Category: Game Design Studio 1

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Sara Estus – DiXit

“DiXit” Review and Three- Act Structure

Was it Fun?

While Dixit is pretty simple, I find that super charming about it! I enjoy that it’s about art and interpretation, but also about how well your friends can be about giving simple hints.

What was the interaction?

Amber read the rules and explained the game super well, we quickly played it and enjoyed it, all wanting to play again so it was a very positive experience compared to Fluxx

How long did it take to learn?

It took maybe 5 minutes to learn, including setting it up and shuffling the cards

Would you play again?

Absolutely, I really enjoyed how simple it was, but how complicated it could be with who was playing

Act 1-

Getting the ropes of the game and figuring out how to play. We were a little confused on the voting aspect, but quickly got the hang of it

Act 2-

Once we realized we could be as vague or easy as we wanted with the hint we all got really into it, almost neck and neck with the points.

Act 3-

The game felt like it kinda ended abruptly, but we all enjoyed the points system, the voting and the art! 30 points to win does not feel like a lot though!

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Sara Estus – Week 2 Questions

Question Set One:

  • If I made a game where the theme was around size, some mechanics I’d implement would be challenges through areas that normal-sized people could not go, such as adventuring through a mouse hole, or attempting to pass through a garden that feels like a jungle very ‘Honey I shrunk the kids’ – I know, but I think making it more of a journey like the “secret life of Arrietty would be fun”. Though these are usual and expected mechanics, more unexpected would be the implementation of being practically invisible and harmed by the elements easier.
  • I am making games for my friends and family. I enjoy the competition between people I know, but I also enjoy playing and picking on them without them thinking I mean harm. It’s so fun to tease and taunt!
  • Friends and Family.

Question Set Two:

  • I feel like games that are often made in a series like Animal Crossing are ones I have never really referred to the rules for, I have played all the games since the first one was made, and the mechanics have only improved, but are always common sense, so I would often skip the tutorials and figure it out. In physical games, I would say as a child it was the game memory, cause, duh.
  • How I define a game is by its ability to captivate a player or audience for some time, to convey a message or a task to the player(s).
  • I think the feature that would make my games more intuitive would be to make my games look more attractive and pleasing to look at. I have not had a lot of time to create art for my games, hopefully, I will be able to.

Question Set Three:

  • My gateway game was Animal Crossing on the GameCube (2001). I grew up always watching my older sister play video games, and one day I grew tired of being player 2, so Animal Crossing allowed me to be player 1 with no questions asked.
  • Gateway games are games that are easy to get into without any hassle of needing extra time and preparation to become skilled at the game. They are games that can be played and learned quickly and can be enjoyed regardless of the pace the player chooses to play in.

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Sara Estus- “Bang!”

“Bang!” Review and Three-Act Structure:

Was it Fun?

 I believe Bang was a fun game once we got into it, though I was a little sad once we started to kill players off as they did not have a way to continue into the fun. I enjoyed the process of the game and how it was played. I can’t say in my experience I’ve played a game common to it.

What was the interaction?

It was a very “Who is the imposter kinda game, but we knew who the main sheriff was, but were dealing with the mechanics of the game within a smaller group. We would go up against each other blindly and that was an enjoyable feature.

How long did it take to learn?

Though we had Professor Ames carry us through the first round, we picked it up pretty fast. The rule book was super descriptive, and having a key helped everything make sense.

Would you play again?

Absolutely, I think playing all games again after their initial play makes the game even more fun, so I would 100% play again!

Act 1-

Our roles were laid out from the start, and learning how to use the other cards was our biggest task at this point. We had a lot of questions but we began to make moves with our cards that progressed the game.

Act 2-

Once we got comfortable and knew what to do, we started to strategically attack each other and decide who was good and bad. This is where things started to get into the cooler cards and we made choices on losing lives and saving lives.

Act 3-

This part was carried by Amber and Reese after I was killed off, when they decided to go back and forth with shooting each other, Amber won!

