Since last summer, we here at MIT [Admissions] Labs have been working on an extremely awesome and extremely top secret project:
MIT: The Game is a revolutionary breakthrough in admissions technology. Designed and built by current MIT freshman Victor Hung '14, with music by admissions staff, it allows students to experience all the best parts of an MIT education (burritos, roller coasters, and such) from the comfort of their own homes.
The game was conceived almost a year ago, when Admissions held a mini- GameJam during the 2010 IAP. We more or less locked a half-dozen current students in a room with a bunch of pizza and soda for 48 and let them come up with a bunch of ideas for levels and build very simple versions of them.
Since last fall Victor Hung '14 has been collecting slivers of time that drop between the cracks in his schedule and has built out these concepts and ideas into a full Facebook game. With MIT: The Game, you will be able to participate in all the most important aspects of an MIT education, including:
- Building all the burritos you can eat at the campus taqueria
- Navigating the flood of fellow students down the Infinite Corridor
- Riding the East Campus Roller Coaster
- Finding your way through the labyrinthine tunnels
- Getting your (virtual) MIT diploma
We began closed beta testing of the game to our Early Action admits last month. Nearly all of them survived! So now we're ready to unleash the zombie virus release it to the world!
To play the game, you may click here.
A few pre-emptive FAQs:
- MTG isn't loading for me!
It probably is. The flash file is packed with so much awesomeness that it weighs in at a solid ~7 megabytes. If you're not on MIT's lightspeed internet connection, it may take a few moments, or minutes, to download for the first time. It's worth the wait though. We promise. - MTG wants access to my profile information. Gadzooks! Are you collecting information from my Facebook machine?
No! We have an office policy against Facebook/mySpace/Googlestalking prospective students and applicants. MTG only collects your Facebook ID number, which is a numeric string that allows us to keep track of your scores so that our leaderboard works. We are not collecting anything else. We will not use it for anything other than the leaderboard. - A bug! I found a bug!
Congratulations, e-entomologist! There may still be some lurking out there. Specifically, we have been receiving some reports that for some users, some of the time, the roller coaster duplicates. Why? It is a mystery. But refreshing the page seems to make it go away, and we are working on a fix.
If you have another, different bug to report, or if you want to send us e-valentines and/or commendations of some kind, you may email admitfbookgame-dev [at] mit [dot] edu.
And enjoy the game!
Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)
Posted by: John 'hopeful15? on March 1, 2011
You all just lost it.
Posted by: I own a horse on March 1, 2011
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Posted by: Chris Peterson @ MIT Admissions on March 1, 2011
No really. Wow.
2. Yay! Game! MIT! Yay!
I'll leave now.
Posted by: Kaul on March 1, 2011
Hello everyone! First off -thanks to everyone who have played the game and have emailed me about problems...
Grammar fail, consider revising.
Posted by: i am a horse? on March 1, 2011
Posted by: Chris Peterson @ MIT Admissions on March 1, 2011
I LOVE YOU MIT!
Posted by: Sarabjot Anand on March 1, 2011
Awesome idea. Mr. Hung, you are a genius.
Finally a game that will take my eyes away from Angry Birds!
Posted by: Bertram Peterson on March 1, 2011
:D
Posted by: Shehzad Lokhandwalla on March 1, 2011
You've probably forgotten all about the agony often induced by network buffering. That moment when someone shoots you a video link and you resign yourself to the fact that if you're lucky, you will see that video sometime in the same calendar year (analogy not valid from 23:55:00-23:59:59, on 31 December). But anyway, I digress...
As for the game, I probably won't have time for it now (and considering that it's a 7MB flash file, I'll have to estimate when I'll have time and initiate the process a couple of minutes beforehand), but I'm sure its entertaining.
I certainly hope that a Facebook page doesn't mean people begin to abandon this lovely admissions portal and community where I need to enter my name, email and URL *each and every time* despite checking the box labelled 'Remember me'...
More lulz at nooooooooooooooo.com (I knew about it before, but even so, nice effect)
Posted by: Vivek on March 1, 2011
5:41 AM might not be as effective a time to measure mean bandwidth availability as say, peak hours in the evening. This is just to put things in perspective.
It's been over an year. Although I can't rightly predict if the speed might have gone up, but I think it's safe to assume that no intitvte worth it's salt would consider such a thing.
