Author: LukeConte

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Thoughts on Observance

I thought Observance was a cool game with easy-to understand mechanics. It actually heavily inspired me with my poaching game and gave me a good foundation to work with when I started writing up my rules.

Despite enjoying the game, there were a couple things that stood out as thing’s I didn’t like. I first of all wasn’t very impressed with the paper presentation of the game. I know that it probably exists somewhere in a finalized form and that it was free to print-at-home, but good quality materials makes games feel a bit more real. I also have never really been a fan of the battle-ship style announce and reply when it comes to trying to find where your opponent has things placed. I would have preferred a system that allowed me to see where the border patrol agents were, and subsequently would have allowed me to move around them. I suppose it makes sense that mexican migrants should be hidden to avoid detection, but it just pulled some of the immersion from my gameplay.

Things I liked:

I really enjoyed that the game wasn’t exactly balanced. It paints a picture for how difficult it actually is to cross the border from a migrant’s perspective. I wish for the sake of playability that I was able to have at least 1 or 2 more openings in the walls to increase my chances at winning, but that would take away from the story.

I liked the different search patterns, that the border patrol could do, it allowed me to stay in the game so long as Clay chose the wrong search pattern for where I was. I do wish I also knew where the green card was, if nothing else, because it would give me a slight advantage and a goal to work towards, instead of mindlessly throwing migrants at random spots and telling the border patrol where that person is.

Overall, I would def. play the game again and it did a good job at conveying a story of Mexican migrants essentially battling with the border patrol on the American-Mexican border.

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Jungle Justice RULES – Updated 3/20/23

Luke Conte

Jungle Justice is a team-oriented game in which 2-4 players compete to be the first to collect 3 of the 5 endangered animals. Poachers want to kill the animals for profit and the Conservationists want to save the animals by taking them to an animal sanctuary.

SETUP:

First, separate the Conservationist & Poacher tiles to their respective sides of the board.

  • 2 Players
    • Both players are on opposing teams. Each player controls both of their C or P tiles.
  • 3 Players
    • 2 players are on one team, 1 player is on the other. It’s a 2v1, play accordingly. No rules change, but the team with 1 player can move both of the P tiles.
  • 4 Players
    • Again, the rules do not change but abilities are shared, i.e. each poacher can only call in 1 law enforcement sweep per game for a total of 2 for the team

Place your C and P tiles anywhere in the row closest to you. This is called your starting row.

Separate all of the different tiles (green “vegetation” tiles, brown “animal” tiles, blue circular “law enforcement” tiles).

The teams (poachers or conservationists) split the vegetation & animal tiles evenly between the two teams. For the animal tiles, there’s 5 tiles, so the team going second gets the extra animal tile to place. Both teams should have 12 vegetation tiles.

Both teams place their vegetation tiles on the board in any location on their half of the board. These tiles are not to be moved during the game. When placing vegetation tiles, ensure you do not block an entire row. There must be a gap to move through. Once the vegetation tiles are on the board, place the animal tiles anywhere in the marked rows on the board.

PLAYER TURN

The first team to go is decided by rock, paper, scissors. Decide a turn order from there, and stick to that order. Ensure that your entire team goes before the next team plays their turns.

On the player’s turn, they first move their P or C tile  0, 1, or 2 spaces. They then have the choice to shoot, or in the case of the conservationists, heal an animal or call a law enforcement sweep.

  • If the player on the conservationist team has a law enforcement tile in play, they get to move their C tile then their law enforcement tile (refer to abilities for details)

After each poacher and each conservationist has taken 3 turns each, flip the sun to the moon, or vice versa.

GENERAL RULES

The goal of the game is to be the first team to bring 3 animals to their truck. An animal can be considered captured when it has reached your starting row. It can then be put in the truck square included with the game.

MOVEMENT

Throughout the duration of Jungle Justice, players will take turns moving their tiles. Poachers and conservationists can both move up to 2 tiles in any direction except diagonal. Law enforcement can move up to 3 tiles in any direction except diagonal. You must move each poacher or each conservationist every turn. 

