Most Frustrating Moment of Play:
I feel as though this game has the potential to become very tiresome and repetitive with an entire 52 card deck. Additionally, it’s a game that allows either player to ignore the action on the card if they don’t feel like performing that action. This can lead to games where both players are fighting over the cards they feel it is worth the effort to acquire. It may end up shortening the game significantly depending on what players are willing to do.
Best aspects:
The idea of a game based around completing physical tasks is always an interesting one, especially if a judge is involved to determine when a task is actually complete. This is a very interesting idea for a game, and I think it could be fun if it was refined a bit.
Add/Change anything?
I’d probably shorten the deck, but you can also change the actions. Imagine this game had a deck of its own cards and materials, and the actions were things like, “draw a smiley face,” or, “stand on one foot longer than the other players.” The competitive aspect of this game can really be leaned into.
Play again?
I’d definitely consider playing this game again, provided it was refined. I like the concept, just think the execution could use some work.
Blocksploitation Review
Blocksploitation
Tester: Frankie
Most Frustrating aspect
The goal line is waaay up there. It took forever for ethan to finish his tower, and he kept drawing steal cards to take my pieces. If it was roughly 15-20 minutes to finish the game with one player effectively taking all the turns, it may be that the goal needs to be made a bit more accessible. Additionally, the steal cards are interesting, but there are just so many of them. I felt like every time I started to make progress my tower got confiscated.
Best aspect:
I love legos. The ability for players to pick their pieces and strategize on the way up is a great way to foster creativity and replayability. The well defined play area is a good way to direct players’ creativity toward the goal rather than just having them go nuts. The addition of the minifigures and other pieces that are more difficult to add to the tower is another aspect of the game that makes it more dynamic and interesting.
If I could add anything or change something, it would be the manner of construction. I would stray away from cards, and instead use a turn based gameplay. Perhaps there are certain ways to earn a steal or a figure or unique piece. I think the prospect of bonus points based on tower construction could be cool too. Maybe, if this game is meant to be a long one, you could play until the pieces are gone, and there could be bonus points for different categories, like part variety, height, architecture, etc.
I’d play this game again with some different rules. I think it has a lot of potential.
Flick It Soccer Reveiw
What I liked
I liked the customizable nature of the final product. It’s simple, easy to set up, easy to play, and there’s not much to it. It’s pretty much completely in the hands of your players, being more skill than luck. I know Ethan plays soccer too, so this was incorporated nicely into his other hobbies.
What I didn’t Like
Not much to speak of. Maybe more balls?
What I think could be changed
I’d like to see a version with more pieces, maybe the ability to customize your scoring.
Overall
I’d play this game again, especially at a party or a bar. It seems like something that would be great in social situations.
Kobold Guide to Game Design: Part 3 Questions
- What is the difference between a game designer and game developer?
A game designer comes up with the idea and format for a game while a developer refines and balances the mechanics.
1a. What commonly occurs during the game development process?
Prototyping, testing, balancing, and revision of the rules. This process is generally repeated until the game is at a satisfactory place.
2. What are the challenges of balancing a game?
The main challenge is numbers. When a game has numbers, it is important to balance those numbers so that they are both easy to understand and neither too strong nor not strong enough. Even if the game is supposed to be more challenging, all players should be on a relatively even playing field.
2a. What should every player of your game believe?
Players should feel the game is fair overall. They should come away from the game feeling as though their actions and strategies directly contributed to how the game played overall.
2b. How can you avoid stealing players fun?
If a player can be in a position to lose too early, give them an opportunity to come back.
Avoid situations that reward players who are already ahead. If you give them too much opportunity to snowball their lead, they will take the victory without anyone else having a chance.
When players are about to win, it should be like chasing a rolling ball down a hill. They should have to make a real effort to cross that last bit of terrain and take the victory. This builds tension and makes the other players feel like they have a real chance to catch up.
Find a middle point in player interaction. Players should be able to interact somewhere between not at all and too much.
Sending a player backward too far or without their choice is frustrating and can take a lot of the stakes out of the game. If everyone is constantly sliding back down the hill, they may become tired and give up.
3. What 10 Maxims should you follow when writing rules?
- Call things what they are and use words everyone understands
- Don’t make up words for the sake of the game. Keep it simple for newbies.