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Sara Estus – Week 2 Game Ideas

5 Ideas for games that can be played using cards:

  • “Greater Purpose”

Each player has a card that has an item on it that has a common purpose. When each player (3-5) receives their card, they will not see it themselves, but all the other players will. One at a time, each player will try to explain to other players what their card is in front of them, without simplifying its purpose. An example: a butterfly, can be simply described as a flying creature, or you can say, it’s summer’s pollinator (See we can mistake it for a bee, but that’s the butterfly’s greater purpose)

  • “Absolutely Not!”

(I don’t know how gambling games work, so leave me alone!) In this game, each player wants to attempt to get the amount of 21 in their hands, but the catch is that other players can go and either steal or give the other player a card. If the player they want to steal from doesn’t want to risk going too high or too low, they say, “Absolutely not” and then the player sitting next to them is now the one getting stolen from or they will receive a card.

  • “Cards Against Humanity, but we let people who aren’t in the game play!”

Nothing is more fun, and possibly embarrassing than being caught with a raunchy card while playing cards against humanity by the unsuspecting person, so why not play the game, then when it’s your turn, you must run out into the hall and ask the first person you see to pick your card. *Bonus points if they think it’s funny or look at you like you’re an awful person.

  • “Dixit, but it’s reskinned with our art”

We would either try to be so nice to each other, and go “oooh” or “ah” when seeing each other’s art, like seeing the cool stuff Reese comes with, or snicker and snide like the comments between Evan and Gideon when they argue about each other’s talents and who sucks more (you’re both great shut up) and we’d forget how to play the game, but in the end, it would be so fun to single handily describe each other’s art with single words

  • “Bang!” but it is media arts-themed and it’s called “Collab!”

The characters are the professors from the media arts department, each having their taught skills, such as, Professor Ames’ talent is in game design, so when you play as his character, you can receive a bonus when you pick up a “collaboration card”, allowing you to collaborate with more than 1 player. (The collab card replaced the “Bang!” card because we don’t want our professors committing in mass murder of their colleagues) The goal of the game is to take out the player who is playing as “Finals week” because nothing hurts the artsy creators collaborative spark more than grading final exams!

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Week 2 Game Ideas – Card Games

