Author: mahst125

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Question Set 1: Madison Hurst

  1. Every successful game must keep players engaged throughout. If a game struggles to hold the player’s attention, it fails its primary purpose. Engagement means more than just hooking someone for a single play—it ensures they want to return repeatedly. For example, on page 5, part 1 in “The Kobold Guide to Game Design,” the difference between engaging and merely hooking is discussed. My favorite game, BLINK, exemplifies lasting engagement. It’s quick, replayable, and exciting, requiring few materials. I enjoyed playing BLINK at my golf course job while waiting for carts—its fast pace fit naturally into idle moments, and its replay value made it memorable.

When coming up with ideas, where do you find you start, with the metaphor or the mechanic? – I find myself on the mechanical side when coming up with ideas. I normally get inspired by something random I see and try to twist it into my own game or be the main attraction of the game. Once this idea or object is stuck in my head, I have to think about how to make a game around it. After I have figured out what I want from the idea, that’s when the skeleton of the game comes into play. 


The Kobold Guide to Game Design describes the three-act structure as beginning, middle, and end. The beginning of BLINK involves splitting the deck and explaining the rules: get rid of cards by matching colors and shapes. Conflict slowly rises as players become more competitive. The middle focuses on the struggle for victory when you try to keep up as the play speeds up. At the end, there’s a final push to victory as you race to place your last card, with the loser realizing the outcome. Pacing is quick once you understand the rules. The start is slower to find your rhythm, the middle becomes fast-paced, and the end requires precise actions as the game tightens. 


List the games you’ve played and currently play. – I have played Monopoly, Chutes and Ladders, Blink, UNO, War, Spoons, BS, Fluxx, The voting game, Life, Connect 4, Sorry, Rider, FIFA, Madden, Boggle, Hop Scotch, Tag, Shark and Minnows, Pig/Horse Basketball, Cross Bar Soccer, Tic Tac Toe, Cornhole, CanJam, BattleShip, Roblox, Among Us, Slither.io, Paper.io, Over the River soccer, Flying Changes Soccer, Go Fish, Kings in the Corner, Blitz, Would You Rather, Put a Finger Down, Minecraft, Blank Slates, and telestration.


Over the course of this semester, who would you like to collaborate with and why? – I would like to collaborate with Meredith because I think we would be able to come up with unique game ideas since we have different ways we go about finding an idea. But, when combined I think we could have an amazing game ideas and work well with each other.

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Play Test Question: Flux

Madison Hurst

  1. What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played?- The most frustrating part was the rules and layers of the game.
  2. What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played?- My favorite moment of the game was having the ability to change a rule. For example, we were able to change the number of cards you pulled from 1 to 5 then to 4.
  3. Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? – I really wanted to take another players card or swap easier with them. They had a card I could’ve used to win.
  4. If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? – I would remove some of the rules so they didn’t overlap and slow down the game. I would change the game by players/opponents having immediate impacts on other players rather than limiting their card choice or number.
  5. Is this a game you would play again? – No because I was felt that the directions and rules took way too long to understand. It made the game feel long, and by the time I partially learned it I was mentally disconnected from the game.

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Final Film: Stress of Perfection

Madison Hurst

Stress of PerfectionDownload

Following the guidelines:

The different ways my film was able to follow the guidelines was, first, through the way I was able to incorporate stop motions scenes throughout the film. On this film I was able to use up to 5 frames per second of stop motion. Secondly, this past semester we had learned about film and how there can be obstructions on the different ways of how to make a film. An example of this, is seen in my film, Stress of Perfection, through the theme of one’s difficult strive for perfection being portrayed by the usage of different and unique individual pieces of film.

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Lighting Experiment

Videos and Summary

Light Experiment

In this experiment, I decided to play around with how we see the light and the shadows it comes with. For my project, I created repetitive dripping sketches on a white background in Alight Motion and then used a projector with different lighting gels to see how that would affect the coloring of the drip sketches. Initially, this idea wasn’t my first option due to the inability to cut the lighting gels so I decided to alter the project by moving the gels around in front of the projector as the video of the dripping repeats. I thought it was interesting how some of the gels had a huge impact on the ambiance of the video effect while some had a massive effect on the color changing. My favorite part of the experiment was how I manipulated the gels around as the video continued. The constant lighting change with the drips moving down the white background allowed the audience to immerse themselves in the video. 