- Don’t make more work than necessary to get started.
- Keep flavor to a minimum. Rules should focus on rules and setup, and you can add lore elsewhere.
- Keep it Simple, Stupid. Don’t make your rules any smarter than the people you expect to play your game. Complicated rules can make games confusing.
- If you can’t figure out how to write a rule, discard it and find a new way to implement it.
- Keep things short and sweet.
- Go easy on the eyes. Formatting is important for readability.
- Test your final version. It might not be as final as you thought.
- If you find any errors in the ruleset, you can always release a second edition or address those errors online.
4. How has playtesting changed your game?
Playtesting has resulted in sweeping changes across the history of soul.
- The character creation. I learned from just two tests, one in class and one out of class, that my character creation was not easy to understand for the average user. I went back and changed how the sheet was formatted, removed a few mechanics, and changed how the handbook was formatted, and the end result is a much more readable product.
- The combat. When Soul started, it was a relatively simple turn based game, similar to D&D, each player attacked once a turn and then passed the turn. Playtests caused me to re write the powers, then restructure the combat system once, then again. Other games inspired me to re-write the combat system again and again, and now it is more similar to Magic: the gathering combined with a fighting game than it is similar to other TTRPGS. I have also found mechanics that were missing, like grappling and stealth, and have changed how charisma works thanks to a player marrying a boss. All in all, without playtests, this game would be much more broken.
4a. I think ronan and max would both be interesting testers for the game. Ronan has experience with tabletop games, and max has very unique perspectives on many situations, so I think those two would bring different valuable ideas to a test.
4b. My game is made for people who like TTRPGs but don’t like D&D, much like myself. That was the driving factor that led me to start designing this game, and I think that the way I’ve implemented many things allows for more freedom in some regards.
5. Who should play test your game outside of class?
My friends Stevie and Thad are my two main playtesters right now. Stevie, like max, approaches things differently than most, and as a result he is usually the one who breaks the game most effectively. This habit is both incredibly annoying and also incredibly useful, as it means that I have to interrupt gameplay to figure out exactly what has gone wrong, but i also gain valuable insight on what needs to be done to fix it. Thad is a player who likes to do the same thing every time, with minor variations. This is a pretty standard scientific approach, and it works well for testing the mechanics that are in place more thoroughly.
Guide To Game Design: Part 4 Questions
- What is the difference between a working and display prototype?
Working Prototypes are mechanically functional, designed for use by play testers to get the game’s mechanics refined and prepared for the final version.
Display Prototypes are more polished, finished versions of the prototype designed to give an idea of what the finished product might look like.
- A good working prototype needs to be as mechanically complete as possible. This means that it needs to be able to test anything that is an intrinsic mechanic of the game accurately. If A working prototype for a card game uses cards that represent 3/5 of the main mechanics that will be introduced, then the remaining 2 won’t be adequately tested. Working prototypes should also be easy to iterate quickly, so that any changes can be made and re tested without too much extra work on the part of the developer.
2. What makes for a good prototype according to dale Yu?
Strong first impressions are a good way to get players interested in your game. Additionally, make sure that the rules are concise and the mechanics are as well balanced as you can get them. When players are testing a game, they don’t want it to feel bad, even if they don’t particularly like the game. If it does, it’s an indication that perhaps the rules or mechanics haven’t been implemented correctly. The construction of the game should make a lasting impression, so that when your playtesters finish, they can look back on the game fondly and tell others about the experience.
3. What advice from Richard Levy will help you Pitch your game?
The most important thing is to be prepared to talk about everything. You may be blindsided by a question you weren’t expecting or that you hadn’t considered, so it is important to practice and to know what you are talking about without a reference.
Talk to others in the industry if you can so that you can gain more information about what to expect.
Look and act presentably. You are selling yourself, not just your product.
Make sure to accept failure with grace. Just because you were told no now, that doesnt mean that you wont be given another chance later on.
Make sure you control your emotions. Not everyone is good at giving criticism, just as not many are good at receiving it, so it is important to be prepared to accept many forms of critique.
Keep your expectations realistic. Pitching a game is tough, and you’re likely to have some competition, so remember that you can always try again and you can always try somewhere else.