Amber Holt

  1. Fixer Upper – To start the game, players are dealt one house card that is to be flipped and sold. Each house card has unique requirements to fix the house to be sold. Players are also dealt X number of cards that have either resources or the required item to be fixed on them. I think that the game could either be played where you collected resources to ultimately trade for the desired requirement card or you just obtain requirement cards through drawing cards or action cards. A die would determine the course of action of a player’s turn, with symbols that represent different moves that can be made on that turn (This feature is inspired by the Bob Ross Art of Chill Game). There may be some actions that players can take every turn, such as drawing or playing one card, in addition to the action rolled on the die. Action cards would spice up the game a little bit and throw out little twists that could include actions that are already on the die or swapping hands with another player. Players can work on up to 3 houses at once, but start off at 1 at the beginning of the game. Players are not allowed to have more than one house at once until their first house is completed and resold. A new house card can be drawn randomly from the house deck of cards if designated on the die or on an action card.
    • Whoever sells X number of houses first wins OR whoever reaches X amount of money profited first wins (think having a game piece that moves along a spectrum of numbers, increments of 10,000, similar to the points mechanism in DiXit and Bob Ross Art of Chill Game)
  2. Art Collectors (Billionaires Purchasing Art) – 
    • Art masterpiece cards (that don’t resemble other pieces of art to avoid copyright issues): Below the painting on each card is the art description plaque that lists relevant details such as how much the art is worth, it’s period or movement (Renaissance, contemporary, etc.), the year/years the artwork was created, and maybe a little made up artist name for funsies
    • Players bid on pieces of art by laying face-down a combination of up to 3 Asset cards (cards that represent wealth but are just random objects that a rich person might own like Yacht or Personal Jet). Each Asset Card has a number of points that correlate to the value of the object (not the same as money). If all other players do not choose to bid (after the first player who is bidding has already laid down their bid), the bidder automatically claims the art masterpiece card and all of the Asset cards are discarded. If another player bids on the same art card, the player with the highest bid wins (the total number of points when adding all cards layed down). In the event of a tie, the auction closes, and that art card is discarded. 
    • Collection objective cards are how a player scores points in the game. These will say something like “collect one artwork from the Baroque period) or “collect one artwork that has a value of $X”. Depending on how difficult the collection objective card is, points earned from completing collection objective cards will vary. 
    • Like my Fixer Upper Idea, and the currently existing games DiXit and Bob Ross Art of Chill, players would have a token that represents them that moves along a spectrum of points, with whoever reaching the end of the spectrum winning. 
  3. The End of the World Game – solution cards and catastrophic event cards. (I wrote this down the other day and I need to think more about how this would play) 
  4. Language Go Fish – same mechanics to go fish, but instead of grouping cards with the same number, you have to group cards with the same theme. This could be in a different language to help people learn a new language, or it could be in English with more difficult themes to decode (like NYT Games’ Connections). In the more difficult case, I think there would need to be a guide of sorts of possible group combinations, but I don’t know how that would work in actuality. 
  5. Bug/Plant Garden Game – You want to collect bug and plant cards to develop a healthy garden ecosystem. The bug and plant cards could potentially have different rarities that correspond to points. You would have to plant a plant card into your garden as a turn, but bugs would automatically enter your garden. Some bugs can have beneficial effects and others can infest your garden and mess everything up. I think it would be fun for there to be an opportunity where players can share plants with each other or even plant bugs in others gardens to mess them up. I see this game having action cards or an action die that makes players do certain things on each turn. The goal of the game could be determined by garden objective cards that make each objective unique each game, such as collecting this plant, this plant, and this bug. 
  6. Card/Word Game – Included is an (almost) standard deck of cards. However the name of the value of the card is spelled out on it to represent what letters can be used to create words. The value of the card is also equal to the points that can be obtained when using the letters. Formed words are written down and the points are tallied for that specific word and any unused letters from the card don’t get to be used and the card is discarded. I’m still working on the end goal/objective for this. (I think I just came up with an overcomplicated version of Scrabble by accident) 
  7. No One Wants to do the Dirty Dishes – Players must make food throughout the game using different food items, dishes, and utensils and their goal is to make the most food items (or get the highest score). The problem is that the dirty dish pile can get to be quite large. It acts as a discard pile when the food dishes are made but plates must inevitably be cleaned so that they can be used to make food again. The dirty dish pile penalizes players who wash the dishes and they can’t make food during that time but if the dishes aren’t done no one can get points and make food. There are consequences when the dishes aren’t done. 
  8. Matchmaker Card Game – Inspired by random match maker flash games on girly websites from my childhood and Tomodachi Life’s silly matchmaking. There are cards of different partners or characters and they all have different interests and characteristics. To be considered a match, interests must line up to another card meeting the condition card currently on the table. A condition card could say something like people interested in tennis and heavy metal can’t form a relationship at this time, but they must match with being cat lovers. The goal of the game is to be the first person with 7 matches made. This game would involve having a hand of character cards, drawing, and discarding like most other card games. 

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Week 2: Question Sets 1-3

Amber Holt

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? I think a searching type of game, like Spot It would be interesting. Players would have to use super microscopes to search around for the little objects. Even better—it would be cool to have similar mechanics to Hasbro’s Pictureka, where you roll a die or draw a card to see what your finding things challenge is. For instance, some of the challenges are to be the first player to find a certain object or you have to bet against other players about how many of one particular object you can find in a given amount of time. Of course, this would be even more challenging working with microscopes. 
  2. Who are you making games for? Myself and other people who want to enjoy them. People who like to play the same types of games that I like to play. To me, as long as I am happy with the game I guess it doesn’t really matter to me who I am making the games for. However, I would love to make games for people who enjoy casual games that they can really get immersed in. 
  3. Who will be your play testers outside of class? My mom and my brother, my boyfriend, some media arts friends, my high school friends, and if I can convince them to play, my boyfriend’s roommates and friends. Overall, I want to try to get a variety of people to test out my game. 

