About
Gladiator Ball is a game I designed for the summer camp I work at. My goal over the summer was to design 4 new outdoor physical games, and I believe gladiator ball was most successful. Unlike my other digital games the only tools I had for designing this was a soccer field, and some assorted sports balls.
Project Overview
Gladiator Ball is a relatively simple game. Players are divided into two teams, and instructed to put a piece of fabric (shirt of pinnie) in the back of their pants to represent a tail. Twelve American footballs are placed in the middle of a standard soccer field and players sent to stand in their teams net. When the game begins it is the object of the player to get as many of the footballs into the opposing net before the end of the game (typically 45 minutes). Players may only possess one football at a time, however with that football they can kick it, throw it, or run with it. If a player's tail is pulled at any point that player must run back to their team's net and do 15 jumping jacks in order to replace their tail and return to the game. The number of balls in a net at any given time does not actually matter, the score is only tallied after the game is over and a winner is determined. Only one player on each team deemed the goalie is allowed to remove balls from their net.
An Important factor that led to Gladiator Ball's popularity was the culture and energy I was able to develop around it. At one point over half the camp signed up to play due to this energetic and captivating culture.
