Welcome back to the Game Based Learning Review! This week we return to RoboCo and the zombie apocalypse level, where our goal (of our creation) is to capture a rogue undead manager in a trash can. That plan holds up until we discover our zombie has remarkably strong calves and can send a garbage can flying across the room.

We go back to the drawing board and build "The Short Arm of the Law," a heavy robotic anchor outfitted with a police hat and googly eyes. Once it has the zombie firmly in place, we move on to fighting a helicopter fire with a very unwieldy grabber arm and guiding the survivors to safety. Along the way we pick up a few cascading claw techniques you can bring to your own RoboCo builds.

Episode Outline:

• [0:00 - 4:59] We get off to a late start and lay out today's missions: trap the hidden zombie in a trash can and give first aid to a survivor.
• [5:00 - 14:59] We attempt the trash can capture while talking about interior decorating and swamp leeches in Valheim. To our dismay, the manager zombie uses its considerable leg strength to escape and launch trash cans into unknown realms.
• [15:00 - 31:59] We set the trash can aside and design The Short Arm of the Law, a heavy anchor block complete with a police hat, badge, and googly eyes. We work through some physics collisions and increase our claw torque so the robot can carry the new contraption.
• [32:00 - 44:59] Our officer block successfully arrests the zombie. We search for a first aid kit and take on a helicopter fire with our grabber arm.
• [45:00 - 50:59] We leave the first aid kit behind, lead the survivors out of the wreckage to the rescue van, and grab some emergency sandwiches to complete a secret objective.
• [51:00 - 1:00:48] We look back at the level, browse a gallery of our past piston-powered creations, and commit to returning to the "Across the Goo" level next week.

Links:

• RoboCo: The robotics sandbox we play on this stream. Keep an eye on the upcoming Steam Autumn Sale for a deep discount!
• Valheim: The survival and exploration game behind our conversation on base building and the swamp biome's leeches.
• Project Zomboid: Our calm furniture looting reminded us of an unusually mellow run in this zombie survival game.
• Satisfactory: One of our favorite open-ended factory and automation games.
• Factorio: Another automation favorite that came up in our conversation about lateral problem solving in games.

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