Submit multiple ideas
Be wary of who you go to for advertising. If you do, check them out to make sure they’re reputable
Get your prototype as close to the final product as you can.
3a.Where might you pitch your game?
As a TTRPG, my game is dominated by the dungeons and dragons trademark. I would potentially do well going to one of Wizard’s of the coast’s competitors, like games workshop, or perhaps an underdog, like Schell games in Pittsburgh, who may want to break into a new market. The late summer or late spring would be good times to pitch these projects as this is when players are soon to be more free to engage with the product due to Christmas or summer vacation.
4. What do Publishers Look for in a game?
Fun, Player interaction, How quickly the game can be set up and played, Strategy, Themes and Immersion, Solid Rules, Well developed mechanics, Innovative components, Easily Manufactured components, the correct target market, a good title, the ability to make expansions, translations, ease of demonstration, and possibly collectibility.
4a. What makes a good set of rules?
A good set of rules should include some of, if not all of, the following:
Overview: A hook for your players
Components: A description of the things needed
Setup: Describe how to set up the game
Gameplay: Define how a turn will progress and how the game can be moved forward
Piece types: Describe how the pieces of your game behave and what they do
Endgame and Winning: How does the game end? How do you win?
Example: It’s a good idea to have examples of play in the rules to make them easier to understand
Credits: You should make sure to give the names of those who worked on the game somewhere
5.
Soul is a TTRPG set in a cyber-fantasy world. Players create their characters, gather their gear from an assortment of technologically advanced weapons and armor, and set out across earth to explore the world and discover the secrets that await.
Spelling Your Doom(Shane and Frankie)
Spelling Your Doom is a game where two players compete to spell the longest word possible. The catch is, each player takes a turn adding a letter to the end of the word. They continue until a word cannot be made by adding a letter or a player cannot think of anything to add.
- There are 5 Rounds.
- Players Play rock, paper, scissors to determine who goes first
- Players may add only one letter at a time
- Letters can only be used twice per word
- Each consonant letter in a word is worth 1 point
- Each vowel is worth 2 points
- If players spell something that isnt a word within 5 letters or neither can think of anything to add to it, both lose 5 points.
- If a word is longer than 10 letters, it is worth double points.
- After Each round, players take turns going first.
- Whichever player has the most points at the end of the game wins.
Materials
The only materials needed are a pen or pencil and some paper.
Soul: Ver. 7.1 Final
Second Revision of the original Version of the Character Creation Rules:
Companion Book
Character Sheet and Equipment Sheet
Game Review: Escape From Tarkov
There will be a file attached here as soon as I can get it to upload to my Google drive…….
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Cqn06gLa3M5ABrJXq3nrojqCdoNInyAm/view?usp=sharing (I realized the video was 2GB)
The following is the script that I wrote for this presentation. I hit most if not all of the points when filming the video, but in the event that a more in depth look at my thought process is desired, it is pasted below.
Escape From Tarkov, often abbreviated EFT for the purposes of simplicity, is a tactical First Person Shooter set in the fictional sealed off Russian city of Tarkov. It was created around 2014, though open alpha access was not available until 2016, by Nikita Buyanov and has seen semi consistent updates since. In the story, Tarkov was cut off from the rest of the world and largely left to fall into chaos after an event known as the Contract Wars.
The Contract Wars can be blamed on a conglomeration of different companies called Terragroup that had its base in Tarkov. Terragroup was conducting illegal scientific experimentation and had largely mobilized its own military to enforce their will in the region.
You Play as a member of one of the two private military factions who fought in the Contract Wars, trapped within the city after the United Nations set up a perimeter. These factions are:
USEC- United Security, is a private military company formed from the merger of two others and used as a corporate military force by Terragroup.
USECs were deployed to protect sensitive information regarding Terragroup’s illegal operations in the region, as well as establish Terragroup as the De Facto ruling faction of the city, all without raising the alarm.
BEAR- Battle Encounter Assault Regiment, is a private military company established in secrecy by the Russian government to find evidence of Terragroup’s illegal activity.
BEARs were deployed directly into Tarkov and the surrounding region to assault Terragroup’s USEC forces and retrieve any and all digital, physical, or other forms of data pertaining to their activities. Unfortunately, the assault was not as successful as hoped, and the two factions began effectively a state-corporate war in the Tarkov region.
