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Kobold Questions Part 3

What is the difference between a game designer and a game developer?

Game designers come up with prototypes for games where as developers will take those prototypes and polish them to make a marketable version of the game ( and usually a better version). Game development is kind of a hardcore editing stage. Playtesting is done to try and break the game using as many strategies as possible (even extreme ones). Developers make sure that rules are crystal clear, concise, and easy to follow as that will be the only communication you have with the game player. Blind-playtesting is also a part of the development stage, ending with theme and titling of the game.

What are the challenges of balancing a game?

One challenge is choosing the amount of components to have in a game. The more components generally the more complicated a game can become making balance harder to achieve. Using “costing” can help to balance a game. This just means using components of a game have different costs that sometimes players don’t even think about. The trouble with costing is you want to make sure to keep the balance by having better cards “cost” more.

You always want your players to feel and hope that they have a chance of winning until the very end of the game. Games with elimination are boring for players who get kicked out quickly.

Avoid stealing players fun (1) no elimination (2) monarchies are dead and kingmaking sucks (3) don’t reward the Max’s of the world (4) inherent deceleration that is not noticeable (5) sweet spot for player interaction (6) move someone backwards at your own risk

What are the challenges of balancing a game?

(1) Don’t use intermediary terminology (2) use real words if it’s an attack just call it that (3) don’t make more work than necessary (4) add a little spice, but not too much spice (5) don’t make your rules smarter than your audience (6) if you can’t explain a rule, don’t write it (7) make your rules easy to read and comprehend stylistically (8) make the game easy to look at (9) playtest your final version! (10) Fix it in the FAQ

How has play testing changed your game?

I’m really in love with my game “I’m Cookin” which is funny to me because it was a last minute 2am idea I never thought I would develop. Playtesting has helped fix a lot of the mechanical errors as well as the vitally important pacing error of my game. My game has gone through 2 playtests which has been unbelievably helpful in starting to complete a more polished prototype of the game. I wouldn’t be where I’m at without playtesting.

I have a hard time picking who I would like to play my game. Another blind test with people who have never played would be helpful. However, having someone who has played each newly developed version is something I think would be a great perspective.

I think the audience for my game ends up being like teens/adults. I just don’t think kids who are too young to have started attempting to cook would enjoy the game at all. Although, it’s basically a matching game at it’s core so who knows.

Who should play test your game outside of class?

I would like my friends at the Four Horsemen to blind playtest my cooking game at some point once I get the polished version. I think have a group of gamers who usually come to the mall for D&D play and drink chocolate milk play my game would be an interesting perspective.

Usually though my family and friends are helping playtest my games outside of class. My wife is my number one play tester (not usually because she wants to be) which is great because she’ll give me her unbiased opinion even if I cry into my cat’s belly later.

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Kobold Guide to Game Design: Part 3 (Prototyping & Experimenting Phases of Structuring Games)

A. Roles of Game Design vs. Development and the Process of Creating A game:

A1. Difference Between A Designer & Developer in A Game:

A game designer is mainly responsible for creating a game that involves establishing structures based on organized ideas or graphics notes in mechanics. In contrast, a game developer is mostly focused on the ruleset and the game’s finalization, ensuring whether the structures are feasible for players to interact with.

A2. Development Stage of the Game:

The developing game requires to undergo rule-setting, logical structures, mockup play models — prototypes and finally experimenting with gameplay– playtesting with additional revising (rethinking, restructuring, resetting) and finalizations (sculpting quality materials for the game) to be successfully published.

B. Obstacles of Establishing Game?

When I come up with the framing for the narrative game ideas which could be useful for narrative storyboarding oftentimes, however mechanics behind the game structures sometimes could become barriers to rule-setting; I have to consider how the rule of play can make sense for potential gamers instead of just showing complex scripts of the interpretation.

B1. Beliefs of My Game:

Entertaining narrative graphic content with strategies.

B2. Avoidance of stealing players’ Fun:

Ensuring the rules of the game match the gameplayer’s initial expectations (impressions of the game by own judgments) as closely as possible to prevent unexpected errors of game strategies that weren’t intended to be formed by the game creator like accidental wins and losses.

