Today was productive as usual. I decided to test again, which I will discuss in an additional post, and made some improvements to the overall experience that comes with playing BrainyAct. I started by reviewing the last test and the first prototype of cards I used. My first version was very make-shift, using two pieces of paper and simply stapling them together to get something testable together. Today, since I wanted to revise, improve, and ultimately test a more clean looking game, I decided to type up the questions and answers directly onto the cards in Photoshop and print them to make them more legible and professional looking. Also, I printed onto the back the brain pattern so that they are slimmer and easier to shuffle rather than stapling, gluing, or attaching the two pieces of paper. I think this provided for better gameplay as well.
Resolving Conflicts in Educational Game Design Through Playtesting
“The first was the scientist’s expectation that extinct creatures from Earth’s past would be so intrinsically interesting that the players would be motivated to read and explore as much as possible.” That was probably one of my favorite quotes of the article. Who would have thought people would be unmotivated to read in a game? (probably game designers)
I found the whole article informative and fascinating. I think it would be fun to work as part of a team like that to build educational games. Making education fun isn’t hard, it’s just hard work. I find sometimes when I’m working on a game concept it’s hard to parse ideas down to make a narrative and good game mechanics. I end up doing a lot of (necessary) research in order to make sure I know what I’m talking about.
Collaboration is so important, and it makes games good. I’m not surprised that a group of different experts butt heads, and I think it’s awesome that it also lead to an amazing game.
Pollinator 2.0
Objective
As a worker bee your objective is to collect as much pollen as you can for the queen bee to then turn into honey for your hive. Make the most honey as a bee, and you win the game!
Set Up
Place the board within easy reach of all players. Shuffle and place the objective cards in a pile next to the board.
Each player gets all of their honeycomb tiles according to the color of their bee, and keeps them next to the board. They won’t be used until you make honey.
Each player is then dealt 3 Objective cards, but keeps 2. Those will dictate how much pollen you need to collect to make honey.
Place bees on either black half hexagon on the hive. Players may start on whichever side of the board they choose.
To Begin
The player who is most allergic to bees goes first. Play then continues clockwise around the board.
On your turn you may do one of the following:
- Flying: If a player decides to fly in any direction they must first roll the weather dice. The weather affects your flight as a bee. Then roll the d12 to determine how many spaces you can move. You must move the entirety of your dice roll, and you can not return to the same flower your bee left from. You may move backward and forward (as well as use shortcuts) so long as the rolled number is reached.
You must reach a flower by exact dice roll count in order to collect the pollen.
- Make Honey: Once your bee has collected enough pollen to fulfill your Objective card you must travel back to the hive to convert your pollen to honey. After arrival at the hive by exact dice roll count (either black hexagon will do) a player must show their objective card fulfilled to the other players, and place their honeycomb in the hive.
Only one objective card may be converted to honey at a time. If a player has fulfilled 2 objective cards, then they must spend their next turn making honey without moving. Discard all pollen.
- Draw New Objective Cards: On your turn you may also draw 3 more objective cards, but you may only keep 2. The others should be put in the discard pile. A player may have 5 objectives at a time.
Keep in mind some objective cards may be better than others.
Bee Bumping
If another bee lands on the same flower as you, then you must combine all the pollen both players have collected and split it evenly (rounding down). Bees are very good neighbors and helpers!
Weather Dice
– Sunny Day: Perfect flying weather, move your normal dice roll
– Windy Day: Flying is a little rough, move your normal dice roll and then backward one space
– Rainy Day: Flying is making your wings damp and slow, move half your dice roll
Pollen Max Out
A single bee can only carry 35% of its body weight in pollen. Therefore, a player can only carry 2 objective cards worth of pollen before returning to the hive to exchange it for honey.
Ending the Game
The game ends when the hive is completely filled with honey! The player with the most honey made wins the game.
Pollinator V1 – Game Maker Notes
What questions did your players have?
Are all the flowers the same pollen? Can I make honey when I arrive at the hive? Can I collect pollen when I land on a flower or do I need to wait for my next turn? Did you know that flowers produce all different kinds of honey depending on their pollen? Do the honeycomb in the hive count as spaces?