Because of the rapidly increasing level of violence and the steadily increasing geographical scope of the conflict, the United Nations deployed a peacekeeping force to Evacuate the city of civilians and seal it off from the remainder of the world. During this operation, UN peacekeeping forces assisted by the Russian Federation Govt. quickly swept the city and managed to create an impenetrable blockade around it, all while also eliminating a large part of the remaining warring factions and evacuating a large number of civilians.
This is where you enter the story. Whichever faction you chose, you are one of the lucky ones, or so they tell you, who didn’t fall when the UN had their way with the streets. You have your issued gear, and have established a small hideaway on the outskirts of town after being separated from your friends.
Your goal is now simply to escape the city of Tarkov, but it is a hostile place, and you are not the only one lurking between empty rusting cars. Scavengers, or Scavs, largely comprised of the homeless population, those who stayed to defend their homes, criminals, or those who simply wanted to watch chaos unfold, wander the streets. They are often drunk and are incredibly violent, having picked up scavenged weapons from the casualties left by the Contract Wars.
Other PMCs remain alive as well, and these characters are the most dangerous of all, as they are also players that could have any motivation you could dream of to leave you alone or take what they think they deserve. To overcome these odds, you will have to work with what remains of civilization within the walls of Tarkov, and venture into the dark truths about Terragroup’s research.
Gameplay:
There is one main facet of gameplay. A Raid.
A raid is a time limited open world environment set somewhere in Tarkov. You succeed by passing successfully from the insertion point to the extraction point and doing whatever it is you wish to do along the way. If you run the clock down, Russian Regulars storm the map to quell th fighting, and your character goes missing in action. If you die in a raid, you are sent back to the main menu. The penalty for both of these outcomes is the loss of all the gear on your character’s person. Potentially Permanently, but we’ll get to that. Raid goals can vary depending on player level, faction, and location. A common goal may be to kill 4 Scavs or find three screwdrivers, which leads to one of the core tenets of EFT that makes it such a compelling game compared to many others out there.
The mantra of EFT’s development has always been, “As realistic as playable.” Equipment has weight, your character has weight. You need to bring ammo. You need to bring food. You need medicine. Do you know where you are? Is your gun brand new or do you need to worry about a jam? What’s around that corner? WHO is around that corner?
Each map in Tarkov is designed to instill these kinds of anxieties and practices into the players organically, as they learn over time, whether through success or failure, that there are certain things they need to do before they ever enter the Factory or the Woods maps. Inventory management is manual. You need to restock your ammo and fix your equipment between raids. Your character can get hurt, and if you don’t heal a broken leg, it’s liable to make you an easy target for a scav looking for a quick buck. Even so, if you don’t know your own way around, it may not matter if you aren’t hurt.
This realism carries over to combat, to a large degree. Characters can lean, jump, sprint vary their stance height or crouch altogether, prone out, vary walking speed to sneak, and even blindly fire over cover and corners. The guns are all 3d quixel megascans of real firearms, and as a result can be modified piece by piece. Wearing a heavy plate vest may stop a round, but it will slow your character down depending on the weight. Bullets are bullets, not a hitscan check. The game actually fires a bullet from the barrel of the weapons with each click of the mouse, and trajectory as well as drop is calculated in real time not only based on distance but also weather conditions and wind of the current environment. On top of this, they have a set mass and ability to penetrate certain types of cover. Wooden doors and drywall are not a great bullet stop, as it turns out. This creates an incredibly dynamic and rich system of combat where no two encounters are ever the same. This is only compounded when it is additionally considered that Nikita and the other developers for EFT design goals and missions on each map, as well as the flow of the very map itself, to drive players into each other.
Why fight? Remember how if you die, you get booted back to the menu? That gear remains in the live raid, on your character’s body. It can be taken from your corpse by any other player that happens to stumble upon it. Certain local gang leaders and traders offer insurance on your gear, but that only gets it back to you after a hefty wait and only if nobody took it. While in a raid, you can loot items in the environment as well, and these are often needed to help you to progress. With this, we have the stakes, and the driving force behind EFT.
You can even play as a scav and show up to an in progress raid if you run out of gear in your hideout. Scavs spawn with a random loadout.