Question Set 2:

  1. Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules? Most games I tend to thoroughly read the rules beforehand and refer to the rules probably more often than I really need to. Some games are definitely easier to pick up on than others, especially when the game board is intuitive and has mechanics familiar to other games. My family owns this school trivia game where you move along a game board answering random trivia questions from a pile of cards and if you get the question right, you move the number of spaces as the difficulty level you answer. Because this game is fairly simplistic and similar to the mechanics of a lot of other board games where you roll a die, complete an action of a card and advance, the first time I played it I didn’t really need to refer to the rules at all. The gameboard has a clearly defined start and end so that makes it even more intuitive.  
  2. How do you define what a game is? A game has to have rules, it doesn’t need physical objects but can definitely have them, and players have to make choices (whether simple or more complicated). The book says that “A game is an interactive mathematical system, made concrete, used to tell a story” (p. 43). This really just means that a game is a balance of mechanics and rules, pieces and graphics, and a theme. I agree with this definition of a game as well because every sort of game can fit into this, but they may all have different balances. Some games rely more heavily on themes than others and some are almost purely based on mechanics. 
  3. What features can make your games more intuitive? Because humans are built to see things in groups, color can make games more intuitive. Cards with the same color or design are seen as belonging together. Certain colors can also signify certain things, like red is bad and green is good. The book also suggests that form can make games more intuitive so you should be clear how something works by the way it is designed. For instance, in The Game of Life if you land on a space with 1 blue baby you get 1 baby boy or if you land on one with 2 pink babies you get 2 baby girls. Deliberately making choices about size and integration is also recommended by the book. The game board also can include reminders about what you are supposed to do when you reach a certain space, for instance, and you can include reference cards for playing, like in Bang. Overall, everything has to make sense from any angle that the players might look at it from and you have to think about what generalizations people make about certain things before they even begin to look at the rules. 

Question Set 3:

  1. What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming? The Settlers of Catan was probably my gateway game. It was definitely one of the first games that I played that differed in mechanics than those standard games that everyone has played, but it was still reasonably challenging and easy to learn. I feel like a lot of the games that I enjoy playing are fairly simplistic and largely popular both in terms of board games and video games, so it’s kind of difficult to think of a gateway game that I would play to introduce others to gaming. Like it was for me, I think Settlers of Catan could be a good one for a lot of people because it’s easy to understand but it’s definitely different than those Sorry!-Scrabble-Monopoly-Uno category games that the book mentions. Thinking of more of a party game that I think could be a gateway game for others is Your Worst Nightmare, where players have to rank 4 randomly drawn fear cards based on how scared they are of it and then guess how other players ranked those fears as well. I’ve introduced this game to quite a few people and I think it’s a good get-to-know-each-other type of game. 
  2. What features do gateway games share? Gateway games should be easy to learn, have a theme that can appeal to a massive audience, shouldn’t be too complex but still have a little more complexity, interactive with other players, have a luck factor, last between 45 to 90 minutes, be original, and should be replayable. 
  3. What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own? The 10 beautiful mechanics are mechanics that are so good that really draw players into the game, and they are the standard for which you should aim to be above. They include Kingmaker’s noblesse oblige, BattleTech’s heat, Set’s set-making, Magic’s card tapping, Battle Cattle’s cow tipping rule, xXxenophile’s popping, Bohnanza’s hand order rule, Mississippi Queen’s paddlewheels, Time’s Up!’s communication breakdown, and Dominion’s constant shuffling. 
  4. How does luck and strategy factor into game play? Luck is something that is beyond your control and it can be good or bad. Strategy is “the act of making plans and decisions during the game, given limited information”. Luck can give anyone the opportunity to win or lose, but purely luck based isn’t always fun. Strategy makes players feel like they have some sort of control over the outcome of the game and it is all about making choices that you think will be beneficial to your situation. Making decisions is part of what makes games fun. However, both luck and strategy are important to gameplay. 
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Bang! Review