How quickly did they learn?
Fairly quickly, Pollinator is not meant to be very complicated.
What kinds of interactions did the players have?
Generally lots of discussion revolving around left over pollen, bee dancing, movement, and pollen sharing from the bee bumping (needs fine tuned).
What confused the players?
Leftover pollen, how much pollen they could actually carry because of the mismatch of objectives with collected pollen. What was allowed to be part of turn actions. The usual.
What made the players excited?
The idea of needing to complete the movement of your dice roll instead of having it cut off because you get to a flower.
What did your players enjoy doing?
The players enjoyed breaking my game to the best of their abilities and did a fine job. Players enjoyed the general theme and objective of the game.
Did any aspects of the game frustrate players?
That all the pollen was different, and there was so much left over. There were some unanswered questions that needed addressed in the rule book. Ames didn’t like that he couldn’t double stack honey or get bonus points for having a bunch of leftover pollen when arriving back at the hive. Not having more than one entrance and exit to the hive was frustrating for players.
Thoughts on Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
I wasn’t in class the day that we played Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes but I have over 15 hours on it from the past few years playing it with my friends at school.
I really like the idea of the game being 2-players but not within the actual game. Having 2 specific roles, one of the defuser, and one as the instructor adds a fun dynamic and not knowing what the other person is seeing makes things really exciting.
I find myself always wanting to be the defuser for the earlier rounds because it’s easier, and then switching to the instructor because when it comes to the memory puzzles, I do a very poor job.
Pollinator
Objective
As a worker bee your objective is to collect as much pollen as you can for the queen bee to then turn into honey for your hive. Make the most honey as a bee, and you win the game!
Set Up
Place the board within easy reach of all players. Then keep each color of pollen balls in separate piles. Place the objective cards in a pile next to the board.
Each player gets all of their honeycomb tiles according to the color of their bee, and keeps them next to the board. They won’t be used until you make honey.
Each player is then dealt 3 Objective cards, but keeps 2. Those will dictate which flowers you visit as a bee.
Place all worker bees on the START circle right outside the hive.
To Begin
The player who is most allergic to bees goes first. Play then continues clockwise around the board.
On your turn you may do one of the following:
Begin Flying to a Flower: If a player decides to head for a flower they must first roll the weather dice. The weather affects your flight as a bee. Then roll the d10 to determine how many spaces you can move. *See weather effects*
Collect Pollen: If your bee is on a flower you may roll to collect pollen from the flower. The number on the dice determines how much pollen you gather from the flower.
Make Honey: Once your bee has collected enough pollen to fulfill your Objective card you must travel back to the hive (START) to convert your pollen to honey. Once on the START a player may show their objective card fulfilled to the other players, and place their honeycomb in the hive.
Draw New Objective Cards: On your turn you may also draw 3 more objective cards, but you may only keep 2. The others should be put in the discard pile. A player may only hold 3 objective cards at a time.
Each action is a turn. FOR EXAMPLE if you land on a flower when your bee moves, you must wait till your next turn to then collect pollen.
Bee Bumping
If another bee lands on the same flower as you, and you have collected pollen you must split the pollen equally between you. Bees are good neighbors, and often bump into each other to help share resources.
Pollen Max Out
A single bee can only carry 35% of its body weight in pollen. Therefore, a player can only carry 2 objective cards worth of pollen.   Â
Weather Effects
- 1 – Sunny Day: Perfect flying weather, move your normal dice roll
- 2 – Windy Day: Flying is a little rough, move your normal dice roll and then backward one space
- 3 – Rainy Day: Flying is making your wings damp and slow, move half your dice roll
- 4 – Sunny Day: Perfect flying weather, move your normal dice roll
Ending the Game
The game ends when the hive is completely filled with honey! The player with the most honey made wins the game.
Don’t Diss My Ability Rules
Objective: Gain the most points by traveling around campus
Starting Out: Every player will roll a die. The dice roll corresponds to the disability experienced by that player. Place your character token somewhere in Nicholson (blue building). The player who took ibuprofen/pain meds most recently will go first. Play will continue clockwise.