Game Design: Prototype 2 Rules
Prototype: Diced Up
Diced Up is a game about rolling a pool of dice to get the highest score. The game ends when there are no more dice to roll in the pool.
1. Place 5 dice per player into a pool between everyone.
2. Every Player rolls 1 die. The highest number takes the other dice and puts him into his stash.
3. Repeat. If a player has a die in their stash, he may add half of it to his roll to bolster his chances to win. If a player loses this way, they lose both dice.
If someone beats two dice with one, they get a bonus die from the center pool as well.
In the event of a tie, the parties involved roll one of their dice each head to head until a winner is decided. The game then proceeds as normal.
4. The game ends when there are no more dice to roll in the center. The player with the most dice in their stash wins! In the event of a tie, they roll against each other until someone gets a higher number, and they are named the victor.
Collecting Game Ideas and thoughts on “Bang”
1. Diced Up is a game where players compete to collect dice by rolling higher than their opponent. The winner is decided when no more dice are left in the pool.
2. Retyrant is a game where players use cards as money and compete to see who can retire with the most.
3. Stockpile is a game where players have to work together to get rid of all of their cards (collecting in reverse) while still remaining competitive by collecting other cards to avoid nuclear war.
4. Elevation Is a game where players use dice to collect cards, and the player with the highest stack at the end wins.
5. Amazing Trace is a game where players have to trace an original drawing in a limited time and vote on whose is best. The first to collect five “best drawings” wins.
Thoughts on “Bang”
The premise of Bang is a spaghetti western movie, which is a wild west themed movie produced in Italy or by Italian filmmakers. In this regard, the game manages to capture the spirit fairly well. Every card is written in Italian as well as English, and they are themed after old western films.
In “Bang,” Each player has a different role to play, and a different way to win. There is a sheriff, some deputies, outlaws, and one renegade. The sheriff wants to maintain order, so he and the deputies win if the outlaws are all killed. The outlaws want no law, so they win if the sheriff is killed. The renegade wants to be the new sheriff, so he wins if he is the last one standing when the sheriff dies. You kill other players by shooting them. This is accomplished by playing a “Bang” card on your turn aimed at them. Every gun only does 1 damage, but different guns have different ranges. The winchester rifle, for example, has a range of 5, meaning it can hit a player 5 spaces to the left or right of the user. When a player is out of lives, they die. There are also cards that can cause damage to one or more players, give them items, heal them, and more. All in all, I think Bang is a simple game with a lot of depth to it.
Cooperation Game Ideas/ Hanabi and 8 Minute Empire Reviews.
1.Quicksilo is a card game in which players cooperate in teams of two to build a nuclear defense system before time runs out.
2. Appointment is a board game in which players cooperate to make it to an important meeting on time.
3. Sprawl is a card based city building game in which players cooperate to create the largest and most prosperous city possible by managing resources and construction.
4. Man on the Inside is a card game where everyone must work together to determine who among them is the Russian spy using deception, investigation, and espionage.
5. Stack is a dice game where players cooperate to build the tallest tower possible without knocking it over by stacking blocks.
Reviews:
Hanabi
Hanabi is a card game about creating a fireworks display. Everyone is on the same team for this endeavor, but players cannot look at their own hands, meaning teamwork is vital. During a player’s turn, he may play a card or give a single piece of information. He may also discard a card to return a token to the board, which must be paid every time information is shared. The game ends when the draw pile is gone, and points are earned based on the number of fireworks of each color that were placed on the board. The game is pretty quick and easy to learn, but the rules lead to some interesting situations. Managing information and holding important cards is a tough tightrope to walk.
8 Minute Empire
This is a more competitive game where players compete to build the biggest empire possible. Actions taken and bonus resources are based on cards that are drawn from a queue, with higher cards costing money. This means there is an element of uneasy cooperation as players draw cards to try and get the cost of the more valuable ones down while also trying not to give anyone else an advantage. The rules are not written particularly well, though, in my own opinion, so the game was not easy to learn, and it took us more than 8 minutes.
Week 2 Questions
- What Mechanics would you like to use for a game with a theme that revolves around being the size of a nanometer?