Thirdly, I'm not even sure if winter break (if such a thing exists) was over at MIT, which means a substantial portion of the student body may not have been on campus, leading to further decrease in demand for bandwidth.
P.P.S. I still hate buffering...
Posted by: Vivek on March 1, 2011
Only shame is that flash lags so badly on Linux :(
Posted by: P. Ovidius Naso on March 1, 2011
Posted by: Chris Peterson @ MIT Admissions on March 1, 2011
"I think it's safe to assume that no intitvte worth it's salt would consider such a thing."
This should read:
"I think it's safe to assume that no intitvte worth it's salt would consider such a thing as 'reducing the bandwidth'."
Inconvenience is regretted...
Posted by: Vivek on March 1, 2011
she must be one FAST burritadora (or is it burritista?)
- stuck @ 334
great game, Victor and Chris.
and extremely frustrating.
the roller coaster is plain MEAN.
and running down the Infinite Corridor is like crossing Mass Ave.
Posted by: EC'85 on March 1, 2011
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1180463273.png
( and that is a poor result, i've gotten it to do 500+ mbps down )
Posted by: Doran on March 1, 2011
Posted by: Vivek on March 1, 2011
:|
Posted by: Paul on March 2, 2011
Its a flash game.. so if you think you can use your magics on that facebook app and extract that .exe then you can play it on your desktop.. xD
Thats what am trying to do as of now..
Posted by: Peter Parker on March 2, 2011
Posted by: Soubhik Das on March 2, 2011
I'd get the .exe if I could, but I avoid Facebook like I do spinach, so yea. If you have an alternate site to view the game on, then I'd play it in an instant.
*rants about Facebook taking over the world conspiracies*
Posted by: Paul on March 2, 2011
Posted by: Subarno on March 2, 2011
I got so many points on the infinite corridor level by staying on the side. Eventually, you get pushed off no matter what, though.
Posted by: Derek C. on March 2, 2011
Posted by: Vivek on March 2, 2011
Otherwise, I may have to walk!
Posted by: Gaurav on March 2, 2011
So just check that!
Posted by: Gaurav on March 2, 2011
I tried the same strategy of staying on the side! But, Yeah! It's true! You get pushed anyways!
Posted by: Gaurav on March 2, 2011
<a>The Game</a>
Ps: Spinach Is good.. But yea Chocolates have better Cals..
Posted by: @paul on March 2, 2011
http://fb.mitadmissions.org/apps/mitgame/main.swf
Posted by: 0 on March 2, 2011
Posted by: PeterParker on March 2, 2011
Thanks for the feedback from those among you who don't use it. I definitely don't want to encourage anyone who doesn't use it to begin using it for this. I'm not sure if downloading that swf will work - if it does, do that! We will likely try to figure out a way to make this available for non Facebook users on the website when we launch our new design this summer. The feedback is helpful! Keep it coming!
Posted by: Chris Peterson @ MIT Admissons on March 2, 2011
Posted by: Shahriar on March 2, 2011
I REALLY should be sleeping...
It's always because of Chris that I play games. Thanks. Thanks a lot. haha
Posted by: Thomas Zaragoza on March 2, 2011
Posted by: Banerjee on March 2, 2011
Have you considered Kongregate.com? They provide free hosting for flash games.
Posted by: Reuben T on March 2, 2011
I can't seem to access the last level, though. Do I have to collect certain points before attempting to play? (I've already played East Campus Coaster.)
Posted by: Norah on March 2, 2011
Posted by: Norah on March 2, 2011
Posted by: Norah on March 2, 2011
Posted by: 0 on March 2, 2011
Posted by: Zeeshan on March 2, 2011
Posted by: Tara on March 2, 2011
Haha!
Posted by: 0 on March 3, 2011
but there's a bug, sometimes when I start a game with rollercoaster there are two "me" ;D I mean these red cars are doubled. When I push arrows only one reacts, so I lose very quickly :( haha;P
Posted by: Hania on March 6, 2011
Posted by: Ceesay on March 7, 2011
The game is boring. Could have been more interactive, intellectually engaging with better music. Ideal game for a fourth grader.
Posted by: Stanford '15 on March 8, 2011
Posted by: Lynn on March 9, 2011
Comments have been closed.