Both poachers and conservationists must carry an animal back to their truck, which means that they are encumbered and can only move 1 tile while carrying an animal. Poachers cannot shoot or hide while carrying an animal. Conservationists cannot heal or call in a law enforcement sweep while carrying an animal. Both conservationists and poachers can drop the animal they are carrying if they need to get away from the other player. The animal stays where they drop it until it is picked up again.

Vegetation tiles can only be crossed by poachers. Poachers cannot shoot while hiding in the vegetation. If a poacher is in a vegetation tile, they can only move 1 tile per turn until they are out in the open again.

TIME

Time passes in this game. A day/night cycle is 6 total turns (3 turns for each poacher and conservationist in the daytime and 3 turns for each in the nighttime). Use the turn counter to keep track.

DEATH/ARREST

The death of a conservationist or the arrest of a poacher both mechanically work the same way. The dead conservationist or arrested poacher gets pulled off the board for 3 turns, the round they are shot/arrested counts as their first round out of the game. After 3 rounds they may return to the board from the starting row on their respective side of the board.

TEAM ABILITIES:

Both teams have a small set of abilities that can be used against their opponents.

POACHERS

Poachers can shoot at animals and only once per game, they can shoot at a conservationist or a law enforcement officer.

  • Poachers can only shoot at night.
  • Poachers must be within2tiles of either the animal or the conservationist to shoot.
    • If a conservationist or animal has been shot, the  animal tile gets flipped over to indicate that it is dead. (If there are 2 people on the conservationist team, the person controlling that tile is out of the game until their 3 turns are up)
  • Poachers must shoot an animal before bringing it back to their truck (anywhere in the labeled starting row)
  • Poachers can only shoot at an animal or conservationist if the path to their target is clear. No shooting through a dead animal, other player, or vegetation

Poachers can hide in vegetation tiles, but cannot shoot when they are in them. To hide in a vegetation tile, the poacher just moves into the tile by placing their P tile on top of the vegetation tile. This means that law enforcement officers won’t be able to arrest you so long as you are hidden.

CONSERVATIONISTS

Conservationists can heal animals if they are dead, only during the daytime (obviously it’s impossible to resurrect something but let’s pretend it isn’t). Conservationists can only bring an animal back to the truck if it is alive.

  • Conservationists can can only heal an animal if their C tile is on top of the animal tile

Conservationists must heal the animal before bringing it back to their truck if it is dead. 

Each conservationist, only once per game, can call in a local law enforcement sweep.

  • Law enforcement will only spend 3 turns in the game (not including its initial spawn), so time it well!
  • When a law enforcement sweep is called, the conservationist calling can place one of the law enforcement tiles anywhere within a 2-tile radius of whichever C tile(s) they control.
  • Law enforcement tiles are essentially an extra tile that the Conservationist can control. They can move 3 tiles per turn as opposed to the usual 2 tiles.
  • Law enforcement tiles can arrest a poacher for a duration of 3 turns. The poacher must be within a radius of 1 tile around the law enforcement tile.
  • When a poacher is arrested, the respective P tile is flipped for the duration of the arrest, then returns to start over at the starting row after they are released.
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Max CTA Context Extraction

Max provided a lot of useful information to the crocheting process. The process seemed pretty loose but, there are certain steps that have to be followed before others to a get a result you want, but you get to ultimately decide what those steps are.

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5 Persuasive Game Ideas

  1. A game in which you choose a country to play as and try to colonize more planets in the solar system than the others. Loser faces oppression as a result of other countries being way more resource-rich than them.
  2. A game in which 2 players are the poachers and 2 players are the rehabilitation experts. The rehabilitation experts need to successfully repopulate endangered animals faster than the poachers can kill them off.
  3. A game in which players have to correctly identify whether particular foods are food-safe or not with the intent of educating people on the struggles of people with severe food allergies. Allergies could be randomly assigned to players perhaps with the roll of a die.
  4. A game in which players have to allocate resources to build as much green energy as possible. Maybe another player has to try to stop them from advancing the green-tech.
  5. A fishing game but themed around the great coral reef; except as the game goes on the reef gets smaller and less fish are able to be caught. Players try to get the most fish without being the person to endanger the fish population.
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Thoughts on McDonalds Game & Monopoly

I personally really enjoyed the mcdonalds game. I like that it is fast paced and over-simplified in terms of running a business. I found it was really easy to be successful because I have played a lot of resource management games in the past. But overall it was a good satirical game and I think it got it’s point across effectively.