C. 10 Mandatory Guidelines for Gameplay Structures:

  • Use no intermediary terminology — Avoid inserting some jargon terms that need to be lengthy explanations by definitions because players are newcomers and don’t usually recognize such a random vocabulary in such complex gameplay circumstances. Game words should be part of their daily life instead of knowledge mastery.
  • Use real words — Don’t assume that players will take a lengthy brain to guess the interpretation of the texts; speak to them briefly and directly about what will occur during the game rounds.
  • Make no more work than necessary — Even though some gamers love some sorts of challenges once they encountered uncontrollable barriers, sometimes players feel too surprised to come up with solutions and strategies once they discovered there are tons of restrictions to proceed like trade-offs– these may be just too logical to continue playing for them. Simplifying the game obstacles for players to feel engaging challenges without destroying their initial expectations.
  • Add flavor (but not too much flavor) — The elements on the playing piece which impress players with visual rules can represent a greater clue about what is the background behind the game and promote better memories of the game journey; Noticing that too much info printed on the pieces could also prevent each player to achieve the shortcut of the game which will eventually become an incomplete game.
  • Make your text no smarter than your reader — Game Creators should step into the target audience’s perspectives of playing their game. Don’t be complex in forming the game directions since players aren’t really part of the game industry employees (unless they are, you still need to use design thinking; the game tester always owns the client’s brain predictions to provide better advising approaches for the game).
  • Discard rules that can’t be written — Feasible Rules that are easier for players to abide by are the keystone for completing game finalizations.
  • Take a breath — Gamers mostly dislike scanning whole instructions of the gameplay. Brief Rule Directions could mean more than a complex paragraph of game explanations.
  • Go easy on the eyes — Ensuring the directions of gameplay are not eye-hurting, Be aware of word structures, arrangements, and hierarchy. Structuring the game manuals with sensible alignments with weights and highlighting the instructional sentences that players should care about.
  • Get your final version playtested — Experiment with your game model (prototype and full product) in the mockup target clients to observe how they feel when first they try to play the game.
  • Fix it in the FAQ — How the game can be improved to enhance the better satisfaction of buyers? Collecting the questions players asked and problematic issues to revise the game structures (including setups and rules).

D. Playtesting Experience:

From the perspective of being a dual-role in-game playtester and game creator, I feel like sometimes the game idea is fun to be designed as an interface prototype, however since the game involves some criteria of rules and user experience– how the players accomplish the game without misunderstandings that may lead breaking the rules and feel the game is sustainable for them to play it regularly.

D1. Who Will be Playtested for My Game (In Class)?

I think it is randomly assigned. I don’t have such picky behaviors since everyone loves various genres of games.

D2. My Major Game Target?

The audience enjoys immersing themselves in real-life situations and dream adventures.

E. Outside Playtesting of Own Game?

Since I know that media club (RUM Sentry Media) members love to play some random challenges– they will be my desired target gamers; I think my game could be a great setting for a TV channel program or sections of the show if my club team loves that.

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Review 3

The two sites are Burgatory,  and Franktuary.  

The Franktuary home page has a simple layout with 3 major parts. First at the top of the page says that there is a food truck with a link to the menu and form to reserve the truck. Second in the middle of the home page there is a large series of scrolling images. Last at the bottom is the 3 types of things they serve. Those 3 things are franks, poutine, and libations/drinks. The most emphasis is placed on the food truck followed by the images. This is do to its size and location on the home page. Unity of the page is simple the images in the middle are the largest thing starching across the whole page. Having a different amount of space between the middle and the elements above and below it. The elements at the bottom of the page have a balance to them with one being in line with the center of the page. One on the left and right sides of it with an equal amount of space between them.

The Burgatory home pages layout is also simple and can be broken down into 5 basic sections. At the top you have the navigation bar followed by an image, an introduction, secondary navigation, and contact info with socials. The emphasis on the page can be broken down with the image having the most. Then the navigation bar, introduction, secondary navigation, and last the contacts and socials. Emphasis on the page comes from the size of the elements and the location of the elements. Balance of the page is asymmetrical as each major element is a different size with a different amount of space between them. Unity of the overall page is good and nothing feels as if it would be better off in a different place. The navigation bar is centered on the screen with equal space between the links and a reasonable amount of space between the links and the logo. Secondary navigation is broken up into 3 sub elements all 3 are equally space with each other and with the elements above and below.

Layout between the two sites are completely different with the Franktuary being simpler and having less elements while the Burgatory’s is more complex with more elements. When it comes to balance they both are asymmetrical horizontally and symmetrical vertically. The overall unity of the Burgatory site is better that the Franktuary’s. Emphasis is another way in which the Burgatory site is better with the size of the image and its location it draws you down the page to see more but at the same it does not force you down the page. The Franktuary site draws you down the page but in a way that forces you down as you feel that you do not have all the information.