Amber Holt | Week 2

3 Act Structure: 

  1. Act 1 – This was when roles and characters were being assigned and Ames was still guiding us through the game. We were just starting to get familiar with what the different cards meant and how you could or couldn’t retaliate to them. The attacks on other players weren’t really that targeted yet; everyone was attacking everyone to really get a feel for the game still. The time spent in Act 1 of Bang was significantly longer than DiXit, but still wasn’t the biggest portion of the gameplay. 
  2. Act 2– This was when things started to heat up a little bit in the game. People were starting to figure out who may be who (besides the sheriff of course) and some people started to get close to death or even died. It still wasn’t entirely clear who had what role yet, and who may win the game. Especially since you can recover quickly with the beer cards, when someone got shot, it wasn’t necessarily an indicator that they would lose the game. 
  3. Act 3 – Act 3 began when most of the players were totally eliminated and it was clear that there was only one or 2 possibilities that the game would end. For our game, it was either the remaining outlaw would kill the sheriff or vice versa. The act 3 for Bang is pretty distinct since you know that the end of the game could happen at any minute, but I don’t think it will be clear most of the time who will win. I think that the time spent in this act could significantly vary. For us, it was fairly long, but that was based on luck and the cards that were drawn every turn.

Bonus:

  1. Was it fun? Bang was really fun. I loved the player interaction that the game had and how everyone had a different role and character to assume. It sort of reminded me of the roles that were added to Among Us as well as party games I’ve played in middle school. I thought that the dynamite card was so much fun too, just the fact that you could get blown up at any point in time was fun. 
  2. What was the interaction with the other players? There was a lot of interaction with other players with this game. Any player could shoot the other players, if they were in range of course and the target player could either block that or they would lose a life. Players also had to try to secretly figure out who was in what role, trying to figure out who was on their side and who wasn’t. A lot of the cards directly force you to interact with other players, such as stealing one of their cards, shooting them, or dueling them. 
  3. How long did it take to learn? The basic rules of the game didn’t take very long to learn, especially because it is similar to other games that I have played that involve roles. The hardest thing to catch onto was what the different cards meant, but it wasn’t a big deal because of the rule book and the reference cards. There were a bunch of weird little quirks that were also hard to catch onto at first, with some cards granting special abilities that players would keep forgetting about. 
  4. Would you play again? I would definitely play this again and I think I might even buy myself a copy of the game because I enjoyed it that much. I think what makes it so replayable is the fact that you won’t have the same role or character everytime you play. 

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DiXit Review

Amber Holt | Week 2

3 Act Structure

  1. Act 1 – This was when we were first getting familiar with the game. It took a few turns to really understand what types of clues were the most beneficial to give and earn points, since the point system is set up kind of strangely. Once everyone had been the active player one time is when I think the game transitioned into act 2 because everyone started to know what they were doing and how to strategize. 
  2. Act 2 – This is when it sort of started to get a little competitive (as competitive as this game can even get). People were starting to think of really good clues for their cards and they were excited to get to their turn to share them. The majority of the gameplay was spent in this act. 
  3. Act 3 – This was when we started to realize who was going to win the game. Whoever was closest to the end of the points scale at the time, it was inevitable that they would win because most players earned points every round. It was very evident at this point that Reese and I were very behind and would not win (we were extremely far back). 

