Category: Game Design Studio 2

1. Afterlife: a game that simulates your character’s life and faith, and after you die, depending on your decisions and perhaps your faith, you get a screen that simply remains up forever until closed by force. This simply displays the afterlife.
2. And then: A game where people take turns telling a story that makes sense for as long as they can, but may only add one sentence at a time, and every sentence after the first must begin with, “and then.”
3. A game inspired by the infamous, “the game” which I have now lost, and so have you, but focused on a specific topic or item. When someone thinks of the forbidden noun, they must declare they have thought of the forbidden noun, and then announce a new noun. Then, the game begins again.
4. A game where you continue to build a tower. Each level costs more money, which you can make by furnishing and renting the lower levels of your tower.
5. And yet it burns, a game where the only objective is to remember that the piece of paper I lit during a doodle war 15 years ago continues to burn, putting pressure on Taylor’s character to make his move. Every now and again, simply remember and state that, it does indeed, yet burn.

What’s going on guys. Just a brief overview on the podcast linked to this post. Through it, although not too long of a listen, I give a background and comparison between three artists: Natalie Bookchin, Wafaa Bilal, and Rafael Farjardo. Hope you enjoy!

After the final day of class, there are still things I hope to improve, or wanted to do that I didn’t get around to doing. My initial idea for a ruleset was to provide the players with a better experience via a video version of the game being played. They would open the card game box, and on the inside of the box would be a QR-code that they could scan and watch a video on the rules of BrainyAct, rather than reading through a bunch of boring words. Also, the final version of the cards came out pretty well, but two things I wanted to change. One was the finish on the cards, or the physical feel of them. I wanted them to be heavier, and almost metallic which I can still do. And second, I wanted to take the feedback from my testers and expand on the design of the card on the front of the card where the question is. I think I can still work on this; I can definitely see this game being played by people around the world.

Today marked the final class. Although not much to talk about, I did end up making minor changes to BrainyAct to provide for a better experience. I ended up printing a graphic for the rule set with the brain pattern on the back of the card onto a full sheet of paper for the ruleset. I went into photoshop and put the ruleset on top of a lowered opacity brain pattern to provide with easier legibility. Overall, I think the feedback was great, and plan on revising and improving the game still.

Though I couldn’t be in class to play these games, I did do some research and played them on my own. I like the idea that these games exist as both a form of entertainment and also as a way to educate people on important topics. For example, Fake it to Make It and Cast your vote both create an entertaining game experience by teaching players why it is important to recognize fake news, as well as the importance of voting. Providing players with an educational experience that is fun will greatly increase their likelihood of taking action later, like actually voting and actually monitoring the information they are being given by the media.

Dumb ways to Die takes a more entertainment-based approach by cartoonizing death and other serious injury as a form of PSA against taking part in those activities. I don’t know if I would personally call Dumb Ways to Die educational, but it’s not not educational, I guess. Overall, This lineup of games is a fun contrast to purely entertainment-focused games and can provide a real transformative and fun educational experience that likely makes people way more excited to learn about otherwise incredibly boring topics.

PLAYTEST 4

Play test 4 went really well, and we even got to see what a speed-learning play through of the game would look like since Anne Marie had to leave for a meeting. Even though she was asking a bunch of questions, it was easy to answer them as they came up, so the game is quite teachable but does require some extra assistance from the rules so the player can see the rules about spawn distances, arrest distances, and moving distances.

Some of the notes taken from this playthrough

• Setup went well, clear instructions there.
• Add note into rules: vegetation tiles can be placed in the animal spawn

Then we had some issues with an end of game stalemate that needed to be fixed, so we implemented a “toss” mechanic that could be used to break the stalemate created by both teams using all of their abilities. The tossing mechanic allows for a player to toss their opponent away when the attacking player has both of their team tiles within a 1-tile radius of their opponent. The attacker can then toss their opponent 5 tiles in any direction, either up, down, left, or right.

PLAYTEST 5

Play test 5 occurred outside of class. This was the best play test to date with the addition of the new tossing mechanic. Tossing an opponent really makes things fun and actually has you looking forward to the end-game where players are fighting over the last animal. It’s also really fun to see how the game changes based on each player’s choice of where to put their vegetation tiles. I think someone smarter than me should play the game and tell me how to place my tiles so I can win every time, lol.

Summary – Playtest 5 is where I will leave the game for the final. I’ll update some rules, reprint and go from there. Also the experience of the new rule design matching the board and other pieces makes getting into the game way batter. Much more immersion.

“Podcast” of thoughts on their designs

The second podcast done by Shane and Clay.

1. What did you think of the colors/aesthetic? would you change anything? were the colors fitting of the question type? yes, the colors were fitting for each category
2. Would you be open to experiencing a video as a ruleset instead of a written, lengthy ruleset? Why or why not? yes, it would be fun and more interesting than any other game
3. Was the 2 minute sand timer enough time? If not, what do you think it should be instead? Yes, it was a good time.
4. Did you enjoy the red bolt category (actions)? Do you have any recommendations for actions to add or ones to adjust? Why? Yes, I loved the tic-tac-toe because it was a strategy game and was cool playing against the clock
5. Would you recommend this to a friend? Would you play the finished version/play again? Yes

1. What did you think of the colors/aesthetic? would you change anything? were the colors fitting of the question type? I really like the backs of the cards – maybe stylize the fronts a little.
2. Would you be open to experiencing a video as a ruleset instead of a written, lengthy ruleset? Why or why not? Absolutely, I think it’s good to still have written rules but a video would help.
3. Was the 2 minute sand timer enough time? If not, what do you think it should be instead? It was the perfect time.
4. Did you enjoy the red bolt category (actions)? Do you have any recommendations for actions to add or ones to adjust? Why? I really liked them, but make sure people know they’ll need paper and a pen.
5. Would you recommend this to a friend? Would you play the finished version/play again? Absolutely