The Burgatory uses Krug’s five principles well with simple navigation, clear hierarchy, little text, simple decisions. Now the Franktuary dose have, clear hierarchy, and little text. It also has complex navigation, and more difficult decisions making the site harder to use. The Burgatory site is more affective at getting my attention. As it uses Krug’s five principles well along with the good layout and sticking to the color scheme of the logo on the whole site. The site also has a secondary navigation system at the bottom of the page that is more decorative and fits the  overall theme of the Burgatory.

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Questions 4

1 working prototypes are playable and display prototypes are not but are made to look good

1-2 must have a rule set, be clear, and playable. causes for failed prototypes missing pieces, withholding information, uncomplete updates, unreadable,

2 overall appearance, the rules explain every thing well and answer questions the players may have along with a list of components with images

3 prepare for the prestation, ask other creators about there experiences, sell yourself, pitch to multiple company’s, control your ego, realistic expiations, don’t hesitate, multiple submissions one pre prototype, show preproduction model, trademarks

4 is it fun, set up time, theme, experience, connected theme and rules, title, target audience, compatibility, innovative rules, innovative components, good rules, interaction, strategy, collectability, easy demo, languages, expansion potential

4-2 give an over view, list components, tell how to set up, the order of play, win/end conditions, give examples, give credit

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Bloxsploitation (Max and Ronan)

Objective

The objective of our game is to build a Lego tower to a specified height, despite your opponent’s attempts to impede you.

Materials

  • Legos
  • cards

Setup

  • Each player gets a green base. As of right now, the 4×4 green square is the playable area.
  • The player with the most followers on Instagram goes first
  • To start, grab two random pieces and put them on your 4×4 base.

Playing

On your turn, pick a card and follow the instructions on the card. If the card instructs you to steal pieces from your opponent you may not steal anything with structural integrity. When building, if any pieces break off as you add new pieces you lose that pieces, and the pieces you were trying to add.

Winning/Losing

A player wins when the tower reaches the height specified at the beginning of the game.

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Spelling Your Doom(Shane and Frankie)

Spelling Your Doom is a game where two players compete to spell the longest word possible. The catch is, each player takes a turn adding a letter to the end of the word. They continue until a word cannot be made by adding a letter or a player cannot think of anything to add.

  • There are 5 Rounds.
  • Players Play rock, paper, scissors to determine who goes first
  • Players may add only one letter at a time
  • Letters can only be used twice per word
  • Each consonant letter in a word is worth 1 point
  • Each vowel is worth 2 points
  • If players spell something that isnt a word within 5 letters or neither can think of anything to add to it, both lose 5 points.
  • If a word is longer than 10 letters, it is worth double points.
  • After Each round, players take turns going first.
  • Whichever player has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Materials

The only materials needed are a pen or pencil and some paper.

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Treasure Flaunter – Luke & Ben

SETUP

Both players need their own player piece and 2 dice for the game.

OBJECTIVE

2 players are competing to get the most treasure by getting to the end of the board first.

TURN

The tallest player goes first.

To advance, the player rolls 2 dice. This determines how far forward they go on the board. The player must choose one of the 2 dice and move based on what the chosen die says.

Once a player reaches the star space before the treasure, they unlock the next section of the board and roll for treasure. The number on the die after rolling is the amount of treasure tokens the player gets.

Players must not move beyond the treasure until a player lands on the sixth space in that section. Once a player unlocks a treasure space, that treasure space cannot be used again.

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Pirates vs. Gods Rules (with Aaron)

Set Up

Shuffle each deck separately. Each player will choose either the pirate deck or the god deck.

Card Anatomy

Play

Each player will reveal the first card on top of their deck. Winner is determined by element.

  • A fire (red flame) card will beat an earth (green diamond) card.
  • An earth (green diamond) card will beat an air (white swirls) card.
  • An air (white swirls) card will beat a water (blue droplet) card.
  • A water (blue droplet) card will be a fire (red flame) card.

If two elements are pulled that are not listed above (fire vs. air, water vs. earth), the winner of the round is determined by the higher point value.

If element and point value are the same, draw and reveal a second card.

If you win the round, your card is shuffled back into your deck. If you lose the round, your card is set to the side and removed from play.

