Collegiate Card Game
My first trial of my prototyped Collegiate Card Game was definitely helpful but proved that I do not wish to move further in elaborating and fixing the game itself. My initial idea behind the game was to showcase the different characteristics of college students and the different opportunities allotted to each based on financial needs, social etc. When it came time to make the rule set I found myself focusing in on only specific elements in hopes to simplify the game initially so that I could elaborate on it after making tweaks at each stage. The end product of my rule set and prototype focused solely on the characters and gaining points towards their “needs” (each character has a different set of points needed for categories such as financial, love, social, and knowledge). You gain these points to fulfill needs by giving up time (each player has a time chips that they can trade to complete an activity which in turn gives them points). While I liked this aspect of incorporating time management I realized through playing that there wasn’t conflict at all which meant no interaction among players. Conflict is one of the most important components in order to make a game exciting between players and for yourself. Since my game lacked this, it turned into a simple self-fulfillment game where each player simple turned cards and moved on in the game with no important decisions or involvment from the other players. An idea offered by Maddie Ferucci suggested that I could incorporate conflict by making it mandatory to choose how you spend time. For example you have to choose between one thing or another so your needs board is constantly fluctuating. There was also a suggestion to incorporate a dice to add an element of luck to the game rather than giving all the power to the cards you draw. Other factors which need to be considered more is how much time players start off with and if they should be allowed to freely gain time per turn or if they have to manage a set amount established at the beginning of the game. I also need to consider more the amount of cards drawn and discarded as this needs to have more of a purpose than just a simple choice of which card to use and discard- an aspect of punishment would definitely also change this up.
After this first trial of playing I came to the conclusion that I do not want to pursue this game idea further. While it is possible I have found that there wasn’t any interest in any aspect of the game and it resembled the game of life but in a much more boring format. While I liked the initial concept, I realized only the concept has potential. In order to make the game more interactive and enjoyable a lot of different routes would have to be checked out and experimented with and I would prefer to turn my focus to a game with more creativity and imagination.