- 1-2: ADHD
- 3-4: Cane
- 5-6: Wheelchair
Turn:
- Pull a location card
- This is where you are trying to go. This card will not change until you have reached your location, at which point you can collect the appropriate amount of point tokens
- Roll a die
- This is how many spaces you move. After you roll, consider your character effects, and move that number of spaces
- If you must roll a die for the elevator, do this when you get to the elevator/stair space
Moving:
- You can access any floor via an elevator with the same number. No matter how many floors you go, this counts as one move
- However, each flight of stairs counts as a separate move (ie. If you take the stairs from the 1st floor to the 4th floor, that would be 3 moves)
- You must roll a die each time you take an elevator.
- If you roll an even number, the elevator works, and you can take it to any floor
- If you roll an odd number, the elevator does not work, and your turn ends there
- ADHD
- If you roll a six, you must go back to where you started. Your location card does not change.
- If you land in Romo’s or the Wheatley Cafe, lose a turn
- Cane
- You can only take 1 flight of stairs in the whole game
- All moves after you take a flight of stairs are cut in half (due to pain)
- If you go to the gazebo, you are no longer in pain and can move normally again, until you take another flight of stairs
- Every time you leave a building and walk outside, you must roll a die for weather.
- Evens, it is sunny, you move as normal
- Odds, it is rainy, the number of moves you can take are cut in half
- If you are in pain from taking stairs and it is raining outside, you can only move one spot per turn until you get back inside or to the gazebo
- You can only take 1 flight of stairs in the whole game
- Wheelchair
- You can only take elevators to get to different floors
- Every time you leave a building and walk outside, you must roll a die for weather.
- Evens, it is sunny, you move as normal
- Odds, it is rainy, the number of moves you can take are cut in half
Gaining points: Once you have reached your destination, you can collect your point tokens.
- Within the same building: 1 point
- AMC – gazebo: 1 point
- Franklin/Hale (yellow) – Scaife (grey): 2 points
- Crossing a piece of board: 1 point for each board you cross
Winning: First person to 5 points wins
Road Paver Game Ruleset
Description: Road Paver is a game in which players plot out a system of roads to grow and evolve their cities all while juggling the happiness of their citizens and the well-being of the environment.
How to Play:
- Each player will have their own independent City that they want to build up. Each Player will start with a single Dirt Road Tile as a foundation for their City.
- The Player who got their Driver’s License first gets to go first, go clockwise from there.
- When it is a Player’s turn, they will pick a single Road Tile or Building Tile and attach it to their City. If there are no Road Tiles from the Current Era remaining or you have no space to attach a Building Tile to your roads, you must skip your turn.
- Players will repeat this process until all Tiles from the Current Era are gone. Once all Tiles from the Current Era have been used, Players can move to the next Era of Tiles.
- The game will end once all Tiles from all Eras have been placed.
- To determine a final score, add together all of your Happiness Values and Environmental Values. The Player with the highest combined total of Happiness and Environment Value is the winner.
Game Mechanics:
- Happiness Value (HV): Happiness Value is one of the two scores Players must keep track of. Building Tiles will have varying levels of HV attached to them, some positive and some negative. Players should aim to keep as high of a HV as possible.
- Environmental Value (EV): Environmental Value is the other score Players must keep track of. Building Tiles will have varying levels of EV attached to them, some positive and some negative. Players should aim to keep as high of an EV as possible.
- Road Tiles: Road Tiles are the building blocks of the game. Road Tiles can only be placed next to another Road Tile and the paths on the Tiles must match up. Road Tiles from separate Eras are allowed to connect.
- Building Tiles: Building Tiles are how players will gain their HV and EV. Building Tiles each have a set amount of HV and EV attached to them. Building Tiles must be touching a Road Tile from the same Era to be placed.