If you had to draw a second card and you win based on that second card, you get to shuffle both back into your deck. If you lose based on the second card, both of your cards are removed from play.

Winning the Game

You win when you have exhausted your opponent’s deck.

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2 Player Game – Earn It

Earn It

Goal: To go through all the cards in the deck – Player with the most points at the end wins

Materials:

Regular deck of 52 cards 

AceClap x1
2Clap behind your back x2
3Jumping Jacks x3
4Say earn it x4
5Snaps x5
6jump x6
7Say the word seven x7
8Hop on one foot x8
9Touch your elbow x9
10Slap the table
Jack (11)Say your name backwards
Queen (12)Rock, Paper, Scissors
King (13)Thumb War

*If neither player wants to complete the action associated with the card drawn, they can discard it to the bottom of the pile*

Setup; 

Shuffle the deck, then place it between the two players 

Gameplay; 

Once the deck is shuffled the two players then each take turns pulling the top card off the deck and placing it face up on the table in front of them. 

The youngest player starts. 

Each card has a certain action attached to it that must be completed once the card is placed face up, the first player to complete the action gets the card. 

Players play until the deck runs out 

Scoring;

Points are the same in value has the number on the card 

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Part 3 Questions

What is the difference between a game designer and a game developer?

  • A game designer creates the initial game, while developers are responsible for testing and changing the game to help it evolve into something better.

What commonly occurs during the game development process?

  • Playtesting, rule revision, theming, naming the game

What are the challenges of balancing a game?

  • number of components, components complexity, and cost

What should every player of your game believe? why?

In their ability to win/complete the game – so that they want to keep playing

How can you avoid stealing players fun?

  • Don’t kick a player out before the end of a game
  • Don’t put players in the position to choose who wins
  • Don’t reward a leader
  • include inherent declaration – slow a player who’s close to victory
  • Have a good medium of player interaction/influence (not too little, not to much)
  • Do not force anyone to go backwards in the game

What 10 maxims should you follow when writing rules? 

  • no intermediary terminology
  • use real words
  • no more work than necessary
  • add some flavor/theme (do not go overboard)
  • keep the text readable
  • If you can’t write a rule, then discard it
  • keep the rules sweet and simple
  • keep text easy to read
  • PLAY TEST
  • check/fix any misprints

How has play testing changed your game?

  • It has helped me to figure out the right math for my game in terms of what is “too hard” and “too easy” for players to accomplish based off their dice rolls/cards played. 

Who from class would you like to play test your next game or version 2 of your first game?

  • I got some really good feedback about my first game from the initial players, so I’d like to have some people who haven’t played yet play the next version. As for my second game, it hasn’t been ready to test yet, but I’d say the same. I feel like I’ve tested a lot of the same peoples games and had the same testers so I’d like to see other peoples opinions. 

Who is the audience for your game?

  • Anyone who enjoys playing games, and wants to have fun

Who should play test your game outside of class?

  • I’ve had both my roommate and brother playtest my games previously. I think I would like to find a group of students either in the art center or on the quad who are willing to play and get opinions from people I’m not close with. 
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Divided (Mia and Clay)

2 players

  • Objective: Collect more pairs than your opponent as fast as you can over the course of 5 rounds
  • Required materials:
    • 1 deck of cards
      • Remove face cards and jokers
  • Setup:
    • Each player is dealt 6 six cards to start
  • On a player’s turn
    • The player with the least amount of pairs goes first
    • You can’t look at your hand until you draw your first card
  • On a player’s turn:
    • Draw a card
    • Your “turn” is over once you have drawn
      • You may draw immediately after your opponent has drawn
  • At any time:
    • Place a pair in front of you. A pair consists of:
      • Two cards that are cleanly divisible (eg. 3/9, 10/10, A/7)
        • Aces are worth 1 and any card is divisible by it (Wild card)
  • Ending the round:
    • The round ends when either player has no cards remaining in their hand
    • Players write down how many pairs they have played in front of them
  • Winning the game
    • After 5 rounds, players sum up their total number of pairs from the course of the game
    • The player with the most pairs wins
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Thoughts on Captains Lost Treasure

Playtest for – Captain’s Lost Treasure

What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? 

Slow pacing – Turns seemed to go on for a while
Unbalanced HP/ATK for crew members 

What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played?

I liked the concept of the game, and attacking other players ships/crew members

Was there anything you wanted to do but couldn’t? 