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Mad Dash

Kaley Rohanna and Madison Hurst

Mad Dash

By: Kaley Rohanna and Madison Hurst

Game Board Creation

What is Mad Dash: 

A two player game requiring players to roll dice in order to progress their piece across the board. The goal is to get to the opponent’s end and steal all their marbles.

Materials:

4 marbles (2 for each player), 2 marble holders, 2 dice (1 for each player), 9 Wild Cards, 1 Dice Number Key, 2 player pieces, 11×17 cardboard, 11×17 cardstock board design, 

Mad Dash Initial Testing:

  • Coming into the first game board testing, we created a board design (11×17) on Adobe illustrator
  • Kaley and I decided to go with each player having 3 marbles and a total of 10 spaces on the board. 
  • Mad Dash was intended for two people to play
  • The initial instructions for this game was:
  1. One player must call out a number,#1-6 on the dice that was given, that both players are trying to obtain first
  2. First one to get a selected number moves their piece up one space, and gets to call out the next number.
  3. Once one player reaches the opponent’s side should take one of their marbles 
  4. Both players will reset to their starting positions
  5. First person with all of the marbles wins
  • Our findings was the game was never ending, and many players struggled to get at least one marble.
  • The game always kept each player at neutral so, if one player stole a marble, a couple seconds later the opponent would equalize the playing field. 
  • Players were able to understand the game fairly quickly, but had a lot of questions come up regarding when they both landed on the same space. 
  • We let the players continue to play while still in the same space, and waited to see who rolled the selected number.
  • The players were really excited when they attained a marble or got the selected number before the opponent. 
  • Some frustrating aspects of the game was it being slow/long, and going back to zero or starting space.
  • Another question that was brought up was if the player that lost that round (didn’t get marble in time) had to also reset to starting positions as well. 
  • At the end of the board game testing, we had some key takeaways:
  1. Possibly having dice with red and green for each person, and making it a subtraction game. 
  2. Or if you got a selected number on red dice, you had to go back a specific amount of spaces). 
  • One suggestion from the player was to change to one die and subtract both players’ roll and winner move up spaces. They said to make the board longer and add more checkpoints. 

Mad Dash 2nd Testing: 

In this test, we added wildcards to handle the instances where the players’ pieces reached the same space and gave each player only one die to roll. 

Instructions for Testing 2:

Set up

Each player puts 3 marbles in their box

Choose piece to play as

Each player gets one marble

Goal

Make it to the opponent’s end to steal a marble

First one to steal 3 marbles wins

Instructions

  1. Each player constantly rolls their die, don’t worry about taking turns.
  2. The number rolled determines how many spaces you move either forward or backward.
  3. Once you reach the opponent’s end, take a marble and go back to your own end, at the starting position. Continue rolling as soon as you’re ready.
  4. Opponent does not go back to their starting position but continues where they are.

Rolling the Dice

If you roll a…

1 = +1 space

2 = +1 space

3 = +2 spaces

4 = +2 spaces

5 = -1 space

6 = -2 spaces

When pieces land on the same space…

You enter WAR with your opponent.

  1. You and your opponent roll the die once.
  2. The higher number gets to draw a card from the pile, and will determine your fate.
  3. Follow the rule on the card (Each card asks you to roll a certain number to win the war.)
  4. Once each player’s move is determined, return to previous play until a new war. 
  • Many people enjoyed the addition of the wild cards.
  • Landing on the same space and stealing a marble excited the players.
  • The pacing had improved.
  • It did take a few minutes to memorize what each dice roll meant, but it was not difficult to understand. 
  • Some frustrating aspects included not getting to move their piece forward and losing to the opponent.
  • Overall this test went well and players had fun. There were some changes and additions that led to major improvements in the gameplay.

What would we fix for the following testing: 

  • The 2nd testing went very smoothly, and there was minimal suggestions of bugs in the game
  • The only thing that Kaley and I believe that we should improve is the die key
  • The improved die key would be:
  1. #1= +3
  2. #2= +1
  3. #3= +2
  4. #4= +2
  5. #5= -1
  6. #6= 0 
  • Fortunately, we were able to make this minor adjustment while we were testing the second time around and found that this improved die key works better.
  • The prior key, didn’t allow for a player to win as quickly and slowed the game down
  • But, the newer key gives players a chance to steal the marbles at a fast pace which creates a sense of urgency. This part helps truly engage the users.