Author: kaelinh

Posted on

New Ideas on Collecting

(apologies for posting this so late – better late than never I guess)

  1. Set amount of cards based on the number of players. To begin you take turns picking all the cards one at a time (strategy/psychology of the game in paying attention to the cards others choose) There’s also a money pile. Then based on what cards you took, you take action against each other and take whatever money you get from what happened. You do this three times and whoever has the most money wins.
  2. Building the perfect music company – trying to collect the most “talented” artists – you start with base characters and throughout the game build up their strengths (and sometimes weaknesses) to create the most talented group or company of musicians/singers
  3. Society kind of thing where you build your army for world dominance or just your quiet little villages – so like amassing funds, resources, people, homes, etc etc
  4. Collecting design pieces/tiles that you must try to replicate a design but you are picking up pieces every round and can lose certain pieces that don’t allow you to complete the design so it’s a sort of race to complete and gather correct pieces fastest
  5. Hidden Objectives kind of game – there’s something you have to complete but noone knows so you gotta secretly work toward a goal of sorts.
Posted on

Rule Set for Matching Language Cards

I’m writing this rule set because I want to prototype this idea first instead of my other rule set I posted two weeks ago. I’m just very curious how a traditional matching game would work with different languages and how peoples memories are affected when it’s unfamiliar words rather than pictures.

Players 2-5

SET UP: Pick the stack that you want to play with and shuffle them with the language NOT in English face up. Lay out all 50 cards in a grid face up

Gameplay:

This is a pretty traditional matching game but obviously instead of remembering where pictures are, you are trying to remember the translation of the words that you are gradually learning throughout the game.

Each turn players attempt to make matches. Every turn, the player flips over two cards.

On their turn, a player flips over a card and reads the translation. They then pick up their second card by trying to find the match to the English word on the back. If the second card does not match the first card THEY PUT BOTH CARDS BACK WHERE THEY ORGINALLY WERE with the NON-English word face up.

FOR EXAMPLE – player 1 flips a card that says “perro” on it. The back reads “dog”. The player then scans the grid trying to see EITHER if they know another word for dog or if a previous player had flipped over the word “dog” before and they remember where it is.

Players take turn attempting to make matches until the grid has been completely matched.

HOW TO WIN:

Players with the most matches wins.

Congrats! You either already know another language or are good at memorizing places on a game board!

possible ALTERNATIVE PLAY:

1. If a matching game seems too boring, here’s another idea to spice it up a little bit.

Instead of taking a turn by trying to find a match by flipping over two cards, there will be an extra “hard” section of words above the matching grid that IF YOU KNOW OR CAN GUESS THE WORD counts as an additional match in your hand. However, guessing wrong does not remove the card from the game but you must reveal your guess and put it back above the grid if you guess incorrectly. The potential then is that other players have the opportunity to steal these bonus cards, narrowing down the meaning. 

2. If there is a tie OR just if you want to keep the matches with the NON English words face up and shuffle the card and whoever remembers the most meanings gets an extra point or the number of points for that number of cards guessed right (by the players discretion)

Posted on

5 New Ideas with same Theme – Languages

languages are a hobby of mine and any “gaming” i usually do by myself has to do with learning languages – i wanted to be able to incorporate this into some of my games in this class since I enjoy them so much and would love to share with others

  1. Traditional Matching Game but with different languages – there are two cards in square of like 100 cards with the same interpretation of the two languages and several players try to remember what they mean and match them and get most matches

2. like TacoCatGoatCheesePizza and War combined but different greetings in languages – each player has a hand of cards and when they match you must shout that greeting and whoever has the closest pronunciation to what it actually means gets that round (have google translate at the ready)

3. Accent game – very simple trying to guess languages by sound – more collaborative with less “winning” just having a good time

4. National Market/Menu Game – each player has a menu/list they must complete by drawing ingredient cards BUT CATCH they’re not in english – there’s also tokens and event cards mixed in to spice it up – you accumulate a hand as you play and place ingredients that match to your menu/list and finish by completing it first and have money and stuff. Each list though is a different language/nationality and you must complete it in that language. So sort of go fish/bartering sort of game

5. For people who already know a little bit of a language, there are different language stacks that basically work as vocab review so obviously is a very niche game since you’d have to have a rudimentary understanding of a language… as many players as possible, single players to collective playing, racing to point out the words fastest.

Posted on

Game Response – Carcassonne

Carcassonne is a world building game where players take turns placing random tiles and meeples to connect their real estate to gain points.

Was it fun? It was alright

What were the player interactions? Player interactions consisted of sort of chance on what the other people would do and where they would place there tiles.

How long did it take to learn? Not very long

What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? As the game progressed, not being able to place meeples on unclaimed land that you didn’t just place

What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? It was simple and kinda cute

Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? Yes, place meeples on unclaimed land you didn’t just place

If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Same as the previous answer

Is this a game you would play again? Maybe, it is a maybe not a yes because it wasn’t quite engaging enough to play a lot

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure. Setup, placing tiles and meeples and accumulating points and land, farming should be the third act but none of use really wanted to do it and count all those points so someone won before we got to act 3

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game? Collaborative on an unofficial level where you can try to convince people where to put their tiles to either help you or other players, competitive in the fact that well you are trying to simply get the most points and win

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The metaphor is around medieval estate collecting and establishing kingdoms, i liked the mechanic of chance of what tile you place and needing it to match up with tiles on all sides.