It would have been nice to have the ability to be more aware of other players ATK/HP (might be hard to implement in a draft but the idea of a slider or spinner on cards that shows the stats – the player sheets are nice to keep track but not super easy when trying to read other players)

If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be?

Balance out the ATK/HP 

How has the experience changed since the first play test?

N/A 

Is this a game you would play again? Why?

Yes, I enjoyed the concept of the game and think  it sounds fun, numbers just need adjusting. 

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Thoughts on… Everything… Finally

Fluxx

I enjoyed playing Fluxx, but only after I started to learn how to play. I like the idea of matching cards and that it has an equal balance of random and strategy. I enjoyed having the new rule cards show up but it does make the game feel pretty cluttered when it really gets going; especially with 6 people playing. That feeling of clutter makes me want to play the game less/want the game to end as soon as possible so it can go back to normal. It did certainly provide me with a lot of inspiration for my game

Love Letter

I immediately enjoyed the storyline of Love Letter but I think the mechanics were a bit clunky for me to understand. It didn’t make a ton of sense to me that each player was a suitor, but had cards with different characters on them. It created a disconnect that was maybe only mostly apparent to me. However, once I learned how it worked, I did begin to enjoy playing. I’m just not sure it would be something I would come back to again.

Munchkin Gloom

This was the first of the games that I was not able to play due to 2 close exposures to covid, so from here on most of my thoughts will come from the perspective of game reviews I watched in place of playing the games.

I really like the transparent cards with the ability to place others on top of each other and the idea story-wise that happiness is bad and gloom is good. It also seems that a lot of the actions are very direct and player-focused. It also seems to poke fun at popular video games and Dungeons and Dragons. I love games that have player-to-player interactions that can cause fun conflict in the room, and Gloom Munchkin certainly does that. If I had the chance to play it I think I would enjoy it.

Munchkin

Munchkin seems to be a relatively simple game with dungeoning and treasure-gathering. The class and race system is really interesting too, being able to be any combination of class and race. In terms of the combat, It’s seems it’s similar to Dungeons and Dragons in the sense that when a monster appears, you fight it. Additionally, your combined levels must be the same or higher in order to fight/defeat the creatures, and it even incorporates bonus for different abilities. I really like that if you don’t meet the combined level of the monster that you can run away if you roll a 5-6, but if you land on anything other than 5-6, you have “bad stuff” happen to you. I wasn’t able to play this game this semester but I was able to play in 4D studio a couple of semesters ago and I enjoyed it!

Bang!

I think the character and role cards not being attached is a fun way of keeping the story of the game fresh as there are many different combinations and can change the storyline for players. It’s also cool that it’s a team-based game based around eliminating other players as opposed to points or score that determine who wins. I also always like games that are designed to start mini conflicts between the players. Bang does this by making it a mystery what team each player is on. I also think it’s really cool that you can get into duels with other players.

Pandemic

Pandemic is another one of the games that I wasn’t able to play but I did watch a few videos on. I think that a face value, the game can come off a tad overwhelming, at least for me as someone who isn’t incredibly well-versed or experienced with board games. It does seem to simplify itself just a bit more as the rules become more apparent. The role cards are also interesting, giving players an added ability each unique to themselves which provides players with a sense of purpose. I also like that the different regions on the map all foster the growth of different kinds of diseases specific to the region. It’s also cool that you can move around the map, essentially controlling the spread of disease through your presence there as a researcher/doctor or whatever. I also have to give an honorable mention to the infection rate mechanic, which allows players to choose the difficulty level of the game.

Tokaido

I wasn’t able to play Tokaido. but based on the reviews that I watched, I think the first mechanic that caught my interest was how the players move around the board. Players can move as far forward as they want and get ahead of the others, but they can only move forward once they are the farthest back in the group. I have to say though, I don’t think that I would really enjoy playing this game, despite the beautiful presentation, because of the currency system. I have never really enjoyed using currency to trade or purchase items in card games. I’m not sure if there is a reason behind it, but it just doesn’t always make a ton of sense to me if it’s not done in a specific way.

8 Minute Empire

I like the idea of the game being completed in 8 minutes. I find that when I am playing board games, it’s usually to quickly pass time when my friends and I are bored or waiting for something. 8 mins is the perfect amount of time for a fast game to to take place. It’s interesting that you basically start the game with everything you’ll ever need; i.e. 8 money, 3 cities, and a bunch of armies. It’s nice that once the money is spent, the money goes into the bank, which also means it doesn’t return back into the game. The territorial control of moving armies around an establishing cities almost as spawn points is also a cool mechanic. It seems like based on the videos that I have watched, there isn’t much player to player interaction which is kind of unfortunate so I would at least try to play this game if given the opportunity, but it may get boring for me after a while.