I think movement and perception would play large parts in this type of game. At that size, something the size of a pepsi can has enough of a gravitational pull to hold you rooted to its surface, and that surface is a lot more uneven and bumpy than we perceive with the naked eye. Additionally, atoms are about .1 to .5 nanometers in size, so you would see the world in terms of atoms. Electromagnetic forces could also play a huge part, and perhaps the movements of these half person sized atoms can play a part in the game.
2. Who are you making games for?
Mostly myself, but my close friends as well. My pen and paper RPG is primarily for myself. I make the game the way I want with feedback from players and my own ideas mixed together. Of course I want it to be fun, but I think that at some point I have to say, “to heck with that, this is MY game!”
3. Who will be your play testers outside of class?
Several of my family members and close friends will be the testers, perhaps unwillingly.
- Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules?
The game, “The game,” is played by everyone on the basis that the only rule is you lose when you think of, refer to, or otherwise become aware of the game’s existence, at which point you must announce you have lost the game and therefore cause all others around you to additionally lose the game. In this case, I have just lost this game by referring to it.
2.How do you define what a game is?
To me, a game can be just about anything. It’s always a set of rules, whether basic or otherwise, with the objective to make something fun. If I wanted to I could elaborate further, but the fact of the matter is, sometimes, stepping on only the green floor tiles is how a group of kids keep themselves entertained at a family party at the local fire hall. Even that much can be a game.
3. What features can make your games more intuitive?
Rules as simple and dumb as possible. Not everyone is stupid, in fact, the majority of individuals nowadays are quite the opposite. That being said, one of the biggest hurdles to learning and sometimes even enjoying games is too much complexity. Having a deep game is good, but if you can pick something up in 5 minutes, without having to refer to a rulebook along the way, it makes it a lot more fun to learn, and if done right, it leaves a lot of room for depth and freedom in play. Nobody likes having to stop a game halfway through to look up rules or settle a debate, especially if it’s the first time they’ve tried something. It’s like my friend Alex, a military man, once told me: Keep it simple, stupid!
- What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming?
My gateway game was Halo: Reach. This was the first game I ever played, and I played it a whole lot. I loved the setting, the world, the characters, the story, and obviously the gameplay itself. It got my foot in the door in regard to gaming in general, but after that, I branched out hard. Magic: The Gathering, Minecraft, DND, Scrabble, Skyrim. I wound up enjoying games in which I can make my own story, so I introduce people to gaming using my own game, Soul. I can control the rules, I can control the encounters, the story, the characters, and I can get everything just right and tuned to the people I’m trying to hook. I’ve managed to grab about a dozen so far.
2What features do gateway games share?
Ease of learning, lack of complexity, a theme, interactivity, luck, replay value, a relatively quick or short duration, and originality.
- What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own?
The ten beautiful mechanics are: Kingmaker’s Nobless Oblige: simulating equality through creative means, BattleTech’s Heat, simulating stakes, and strategy, Set’s Setmaking, simulating pressure and internal tension, Magic’s Card Tapping, which simulates a sense of resource management and game progression, Battle Cattle’s Cow Tipping Rule, simulating symmetry, xXxenophile’s Popping, which represents numerics and chain reactions, Mississippi Queen’s Paddlewheels, which simulates a weight of benefit vs detriment, Time’s Up’s communication breakdown, which simulates communication feedback, and Dominion’s shuffling, which simulates luck.
With your own mechanics, you should aim for beauty, whatever that may mean to you. They should function as a piece of the final work of art that is the watch, and they may be in themselves a work of beauty. According to Mike Selinker, this means that the mechanic is at the core of the experience, guiding imagination and allowing the players to play more freely.
2.How does luck and strategy factor in to game play?
Strategy can get you far when it comes to design, and can make a player feel like they’re truly in command, but luck can add tension to the game. In Battleship, for example, strategically placing your own ships can make all the difference, but there’s always that chance your enemy will guess exactly right, and it makes you feel like there’s something other than just your opponent bearing down on you.
Game Design Week 2: Card Game Ideas
Francis Hartle
1.Cards as Game Pieces/ Creatures: This game would be a trading card game similar to magic the gathering or yugioh, but the caveat would be that the summoner of these creatures, represented by cards, has short term memory loss. Every card has a usual strength and defense, but also has a memorability, and after that many turns have passed, it is forgotten. It disappears! The game ends when one player reduces the other to 0 health.