- Current Era: As Players place Tiles, their Cities will progress through different Eras. Cities will start in the Stone Era with simple Dirt Paths and Wooden Huts, but will eventually progress to the Modern Era with Highways and Skyscrapers. In order to progress to a new Era, players must place every available Tile from the Current Era, Players cannot advance to the next Era until all Tiles from the Current Era are used. Building Tiles from each Era can only be placed on Road Tiles from the same Era.
playtest results 3/23
changes:
added a set difficulty feature. Difficulty levels for rolls variy from 1-10, with each level being multiplied by 25 to determine the actual difficulty.
players have fatigue in each attribute equal to their stat. Whenever they fail a roll, the difficulty goes up by 1 level and their fatigue decreases in the attribute they used by 1. For each level of fatigue below 3, they take a penalty of -1 from their roll. If they hit 0, they can no longer attempt rolls of that attribute.
added critical success at 50 beyond difficulty and critical failures at 50 below. Critical success grants a bonus and critical failures give an additional negative event or debuff. If you crit fail, you can’t try again with that attribute for this encounter regardless of fatigue.
after testing, I’ve found that this system works fairly well for scaling difficulty of encounters. If a player can’t beat something with one stat, they have to use their head and find another way around. Test scenarios included moving a heavy object and scaling a cliff. When fatigue became too high for one player in the first one to try and move the object, the player elected to destroy it. When the same was true for the cliff, they decided to stack objects at the base of it to boost themselves.
Generate 5 new game ideas that explore changing players minds about … (climate change, energy, politics, etc.)
- Game about doing everything right as a black astronaut and still not being allowed to go to space
- Game where you’re a beloved politician, but no matter how right or informed one of your decisions seems, you only see the worst outcomes
- Game that makes you dissect the mice used to test common medicines (this is not a statement against common medicine I just went out with a girl who does that as a research job and thought it was insane how frequently and mercilessly they kill mice)
- Game that simulates short term memory loss symptoms by dropping the player into high-context conversations – without the necessary context (maybe you can tattoo yourself like in Memento)
- Game that puts you in the position of an American Defense Planner after being notified of an unprecedented nuclear attack. There are no rules.
Post thoughts on iCivics
- I. Love. ICivics. I think I shared about all my thoughts in class, whether you wanted to hear them or not.
- Even so, in having that much love for the iCivics platform, I can admit that they are so totally useless. I never learned anything about bills or laws or gerrymandering when we played these in high school. I just wanted to have more fictional money or upset more of my fictional constituents than my chums.
- If I wanted to learn about those judicial systems and processes, I could go to a real .gov site or pick up a book. Games – at least games like that – can’t teach those things.
Post thoughts on advergames
- I have a hard time imagining the circumstances that would lead to an average person downloading or purchasing one of these games. I think they’re funny. I think that first race in the M&M’s kart game was hilarious. But I cannot see a world where anyone loads up a second race.
- I definitely fell victim to some of the Subway-Surfers Temple-Run franchised remakes, but I was also in fourth grade when the Minions version of that running and swiping game came out.
Game makers notes
- What questions did your players have?
What some of the material cards meant.
- How quickly did they learn?
Fairly quickly
- What kinds of interactions did the players have?
They liked stealing cards/plants from each other
- What confused the player?
The event cards and what order to play your turn
- What made the players excited?
Being able to fill the orders of customers
- What did your players enjoy doing?
Stealing the plants from other players and getting money
- Did any aspects of the game frustrate players?
Just the event and material cards. I feel I need to go back and fix my rules and add more filler material cards so its not just event after event.
Playtest for Starting Roots
Playtest for Mia (Starting Roots)
Playtesters- Family
Most Frustrating?
The event cards. There were too many in the deck and kept pulling the same cards.
Favorite moment?
Liked stealing plants
Wanted to do it but couldn’t?
Play material cards at any time during a player’s turn. Not having a specific order in which to play cards. Wanted to fill more orders for customers.
Magic wand?
Have groups of plants with different difficulties. Make less event cards. Separate events into a separate pile and have an event card in the material cards in which that player can hand another player that card for them to pick an event card.
Would you play again?
Yes
Alex Beachum Podcast
Podcast discussing Alex Beachum by Shane and Clay