Monopoly was another story; I don’t like Monopoly in the first place, but it was a fun twist to have conditional rules that were different for everyone playing. It didn’t really have any specific purpose, aside from a social commentary of how marginalized groups could feel in the economy. So overall I would say that the added rules made Monopoly more fun, but not that much. lol

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Part 4 responses

  • What is the difference between a “working” and a “display” prototype?

Working prototypes are meant to be played and tested by the staff surrounding the publication and editing process while display prototypes aren’t actually meant to be playtested, only meant to catch the consumer’s eye

  • What is required of a working prototype, and what might cause one to fail?

The game has to have already been tested extensively and needs to work. If it doesn’t it could fail

  • What makes for a good prototype according to Dale Yu?

Good first impression

Clear and well-written rules

Having sensible, well-constructed components

A lasting good impression on the game

  • What advice from Richard Levy will help you pitch your game?

Be prepared and willing to answer questions. Sell yourself first and don’t think about rejection as an end-all thing. Control your ego by keeping your expectations realistic. Get a good agent and design a good prototype that will catch their eye

  • Where might you pitch your game?

To publishers that take open suggestions from the general public

  • What do publishers look for in a game?

Publishers are looking for fun and player interactivity. The game should be learned quickly and easily so people can have fun fast. They want strong rules and mechanics, something that’s innovative and matches the correct target audience. Good title, potential for expansion in the future, and easy demoing capabilities

  • What makes a good set of Rules?

An overview that is compelling and understandable, card types, how they function, endgame and winning criteria, examples of play strategy hints, optional rules, etc

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Part 3 Responses

  1. what is the difference between a game designer and a game developer?

The game designer is the author and makes the prototype of the game while the game developer cleans it up and removes blemishes so it’s ready to be published.

  • what commonly occurs during the game development process?

During the development process, it is common that the developer has to go back and change some of the rules to avoid issues of overcomplexity which can lead to confusion and a bad play experience.

  1. what are the challenges of balancing a game?

Any game that directly involves numbers, numbers of cards, numbers of lives, objectives, etc are all difficult to manage. You want to ensure that it is as fair as possible at all times to avoid issues with the game driving the actions; players should drive action.

  • what should every player of your game believe? why?

Every player should believe that the game is fair and operating in everyone’s best interest

  • how can you avoid stealing players fun?

Ensure that everyone has a chance to win and allow the players to play the game how they intend. If there is an option to interact, let them interact. Allow optional mechanics to be optional. Make those in the lead work for the last bit to win so that other players can at least feel as though they have the power to catch up.

  1. what 10 maxims should you follow when writing rules?

Call things what they are, no vague terminology

Keep it simple, don’t make up new words for the game.

Don’t make more work from the beginning than what is necessary

Rules should focus on the rules, not the lore.

Keep it simple, don’t overestimate your players

Rule terminology is important. If it doesn’t make sense in writing, get rid of it and implement another way

Short and sweet

Be easy on the eyes, format your rules, cards, board, etc cleanly so as to be easily understood

Test your final version

If any errors appear, submit a new edition and/or correct errors online

  1. how has play testing changed your game?

Play testing has entirely changed the whole structure and strategic landscape of Blast Radius, and has made it way more fun to play

  • who from class would you like to play test your next game or version 2 of your first game?

N/A

  • who is the audience for your game?

12+ people

  1. who should play test your game outside of class?

Friends and family, but mostly people who don’t have any connection to you to be as objective as possible.

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Treasure Flaunter – Luke & Ben

SETUP

Both players need their own player piece and 2 dice for the game.

OBJECTIVE

2 players are competing to get the most treasure by getting to the end of the board first.

TURN

The tallest player goes first.

To advance, the player rolls 2 dice. This determines how far forward they go on the board. The player must choose one of the 2 dice and move based on what the chosen die says.

Once a player reaches the star space before the treasure, they unlock the next section of the board and roll for treasure. The number on the die after rolling is the amount of treasure tokens the player gets.