Bonus

  1. Was it fun? DiXit was fun. I thought it was a really unique game and I could see myself really getting into it with a funny group of friends. 
  2. What was the interaction with the other players? The interaction with the other players involved collecting their cards and all agreeing to select a card that best matched the action player’s clue. 
  3. How long did it take to learn? It didn’t take very long to learn at all. The directions were really clear and easy to understand. 
  4. Would you play again? I would play DiXit again. Like I said, it’s a pretty unique game as opposed to other games that I have played so I think it would be nice to play every once in a while, but I wouldn’t say that it’s a game that I would want to play all the time. 

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Week 2 Questions

Questions Set 1:

What Mechanics would you like to use for a game with a theme that revolves around being the size of an nanometer? I would like to use some form of mechanics that would allow you to tour each others minds.

Who are you making games for? As of right now, I have not decided what my target audience would be.

Who will be your play testers outside of class? A combination of co-workers, family, friends, and maybe some of the local rink rats.

Questions Set 2:

Can you think of a game that you were able to play without referring to the rules? Basic card games, LCR, and Mini hoops.

How do you define what a game is? A game is anthing that has an objective to solve or get to or an activity to do..

What features can make your game more intuitive? Adding a competive aspect among players, and by having more than one possible outcome.

Questions Set 3:

What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming? My gateway game was either monopoly or candy land.

What features do gateway games share? Gateway games are low mantience games, they are often enjoyed by families and easy to learn.

What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own? Drawing cards, buy property, spending money, recieving money, paying rent, moving pieces, rolling dice, stacking hotels, brickering with opennts, and strategy. Including a few mechanics will draw more attraction to your game and keep your audience interested.

How does luck and game strategy factor into game play? Besides dice games and gambling strategy is a bigger factor than luck. You hold your own potential in each game based on what move you choose, Yes, sure you can get a card thrown your way that messes up your whole plan but at the end of the day you still have to stratgize how to get out of the situation.

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Munchkin Review

Was it fun? Yes, munckin was very fun once I started playing and understood what I was doing.

Is it interactive? Munckin is very interactive, it is all about sabatoging evryone else’s game whether you are stealing some else’s cards, levels or making their battle harder on them.

Was it easy to learn? Munchkin is easy to learn if you aren’t starting out with reading the instructions. There are so many pages of intructions to the point when we were half way through reading the instructions I couldn’t remember what the first page said. It is by far much better to start playing and follow the intructions on the cards. Then refer to the instructions if you need to.

Would you replay? I would defiently play this game again, just maybe not against certain people lol.

3 Act Structure

Act 1:

The game took a long time at first to get started because the instructions were very long and wonky. Once you start playing it is still hard to keep the game flowing because not only do you have to keep referring back to the intructions but you also have several cards that you cannot use in the beginning because there are other cards that need to go with it in order to be played.

Act 2:

We finally started to get a hang of the game and the rules started to make sense. We all started gaining levels and you can tell who was trying hard to win. The game started to get a little competitive at this point.

Act 3:

Everyone started to play their sabtoge cards against each other to try to steal each others levels to win the game which eventually caused a major dispute that lasted about 20 mintues. The game unfortunately resulted in a tie because it was never finished before class ended.

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Question Sets

    • 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?
    • I’d like to use mechanics where people have to work together for their goals at a small size,
      1. Who are you making games for?
    • Parties, fun group settings
      1. Who will be your play testers outside of class?
    • My family and a group of my friends
    • Question Set 2
      1. Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules?
    • Usually any video game, but a board game that comes to mind is Life
      1. How do you define what a game is?
    • A series of a story that is to be interacted with to continue on.
      1. What features can make your games more intuitive?
    • Easy to read, clear instructions right from the beginning
    • Question Set 3
      1. What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming?
    • I grew up around my older siblings who were crazy gamers, I can’t remember what my personal gateway game was, but I always remember playing Mario Party with my siblings on our Nintendo 64. For a card game I always love to introduce through Uno, great game to mess with new players.
      1. What features do gateway games share?
    • Easy to learn, a main theme, not much complexity, it should be interactive, luck, should be around 46-90 min. long, original, and have good replayability
      1. What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own?
  • KingMaker’S noblesse oblige, battle tech’s heat, Set’s set-making, Magic’s card tapping, battle cattle’s cow tipping rule(I really want to play this one ), XXXenophile’S s popping, Bohnanza’s hand order rule, Mississippi queens paddle wheels, times up communicating breakdown, Dominion’S constant shuffling. My game should aim for clearing all of these mechanics
    1. How does luck and strategy factor in to game play?
      They should factor into a game together, so it doesn’t leave the player bored and the game not replayable

