searching for cake. (Download, 2 MB)

Team Brazil did a puzzle solving game where you are trying to get the robot to his cat. (Download 3.7 MB)

Team Nigeria did a game where you are trying to keep the sun from going dark. (Download, WARNING: 22 MB )

Team Rwanda did a side-scroller with a squirrel collecting stars and avoiding bats. (Download, 4 MB

Team Chile did a game where you guide a paper airplane past many obstacles. (Download,WARNING: 17 MB)

Team Urugauy did a game where you build aqueducts. (Download, WARNING: 19 MB!)

From Pittsburgh XO…

The XO Games team was incredibly excited about ALL the games created at the jam. We invited 18 children between the ages of 8 and 13 to judge and vote on the games based on fun, accessibility and art quality. While we truly believe in the end everyone deserved an award, we had only prepared to give away 3 awards.

The award for first place, the XO Games Award, was given to “Team Thailand” for their game Xo Maze, a four-player game (on one XO) where your xo avatars have lost their heads and need to find them in a maze that is revealed as you move. Each member of the four-person team was given a Nintendo DS.

The award for second place was given to “Team Ethiopia” for their game Fruitix, a game of collecting fruit and avoiding hungry primates. Each team member was given an X-Arcade videogame emulation system.

The award for third place was given to “Team Tibet” for their game Red Bird, a game where you lead a mother robin to her eggs by creating a path of clouds for her to cross. Each team member was given a book on game design.

The XO Team would love to thank each and every individual who participated in the jam for participated and for making the event so much fun to host. The exit-survey results indicate that almost 100% of the participants would attend another jam!

More details, more photos, and most importantly the games themselves, will be posted ASAP.

Hello everyone! The Jam is about to begin, and a photo blog has been started. Jam On!

FRIDAY

6 PM Dinner
7 PM Introductions and Orientation
8-10 PM Hello, World exercise, plan and work!

SATURDAY

8 AM Breakfast, work
10 AM Team pitch
12 PM Lunch
5 PM Status update
6 PM Dinner
Then Keep Working until you can’t work anymore….

SUNDAY

8 AM Breakfast
10 AM Last call for help with anything
12 PM Lunch
2 PM Games finished and turned in on a labeled computer in the cluster
3 PM Children Judges judge, turn your games into Activities
5 PM farewell dinner
6 PM awards, closing remarks

We are now in the testing phase of our first game, Peg Solitaire. Please come and try it out here. There are two versions, one for the XO and the other is a Windows installer. Please email us with comments, we would love to hear them.

We will be hosting an XO Game Jam this November 16-18 at the Entertainment Technology Center in Pittsburgh. This event is free and open to the public. For more information print out and post our Game Jam Flyer.

Directions to the ETC can be found at this page.

For out of town guests in search of hotel accommodations rooms are reserved at Quality Inn University Center, phone number: 412-683-6100.

Other hotel suggestions are listed here.

    Two bits of news. We are almost complete with our first game and are already developing our second. One of our big concerns with the games was how slow everything was running on our development machines. This concern was alleviated yesterday with the arrival of a newer development laptop. The games run about 200% better on the newer hardware, which made our team very happy.

Finally, things are coming along with our plans for the Game Jam in November. If you are reading this, please consider coming to the Jam! Click the link above for more information.