Players must not move beyond the treasure until a player lands on the sixth space in that section. Once a player unlocks a treasure space, that treasure space cannot be used again.

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Thoughts on… Everything… Finally

Fluxx

I enjoyed playing Fluxx, but only after I started to learn how to play. I like the idea of matching cards and that it has an equal balance of random and strategy. I enjoyed having the new rule cards show up but it does make the game feel pretty cluttered when it really gets going; especially with 6 people playing. That feeling of clutter makes me want to play the game less/want the game to end as soon as possible so it can go back to normal. It did certainly provide me with a lot of inspiration for my game

Love Letter

I immediately enjoyed the storyline of Love Letter but I think the mechanics were a bit clunky for me to understand. It didn’t make a ton of sense to me that each player was a suitor, but had cards with different characters on them. It created a disconnect that was maybe only mostly apparent to me. However, once I learned how it worked, I did begin to enjoy playing. I’m just not sure it would be something I would come back to again.

Munchkin Gloom

This was the first of the games that I was not able to play due to 2 close exposures to covid, so from here on most of my thoughts will come from the perspective of game reviews I watched in place of playing the games.

I really like the transparent cards with the ability to place others on top of each other and the idea story-wise that happiness is bad and gloom is good. It also seems that a lot of the actions are very direct and player-focused. It also seems to poke fun at popular video games and Dungeons and Dragons. I love games that have player-to-player interactions that can cause fun conflict in the room, and Gloom Munchkin certainly does that. If I had the chance to play it I think I would enjoy it.

Munchkin

Munchkin seems to be a relatively simple game with dungeoning and treasure-gathering. The class and race system is really interesting too, being able to be any combination of class and race. In terms of the combat, It’s seems it’s similar to Dungeons and Dragons in the sense that when a monster appears, you fight it. Additionally, your combined levels must be the same or higher in order to fight/defeat the creatures, and it even incorporates bonus for different abilities. I really like that if you don’t meet the combined level of the monster that you can run away if you roll a 5-6, but if you land on anything other than 5-6, you have “bad stuff” happen to you. I wasn’t able to play this game this semester but I was able to play in 4D studio a couple of semesters ago and I enjoyed it!

Bang!

I think the character and role cards not being attached is a fun way of keeping the story of the game fresh as there are many different combinations and can change the storyline for players. It’s also cool that it’s a team-based game based around eliminating other players as opposed to points or score that determine who wins. I also always like games that are designed to start mini conflicts between the players. Bang does this by making it a mystery what team each player is on. I also think it’s really cool that you can get into duels with other players.

Pandemic

Pandemic is another one of the games that I wasn’t able to play but I did watch a few videos on. I think that a face value, the game can come off a tad overwhelming, at least for me as someone who isn’t incredibly well-versed or experienced with board games. It does seem to simplify itself just a bit more as the rules become more apparent. The role cards are also interesting, giving players an added ability each unique to themselves which provides players with a sense of purpose. I also like that the different regions on the map all foster the growth of different kinds of diseases specific to the region. It’s also cool that you can move around the map, essentially controlling the spread of disease through your presence there as a researcher/doctor or whatever. I also have to give an honorable mention to the infection rate mechanic, which allows players to choose the difficulty level of the game.

Tokaido

I wasn’t able to play Tokaido. but based on the reviews that I watched, I think the first mechanic that caught my interest was how the players move around the board. Players can move as far forward as they want and get ahead of the others, but they can only move forward once they are the farthest back in the group. I have to say though, I don’t think that I would really enjoy playing this game, despite the beautiful presentation, because of the currency system. I have never really enjoyed using currency to trade or purchase items in card games. I’m not sure if there is a reason behind it, but it just doesn’t always make a ton of sense to me if it’s not done in a specific way.

8 Minute Empire

I like the idea of the game being completed in 8 minutes. I find that when I am playing board games, it’s usually to quickly pass time when my friends and I are bored or waiting for something. 8 mins is the perfect amount of time for a fast game to to take place. It’s interesting that you basically start the game with everything you’ll ever need; i.e. 8 money, 3 cities, and a bunch of armies. It’s nice that once the money is spent, the money goes into the bank, which also means it doesn’t return back into the game. The territorial control of moving armies around an establishing cities almost as spawn points is also a cool mechanic. It seems like based on the videos that I have watched, there isn’t much player to player interaction which is kind of unfortunate so I would at least try to play this game if given the opportunity, but it may get boring for me after a while.