Hanabi

I really like the idea of Hanabi, trying to set off fireworks. The first thing that’s jarring is that you actually hold your cards backwards instead of directed towards yourself. So everyone can see your cards except for you. I have to say though, despite Hanabi being a seemingly simple and small game, I don’t really enjoy games with point values and a goal to reach a certain amount of points. I would prefer if players were trying to get a certain object or amount of objects, whatever it may be. Not too much to say about it.

Carcassonne

To start, I really like the idea of building the map together as a group, even though the goal is to take as much control of as much land as possible. I’m not a fan of the fact that they add up to points at the end, but that’s just the way it is. I think Carcassonne has a great of making players interact with one another by restricting the placement of certain players’ pieces on occupied sections of the board, but players can strategize to share sections of the board if placed correctly. I also like that the scoring is done through a different board and matches the theme of the main game “board.”

Dominion

I was able to play Dominion a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to finish the game but we did eventually score it at the end and declared a winner. I personally don’t like deck builder games. They just don’t really keep my attention like a game with a nicely designed board/map, whatever it may be. This also ties into my small but general distaste for card games with currency. Being able to see where the money is going and it getting recycled kind of kills the magic for me. Overall, though, the game is well made and works with a small amount of players. However, if we didn’t have Ames there to help us get the hang of it, I’m not sure we would have been able to learn it very quickly.

Photosynthesis

Visually, Photosynthesis is a striking game that I can imagine would pull players in and immerse them. However, I wasn’t able to play, so I’m only speculating. At first glance in the videos I have watched, it seems very complicated with tons of different chips, pieces, currency, etc. I think there is a lot to remember, such as point value, amount of spaces a shadow is cast, point trackers, light points, etc. While the game is visually one of the best I’ve seen, it’s more or less a no-go for me.

Takenoko

I enjoyed playing Takenoko, mostly because of the story line, but after opening the rules, it got complicated. Myself, Clay, and Max all did find ourselves getting the hang of the game, but were asking a lot of questions like can we take the bases of the bamboo shoots, does irrigation apply if not connected, etc. We also didn’t really use the player cards to track what was going on, which may have contributed to our general sense of confusion for a majority of the game. We did start implementing some strategy in the later game, but that was only after a pretty slow start at the beginning.

Settlers of Catan

I personally don’t enjoy resource management games. I’ve experienced some pretty intense games that use this as a main mechanic in their games like EU4, CK2, and other video games that take politics, war, resources, etc into account. Settlers of Catan is WAY simpler than those other games that I mentioned, but it generally has a similar feel and just isn’t really up my alley.

Splendor

This is going to sound incredibly redundant but because I don’t like games that involve buying and selling cards with currency, I have to say I’m glad I didn’t play Splendor. While I’ll admit it does have a cool premise, I just am not immediately interested in points and money for physical games. The game also has a lot to remember in terms of how many gems you can pick up and what controls that number, which can get confusing. I don’t like how everything changes based on player count, meaning that every time you play, unless your group is consistent, the rules are all different. This makes it difficult to learn.

Bohnanza

I really like Bonanza! I’ve been able to play it a couple times in both Game Design and in 4D studio. The game provides a lot of player-to-player interaction with trading being one of the most important things you can do. It adds strategy to a simple game with simple mechanics and is easily learned and taught. Also, the art is really nice to look at and is just overall a lot of fun to play. I also am pretty good at it so that adds to it a bit too.

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Kobold Guide to Game Design: Part 2 (The Play Narrative)

A. Strategies for My Game:

A1. My Preferred Mechanics: Winning/Losing Conditions, Spinning, Rolling (Dice for Luck), Turning-over (uncovering face-down decks), Moving (forward & backward), and Puzzling (info matching).

A2. Game Targets: Role-Play Collaborators (Enemies and Allies), Group Solutions Multiplayers

A3. Possible Game Analyst(s): Sentry Media Club Members who enjoy almost any type of game challenge.

B. Game Perspectives:

B1. The Easiest Game to Start with (free of instructions): My Tom (Mobile Game) has the smoothest playable experience because it is a causal form of the game and also it is just about the simple strategic gameplay of taking care of him (Tom). He can grow at any level which indicates his physical growth (even though it is mostly invisible), he also has birthdays.