Posted on

Game Response – Camel Up

Camel Back is a chance-based betting game in which players accumulate money by racing camels around a track by rolling dice that are color coordinated to the respective camels.

Was it fun? Yes, it was a chill fun

What were the player interactions? Not too much collaboration but we still interacted in a sense of gauging what other players would do to anticipate the betting

How long did it take to learn? Mmm 15-20 mins maybe

What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? It really wasn’t too frustrating

What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? Not having control of the camels was actually a very interesting aspect of the game – just watching them do their thing by chance was fun and then betting with no actual stakes, honestly it felt a lot like Clue but obviously a few different mechanics which made it move easier

Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? Not that I can think of no it just sorta worked out

If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Maybe make the game setup a little easier, it was tricky figuring out where everything went, there were too many different cards that some didn’t seem to matter too much, making them mean more or taking them out completely would be best

Is this a game you would play again? Yes, it was cute and easy and fun

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure. The setup was definitely one and giving the camels their first moves, then every leg of the race was part of act 2 and act 3 began when people started betting on the total winner of the race when the camels got closer to the finish line

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game? Not really collaborative except for the fact you just have to pay attention to what everyone else is doing, competitive because we are all trying to get as much money as we can by ourselves, there weren’t any teams or anything

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The camel metaphor was very fun – having so many different ways to earn money was very well thought out especially the betting cards and having several legs of the race available

Posted on

“Caked” Rules Draft

Setup: There are little slotted trays (the cake table) given to each player to hold main card stacks. Each player gets dealt 7 (for now if that makes sense) cards from the main deck and places them in order in the cake table. Then they are dealt 5 more cards to hold in their hands.

Objective(s): To be the first to complete your “cake” in the slots and also accumulate the most “ingredients”

Actions players take: Every turn players can (1) choose to replace a card from their cake table by taking a new card from the card pile, the discard pile or a card in their hand OR (2) replace 1-3 cards in their hands from the card pile.

The point of the game is to correctly order the fillings of your cake. The different cards have different types of fillings on them and the order they go in indicated on the card. Players must work to order their cakes correctly. You also create mini hands for extra points out of ingredient cards. (I might do different types of card piles that once you ‘finish’ and ingredient stack you can get higher valued ingredients that are worth more we’ll see) It is part of the strategy to either focus on more cake table cards or the mini hands.

Ending the game: The game ends when correctly fills up their cake table or the card piles run out.

Posted on

Game Response – Dominion

Dominion is a game where players aim to build their “kingdoms” by buying money and actions so gain the most points (land) against other players’ “kingdoms”.

Was it fun? Yes very much

What were the player interactions? Honestly, if every player knew what they were doing there really wouldn’t need to be much interaction, except if you got attack and had to defend yourself or take a curse

How long did it take to learn? A good bit, if we didn’t have somebody (thank you professor ames) to explain it in person, it would have take quite a while to figure out but thankfully we didn’t have to read the 50 page rule book

What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? Getting down the reshuffling was frustrating when trying to explain it to others, not too much frustration otherwise

What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? The amount of cards was really fun after you understood what they all did, it was very overwhelming at first but then made sense and made it really interesting

Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? Be able to block witch attacks with the defense even if it wasn’t in your hand (although it would make it too easy)

If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Perhaps be able to get coin cards in other ways than just buying them

Is this a game you would play again? Yes, because of the different iterations it’s a game that is designed to be play again so I’d like to with totally different action cards

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure. There is the setup and the slow beginning of gaining money and actions, then it gets more complicated with stacking actions and buying point cards, then the end draws near when the piles run out and you count them.

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game? It’s not super collaborative in my opinion but pretty much completely competitive with the kingdoms competing against each other

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The metaphor is that of a kingdom (a fantasy one by some of the actions and pictures) where there are kingdoms trying to gain the most land

Posted on

Collaborative Game Ideas

  1. A tornado chaser game where your all working together to “diffuse” the storm in a sense before it reaches you are town.
  2. Trying to work together to get the same hand but you can’t see your own or a version that you can but can take turns looking at different peoples cards
  3. building some sort of structure in game form
  4. A memory game but you can’t do it on your own, you help each other out by giving clues but I’d have to come up with another mechanic for it to be more complicated
  5. Like Ticket to Ride but creating food dishes and in a collaborative way, not simply trying to complete “routes” by yourself but in a team dynamic
Posted on