Hanabi

I really like the idea of Hanabi, trying to set off fireworks. The first thing that’s jarring is that you actually hold your cards backwards instead of directed towards yourself. So everyone can see your cards except for you. I have to say though, despite Hanabi being a seemingly simple and small game, I don’t really enjoy games with point values and a goal to reach a certain amount of points. I would prefer if players were trying to get a certain object or amount of objects, whatever it may be. Not too much to say about it.

Carcassonne

To start, I really like the idea of building the map together as a group, even though the goal is to take as much control of as much land as possible. I’m not a fan of the fact that they add up to points at the end, but that’s just the way it is. I think Carcassonne has a great of making players interact with one another by restricting the placement of certain players’ pieces on occupied sections of the board, but players can strategize to share sections of the board if placed correctly. I also like that the scoring is done through a different board and matches the theme of the main game “board.”

Dominion

I was able to play Dominion a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to finish the game but we did eventually score it at the end and declared a winner. I personally don’t like deck builder games. They just don’t really keep my attention like a game with a nicely designed board/map, whatever it may be. This also ties into my small but general distaste for card games with currency. Being able to see where the money is going and it getting recycled kind of kills the magic for me. Overall, though, the game is well made and works with a small amount of players. However, if we didn’t have Ames there to help us get the hang of it, I’m not sure we would have been able to learn it very quickly.

Photosynthesis

Visually, Photosynthesis is a striking game that I can imagine would pull players in and immerse them. However, I wasn’t able to play, so I’m only speculating. At first glance in the videos I have watched, it seems very complicated with tons of different chips, pieces, currency, etc. I think there is a lot to remember, such as point value, amount of spaces a shadow is cast, point trackers, light points, etc. While the game is visually one of the best I’ve seen, it’s more or less a no-go for me.

Takenoko

I enjoyed playing Takenoko, mostly because of the story line, but after opening the rules, it got complicated. Myself, Clay, and Max all did find ourselves getting the hang of the game, but were asking a lot of questions like can we take the bases of the bamboo shoots, does irrigation apply if not connected, etc. We also didn’t really use the player cards to track what was going on, which may have contributed to our general sense of confusion for a majority of the game. We did start implementing some strategy in the later game, but that was only after a pretty slow start at the beginning.

Settlers of Catan

I personally don’t enjoy resource management games. I’ve experienced some pretty intense games that use this as a main mechanic in their games like EU4, CK2, and other video games that take politics, war, resources, etc into account. Settlers of Catan is WAY simpler than those other games that I mentioned, but it generally has a similar feel and just isn’t really up my alley.

Splendor

This is going to sound incredibly redundant but because I don’t like games that involve buying and selling cards with currency, I have to say I’m glad I didn’t play Splendor. While I’ll admit it does have a cool premise, I just am not immediately interested in points and money for physical games. The game also has a lot to remember in terms of how many gems you can pick up and what controls that number, which can get confusing. I don’t like how everything changes based on player count, meaning that every time you play, unless your group is consistent, the rules are all different. This makes it difficult to learn.

Bohnanza

I really like Bonanza! I’ve been able to play it a couple times in both Game Design and in 4D studio. The game provides a lot of player-to-player interaction with trading being one of the most important things you can do. It adds strategy to a simple game with simple mechanics and is easily learned and taught. Also, the art is really nice to look at and is just overall a lot of fun to play. I also am pretty good at it so that adds to it a bit too.

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DISASTERS Rename & Update to “BLAST RADIUS”

I have spent time today in class making changes to my game, which was previously called “DISASTERS” and has now been changed to “BLAST RADIUS.” The original name was a working title as the original concept of the game was to have multiple different “disasters” that could be chosen from to change the story of the game. However, I found that the complexity that this added wasn’t really worth the amount of work that it would take to make different cards for different decks. I doubled down on the nuclear reactor explosion as the disaster, hence the name change.

I also spent time putting all of the possible items that can be drawn into a spreadsheet to manage the balance for further play-testing. The screenshot of what that looks like and how it was organized is below.