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Bonanza (Three Act/Rating)

First Act: You are introduced to the beans and all the different types that you can plant and how much they cost! How many beans can you plant, and how much can you make?

Second Act: I think this can be shown through all the different trades you can do with the other players.

Third Act: Finally, you see after three “days” whoever harvested and made the most money from their bean, wins!

Did I enjoy it?
Yes I did! It was fun to see all the funny elaborate trades you can make with people. It gets you hooked fast after you figure it out. It’s a game that I will definitely replay one day. It was so much fun.

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Week 2 Lauren Yunk

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? If I was able to shrink down to the size of a nanometer, I would like to create a device to is able to go into the human body and find the organ/bone. This will be educational and allow people to learn where parts of the body are located. If you can’t find it within a certain amount of time, the next player gets to steal your turn and get double points for finding it.
  2. Who are you making games for? Hasbro because they made the board game “Operation”.
  3. Who will be your play testers outside of class? Someone who is familiar with using the computer and can easily grasp instructions for a new game.

Question Set 2

  1. Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules? Connect 4 because it is pretty self-explanatory. The directions are in the title of the game.
  2. How do you define what a game is? A game is an activity involving rules that may or may not have a definite winner and loser.
  3. What features can make your games more intuitive? Having a game that is easy to learn yet enjoyable once you get the hang of it. Something that makes you want to come back and play again.

Question Set 3

  1. What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming? My gateway game is 500. Im not sure if thats the right title, but its just Gin Rummy but you go til get 500 points. I think this game is pretty easy to grasp and I love to play it.
  2. What features to gateway games share? Simple instructions that can be understood by all ages.
  3. What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own? Noblesse Oblige, Heat, Set-Making, Card Tapping, Cow Tipping Rule, Popping, Hand Order Rule, Paddlewheels, Communication Breakdown, and Constant Shuffling. These should be implemented into a game to have a challenge and make it more interesting.
  4. How does luck and strategy factor into game play? Luck is something you cant control but helps along the way, while strategy is decision making throughout the game to benefit yourself by trying to win.

5 Game ideas that can be played using cards

  1. Manifoldtare – a game of solitare but you play with a group of people. you deal out the rest of the deck after placing the cards down and you compete to finish the game. Whoever finishes first wins.
  2. Lucky Loser – a game of crazy 8’s but you dont want to be the person who gets rid of all their cards first.
  3. Jokes on You – a game where you delt 7 cards and are trying to make a 7 card run but the joker card is involved. You trade with the other players to get the cards you need to make the run but whoever has the joker card has to find a way to trade off the joker without letting the other players know you have the joker. You cant win if you have the joker in your hand. If someone gets the run while you have the joker, you lose
  4. little war – you play war but the smallest card wins instead of the largest card

Bohnanza game review

  1. Was it fun? Yes! At first it was a little confusing but once we all got the hang of it we were all very involved and enjoyed playing.
  2. What was the interaction? You would trade with other players in order to get a better harvest.
  3. How long did it take to play? The game too aproxamently 30-45 minutes.
  4. Would you play again? Yes the game is very competitive and makes everyone get involved.
  5. Three Act Structure – Act 1 involves reading the rules and setting up the game by dealing out the cards and the field cards. You can also do a practice round to understand the rules. Act 2 is when you trade your cards and try to get better ones to make a better harvest. Act 3 is after the deck has been shuffled 3 times and you run out of cards the game ends. Whoever has the most coins from harvesting your beans is the winner.