B2. Own Thoughts of a Game: The game is a playable asset that contains logical approaches and usually renewable background stories that keep players to be engaged and oftentimes free of boredom and tiredness.

B3. Understandable and Sensible Game Approaches: Create Illustrations (sketching some imperfect figures, objects, & optional backgrounds) for the ideas of my own game in my sketchbook (especially if some ideas are card games or possibly boardgames); think like an imaginative narrator towards my hobbies and unforgettable experiences in my past life events (Ex: I love ice-skating, initiative volunteering for other organizations, and I rode skateboarding in my childhood, and I enjoy playing adventurous games and rhythmic entertainment like Beatstar). It is a bonus point if I could create some storyboards to aid my thinking of how to construct the game which acts like a narrative film to appeal to an audience with some interesting moments. Thinking about how I achieve the goal and with what kinds of strategies and how I can display my creative decision on encountered issues to engage others? In other words, fictionalizing your life narration into the crafts that the audience can discover by gaming.

C. Gateway Game Structures:

C1. Top Gateway Game: I don’t have any favorites for the gateway game (I am a video gamer informally), however during the first 5 weeks when I play with others socializing games (during class), I am more towards some games that have the mechanics of moving forward & backward, building puzzles and simple adventurous strategies.

C2. Characteristics of Gateway Game: Gateway games are multiplayer gameplay that involves competitions between players or collaborative players. This kind of physical game is casual playing that covers tons of strategies and usually takes extensive time to get results of winning and losing outcomes.

D. Ten Beautiful Mechanics & Which/How They Could Suit My Game Pieces :

Top 10 (Source: mobilefreetoday): Tapping, Stacking, Turning, Dexterity, Rising/Falling, Swerving, Merging, Idle, Growing, Puzzling.

Possible Fitting Movements for Prototypes: Tap Mechanics come up with unexpected outcomes for any player’s action input which is suitable for role-playing survival games in simple structures like my playable wireframe of Compass 4 Survivalist because it requires both players to spin seeing the situation they are in at. Stacking Mechanics could be applied to card games since it requires amounts of each card to achieve successful outcomes. Turning Mechanics is oftentimes used in Boardgame because it requires the four directions of game piece roaming, examples including treasure hunting games. Merging Mechanics is best used in graphics and words puzzle since some of the alphabet or graphics can match specific requirements of the game rules.

E. Matters of Luck & Strategy:

Even though the playable game should have some paths that players can take to get successful outcomes and rewards to encourage them to keep up the pace and feedback to them about each decision players will take whether it is the win or lost fate, some settings need to contain unexpectedness and invisibility to challenge players and force them to come up with solutions which can eliminate their opportunity to overcome the hardships of the upcoming barriers — the established luck which players won’t be seen and controlled is the keystone of a game.

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Kobold Guide to Game Design: Part 1 (What Makes a Good Game?)

What should every game have?

I think the game must be attractive in terms of visual graphic interests and the unexpected challenges for each play but not too much; the most effective approach to enhance player engagement in gameplay is to set each stage in a single game round so that players can feel gradually about the enhancing difficulties during the gaming.

Games I owned (currently playing)? I play video games in a variety of genres (when my mom is not around since she hates video games):

Action: Temple Run, Temple Run 2, Subway Surf

Strategy & Narration: My Tom, Deemo II

Rhythmic Beats: Beatstar, Spin Rhythm

Three-act Structure of My Favorite Game and Pacing:

Action and Rhythm Genres: it is functioned by stage of difficulty as I play the game further.

Beatstar (my favorite list so far) lets me play all the difficulty levels (normal, hard, extreme) of all songs, each song contains 5 stages (easy to the challenging part — speeds and beat blocks will increase and contains more challenging postures), and unlock more songs by playing songs based on higher scores and frequency of playing.

 Coming up with Ideas with Metaphor or the Mechanic?

I think mechanic matters more than metaphor because the game is the story platform that requires players to be engaged or somewhat that let players be involved in the narrative settings, or even players create a story. The player is a key cast in a game in terms of completing the process of gaming. Although the metaphor is a rule set that can determine the quality of the game, it is not the first step because sometimes not all similar rules are applied to the same or different games.

Ideal Potential Player(s)?

I have no preference about who I would like to collaborate with because I would like to learn their different aspects of approaching the game design solutions.