Balance sheet as of 11/01/2022

I also spent a bit of time in class designing proofs for the backs of the item cards and objective cards to see what a final version of the cards might look like. Those images are also below.

Let me know what you think 🙂

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Game Ideas based on Collecting

Spelunker – a game where players discover and explore cave systems that can hold treasures like weapons of value and money

Campus Trades – A game where players begin with a single item of little to no value and try to trade up to any piece of RMU apparel

We Brawl – A game in which players randomly choose items of value at random, and fight each other to gain more loot or maintain their current loot

Civil War Explorer – A game in which players explore Civil War battlefields with a metal detector and see what they can find

One Plague Doctor – A game where players search for the single antidote that can cure anyone of any illness

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DISASTERS Game Progression – Week 6-7

I started creating the Disasters game based on a set of rules written for week 6’s class. Initially, the plan was to have players move around a world and use their items in imaginary environments, similar to Dungeons and Dragons. Managing the scope of the game was difficult as the game needed to maintain a story line and immerse the players while being simple enough to be created and played in class. Disasters went from a team-based collaborative game to a competitive game where players compete against each other to complete their objectives. Below are some images of the progression of the game so far.

Game cards – Week 6
Game cards – Week 7
Notes from a friend’s play test
More notes from a friend’s play test
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DISASTERS – Ruleset as of 10/11/22

DISASTERS

SETUP ————————

DISASTERS is a card-matching game in which players compete to find loot to complete objectives! This game is ideal for 2-4 players and plays clockwise starting with the shortest person playing.

Place a  chosen DISASTER card in a visible location on the table. This is the disaster players are dealing with for the duration of the game.

Each player begins with 1 OBJECTIVE card and 1 ITEM card. Players are working to complete 2 OBJECTIVE cards throughout the duration of the game. Players can have a maximum of 4 ITEM cards in hand at any time.

ALL cards can be visible to other players

ITEM cards can be traded between players (“value” does not mean currency, it just gives players an idea of the rarity). Trades are entirely decided by the players. 

A 6-sided-die is rolled at the beginning of each player’s turn. If the die lands 1-4, an ITEM card can be drawn. If the die lands 5-6, discard 1 ITEM card. 

TURN RULES ————————

When it is your turn, you have the choice to do 1 of 3 things;  TRADE with another player, ROLL, or PLAY an ACTION card.

When a player decides to draw, they can choose to choose from the top of the (face up) discard pile or the (face down) ITEM card deck

OBJECTIVE CARDS ————————

OBJECTIVE cards are the cards that determine what the player’s current objective is.

OBJECTIVE cards can be discarded by any player at any time. However, when an OBJECTIVE card is discarded for a new one, the player must discard their entire hand and all ITEM cards on the table are shuffled back together, including the discard pile. This recycles used cards.

ITEM CARDS ————————

ITEM cards are drawn when a die is rolled 1-4 at the beginning of each player’s turn. 

Every player begins with 1 ITEM card dealt before the beginning of the game. ITEM cards can sometimes be harmful. For items like water and food, when “consumed” the card is placed on the discard pile.

When the players reach the end of the deck, reshuffle all ITEM cards except for ones currently in hand.

Some ITEM cards have instructions, others don’t.

ACTION CARDS ————————

ACTION cards are indicated with a    symbol, which means that they can be played and have an effect.

Some action cards must be played immediately upon drawing them. These cards are marked the same as regular ACTION cards, but with an added “*”

DISASTER CARDS ————————

The disaster cards determine what disaster the players will be dealing with. Only 1 is drawn per game. 

(For the purpose of the playtest there is only 1)

OBJECTIVE CARDS ————————

Objective cards are the cards that determine what the player’s current objective is.

SICK CARDS ————————

A player receives a SICK card when they consume tainted water, food, medicine depending on their roll number.

When a player has a sick card in play, the player must roll once every other turn to determine SURVIVAL. 

If a 6 is rolled, the player dies(loses). There may be some items that can revive you!

Objectives can only be complete when players are HEALTHY.

WIN STATE ————————

The first player to complete 2 objectives in a game wins.

LOSE STATE ————————

Player is  not the first to complete 2 objectives.