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Munchkins 3 Acts

act 1: before the game started, it didn’t come with any pieces to keep score so we used an app. At first it took a long time to get the game started because there so many rules and mechanics. It took us 10 minutes to start playing. In the beginning some cards aren’t even playable so you waste a turn which slows the game down. We started flowing through it after 20 minutes.

Act 2 : we were double checking some rules but we started picking up the pace and it got more interesting. I could easily tell who was going to win around the middle of the game. Then people started to go after each other so then it became more unclear who would win towards the end.

Act 3 : once everyone was close to winning people started throwing their bad cards down and we couldn’t end the game before class ended. It was a good game once we got the hang of it.

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Week 2 Questions, Game Ideas, and Game Review

Alana Tush

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?
    • I guess some sort of biology game that has little trinkets of protiens, atoms, bacteria, etc.
  2. Who are you making games for?
    • I am making games for someone who is interested and curious about how the game works and who can make suggestions for how it can be better.
  3. Who will be your play testers outside of class?
    • My friends and boyfriend

Question Set 2

  1. Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules?
    • hide n seek, tag, red rover, four square
  2. How do you define what a game is?
    • Mechanics and rules, pieces and graphics, theme/ story
  3. What features can make your games more intuitive?
    • having a card game, for example uno, that has many different variations. I would assume mostly everyone in our generation knows how to play regular uno, but having a new variation is more exciting and fun, while still having the same premise.

Question Set 3

  1. What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming?
    • My gateway game was brick breaker on my moms blackberry phone 😉
  2. What features do gateway games share?
    • Gateway games share easy instructions that can be explained to young kids and still be fun for adults to play (family games).
  3. What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own?
    • Kingmakers noblesse oblige, battletech’s heat, set’s set-making, magic’s card tapping, battle cattle’s cow tipping rule, xxxenophile’s popping, bohnanza’s hand order rule, mississipppi queen’s paddle wheels, communication breakdown, constant shuffling. I would say to have 2 or more of these mechanics in a game to make it more interesting.
  4. How does luck and strategy factor in to game play?
    • luck is something beyond your control, it might help you or hurt you. Strategy is making plans and decisions during game play that might further your winning status.

Game Ideas thats can be played using cards

  1. War (card game) with different characters with an emotional status. The card would have a character with a “happy meter” on the side of them. The higher happiness of the two cards down wins.
  2. Uno with shapes and letters
  3. Cards with random items that can be found in a classroom. The first person who finds the item and brings it back to the table wins a point.
  4. Playing darts but you have to flip a card over and try to hit that number
  5. The card game spoons, but the items that need to be grabbed are in a different room. Everyone has to run and try to get there before all the items are taken, and you are out.

Bohnanza Review

  1. Was it fun? Yes, the game was very entertaining. When you got the right amount of cards to harvest and get coins, it was exciting. It was still exciting though to make trades and barter for better bean cards.
  2. Is it interactive? Yes, this game is very interactive. Everyone wants to see the cards you reveal to make a decision whether to offer you a better bean card or to opt out of trading.
  3. Was it easy to learn? This game was fairly easy to learn. Once we played through the deck of cards once, we were all understanding of the premise.
  4. Would you replay the game? Yes I would replay this game, our group actually played another round instead of starting a new game because it was fun.
  5. Applying the three act structure-
    • act 1- reading the rules to the game and setting up the mechanics (dealing 5 bean cards to each person, setting the field cards on the correct side). Playing a practice round to get used to the premise of the game.
    • act 2- the competition begins.. Trading the bean cards is where all the competition takes place. The people who need the certain bean cards offer something the active player needs to further their status in the game to win.
    • Act 3- At the end of the bean game, everyone is looking how many coins each player has, and tries to sabotage the other players by not trading with them. If you make the decision not to trade, that could mean they wouldn’t get anymore coins to potentially beat you in the game. Everyone harvests their beans to get the max amount of coins at the end of the round.