2. Cards as a fitness aid: This game would be played with a standard deck of cards, each card corresponding to a regular body weight exercise, such as 2: push ups, 5: planks, etc. The player or players would draw two cards, one for the exercise, and one for the amount. In this system, jack, queen, king, and ace correspond to 11, 12, 15, and 20, respectively. This can be a simple way to supplement workouts or even just get a little bit of extra physical activity.
3. Cards as Power: Not necessarily power, but commanding power would be more apt. In this game, each card represents a number of certain types of troops under a king’s army. Each amount of a starting unit would be determined by the draw of a card, and then the next unit would be selected. At the end, two or more players battle for control of card land, also consisting of cards worth their corresponding amount of points. At the end of the game, the king with the most points wins.
4. Cards as Currency: In this game, cards represent money. The goal of the game is to come out the other side with the most money, and it can even feature real betting, if you’re the gambling type. A deck is shuffled and split in two, and each player is dealt 3 cards from the top of their deck. This is the amount of money they start with. Then, each player bets a card. Each player then flips the top card from their deck, and the player with the higher card wins the bet and collects not only the cards that were bet, but also the ones flipped over, and these are all put into their wallet. Then, they shuffle their hands into their deck and draw a new hand. The game ends when the decks are gone, and the player with the largest wallet wins.
5. War with golf scoring: Played like traditional war, but the twist is that the lower card wins. Admittedly at this point I ran out of ideas.
Site Review 4:Competition
As our restaurant does kebab and barbeque, I figured a natural competitor would be none other than Mike and Tony’s Gyros. Overall, the website is well laid out. The food is the first thing you see when you land on the webpage, and it scrolls to show off different parts of the menu. The color scheme is simple but effective, using the standard red/white/black that many restaurants choose. The navigation is very visible and easy to understand, and the homepage uses awards and images to build consumer confidence in the final product. It also shows off all their locations. For the most part, everything important can be accessed right from the homepage. This means that any user interested in finding a location does not even have to click to find what they’re looking for. This is something that their site definitely does better than ours, as ours is simple to navigate, but the content is split into separate pages. I do think we made the right choice with the layout of our pages and our color scheme, however. We chose the red and white because it is effective and simple. Our navigation, like Mike and Tony’s, is visible as soon as you land on any page of the site, and they are clearly labelled. I think it is a site that if not standing out completely, is definitely competitive, and I think our design elevates it beyond.
Site Review 3: Restaurant
For this review, I looked at Burgatory and Primanti’s websites. While similarly themed restaurants, they handle their websites in very different ways. Burgatory’s homepage opens with a few shots from inside the restaurant. The key star here is the burger, as the namesake of the restaurant. The images cycle on approximately 2 second timers, so visitors are exposed to as many as possible while not being jarring. The navigation bar is right up top, below the Restaurant’s logo, and has 8 different links to relevant parts of the website. The remainder of the homepage shows off current specials and gives a bit of information about the establishment. The rest of the site follows the same theme, with the dark red and black color scheme lending to the overall unity of the website. Everything on each page has a purpose, whether it is to emphasize the necessities or to show off the product. The format of the website is designed in a user friendly way with the navigation right in front of you as you enter the website. This streamlines the way the user moves through the site, but additionally, the scrolling images of the food serve to both pique the user’s interest and additionally grabs their attention. Overall, I think Burgatory’s website has a fantastic function and form, lending to a good overall experience.
Primanti’s homepage is more crowded, without much of a focal point. There is a large empty space on the homepage that almost looks like it should be a link or contain some content. There are a few links including locations, catering, careers, and even a sidebar that holds more links, but the primary subject of the homepage is a photographic link that allows the user to order food online. When this is clicked, a menu is brought up that prompts the user for pickup or delivery, then shows them a map and a list of locations. Each location has a sub-link to order now or for information about that location. Following the order now link prompts the user to add their information to a form and then allows for the food to be purchased. The other links on the homepage lead to the order page as well, but take the form of advertisements for various specials on offer. Overall, this website is minimal and utilitarian in form, and it does what it needs to do well enough. There are a few balance issues, and the use of space on the homepage is very puzzling to me. There is a lot of real estate that is simply not used. and even shifting the advertisement links over to fill the empty space would be a better solution. I’d say this site is an ok user experience with room to improve.