Question Set Week 2

  • Question Set 1
    1. What Mechanics would you like to use for a game with a theme that revolves around being the size of a nanometer? Everything should be in nanometers – be in tiny moves since you are so infinitely tiny
    2. Who are you making games for? other people
    3. Who will be your play testers outside of class? Probably my family or the friends/classmates I see most of the time
  • Question Set 2
    1. Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules? Yes, Uno is the first game I would think of, it pretty much is born into me I’ve played it so much, I have no memory of ever reading or being explained the rules
    2. How do you define what a game is? Something fun that has no real purpose in life other than to entertain really and make you problem solve and learn new ways to do stuff
    3. What features can make your games more intuitive? Make the theme relatable and not super niche, don’t make the player have to do a lot on each turn so it’s not too confusing
  • Question Set 3
    1. What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming? I’d Solitaire was my first game I remember seeing or perhaps Old Maid, but I think there are several categories to games and each one would have a gateway game (like card games versus board games versus videogames); I usually would play Uno with someone or Dirty Bridge, for videogames, I think Minecraft is a great gateway videogame
    2. What features do gateway games share? Easy gameplay, engaging and simple
    3. What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own? Well in our text they are 10 different games and the “beautiful ways” in which they make the games not feel like mechanics but as simply an experience. I’m not gonna type them all out cuz they sound weird and cuz they’re on pages 56-60 – but the way we should aim for our mechanics is to strive higher than these mechanics and make it even smoother.
  • How does luck and strategy factor in to game play? Depends on the game but both are quite involved in all gameplay
Posted on

Extra Game Response – Yuker

Yuker is a card game in which four players in two teams work together to score 10 points by winning at least 3 sets of a round using trump cards and just cards over 9.

Was it fun? Very much so

What were the player interactions? The players have to strategize and guess what the other players have in their hand so they can try to win a set.

How long did it take to learn? At least a round or so to get down the rhythm and then a lttle longer to understand the strategy fully

What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? When people do dumb moves that mess up you taking the hand is frustrating

What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I like guessing games and it’s satisfying when your strategy works out

Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? Not really, it’s a well thought out game that didn’t feel lacking

If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? The way scoring is done is kinda of silly even though i don’t mind it but you could simply just write down the number of score

Is this a game you would play again? Yes, because I like card games and this is an intriguing fun team game where the point is to win (I also had a good partner so we won)

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure. 1- the beginning where you deal and reveal the trump card 2 – playing 5 rounds (you have 5 cards in your hands) 3 – putting down the score and reshuffling the deck to start at 1 again

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game? Collaborative because you are on teams and have to work together to win a round and try not to subvert your partners strategy and competitive cuz it is a definite winner at the end

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? There’s not really a metaphor for this game since it’s regular cards, but I like the mechanics of guessing and strategy for trying to win a hand with the highest card value.

Posted on

5 Card Game Ideas – 9/11/25

  1. Story sort of card game where different card piles dictate what you do in your game life and you pick them up in turns and can change your story per the rules

2. A card game revolving around colors, no idea what it’d be but that would be cool

3. some sort of memory game, not quite like a matching game but you have a hand of some sort and can mess up other peoples strategy or something like that

4. (I will admit my brain was not functioning since wednesday so chatgpt did help me jog my creative juices for this) the cards become the game board in a sense, changing the cards can determine what people have to do each turn

5. Like Racko but instead of numbers you are trying to fulfill some card set by the whatever picture/theme of the game (which would yet to be decided)

Posted on

Game Response Questions – Argument

Was it fun? I think it would have been given more time and a little more brain space

What were the player interactions? Well, they mostly consisted of me helping the other players or else we probably could have played the game in silence

How long did it take to learn? Not too long, although you had to remind yourself of the rules during the game quite a bit

What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? How close the pieces looked to each other so scrutinizing every move to make sure you could do it

What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? It was a cool concept

Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? not really, it sort of just worked well

If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything

from the experience, what would it be? Perhaps make it easier to see the game board and differentiate the other teams pieces from yours

Is this a game you would play again? Maybe, I’d give it a shot with people who know how to play chess to cuz then strategy would come into play and be fun

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure. Well there’s the setup, the gameplay, and racking up pieces at the end (even though we didn’t get to the end)

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game? I wanted to play it competitively the whole time but we were supposed to work together to get all the pieces off the board, and if we fail we all lose.

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? There wasn’t really a metaphor (other than on off shoot of chess). The different move and the fact that they were illustrated on the back of the pieces was cool

Posted on

Game Response Questions – Hanabi

Was it fun? Yes

What were the player interactions? We couldn’t see our cards but had to tell the other players what was in their hands

How long did it take to learn? A little while but not too long

What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? Trying to figure out how to tell the other players what they have without giving too much away or not being able to remind the other players what was already told to them

What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? It was like a card game but with fun graphics so I enjoyed it (and I like cards so that was good)

Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? be able to use the wild cards as just wilds when we played the second round

If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Being able to use the wilds differently

Is this a game you would play again? Yes I would, Why, because it was fun and engaging

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure: Honestly it was less of a 3 act game in my opinion, it felt like one continuous action for some reason

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game? Collaborative was the entire game really, we couldn’t win on our own and only won as a team and how well we all performed and got scored on that.

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? You are firework pyrotechnicians trying to save a firework show; I really like not being able to see your own hand, made it infinitely more interesting