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Thoughts on Two Computer Games — Flowers & Journey

Flowers

The trip starts with empty green land — the mountainous valley and peaks without grass, its protagonist is flying petals whose mission is to seek other magical petals to get connected that will restore the exuberant landscapes. It is an impactful game because it educates us that collaborative decisions can fulfill the dream toward reality and that each process of environmental protection matters in determining how large amounts of grassland can be recovered.

Journey

The trip starts in a desert environment where the protagonist has the courageous confidence to overcome the upcoming obstacles and is willing to take opportunity costs; the main character believes that faith can be everywhere and is feasible if he dares to explore each solution strategy. If he thinks he can fly over the sky to dive deeper into his real insight, and fulfill it to become a reality. It is an impactful game because it not only demonstrates how faith can become the greatest power fuel for depressive periods of struggle but also proves that miracles do happen if you can accomplish each set of obstacles and challenges of life’s course; in other words, think barriers as the opportunity to gain weapon of creativity that defeat the confusions.

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Thoughts-1-9-23

I like how this class picked up from last semester and how most of the class wasn’t taken up with reading the syllabus and doing introductions. I was also interested in the Painstation because I had no idea that game existed and how many people wanted to play it. During class, we talked about how some people are completionists and want to fully complete the game by getting all the achievements and checking every box, myself included. Another question that was asked was why this was, why do you feel you need to complete the game to that extent? I feel I want to get everything out of the game that is possible. I want to find all of the hidden elements of the game and check all the boxes. During class when Max was playing the flower game, I felt a little frustrated with him for not hitting/collecting all the flowers. Although, I don’t think you needed to get every single flower, just the flowers that glowed around them. The user experience wouldn’t change from not collecting them and you would continue to open/brighten more areas of the game. When I played Journey, I liked the aspect of the game by just following subtle paths that were presented and how easy it was to pick up on the game.

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Thoughts – 1/9/23

Today’s first class was pretty successful I’d say. Feels like we picked up where we left off in the first semester, but added some more intriguing ideas. I enjoyed the Calvin Ball demo. Although very loose and abstract, my dad read me Calvin and Hobbs before bed when I was little so I’ve always like it, so that connection was nostalgic for me personally.

The Painstation presentation was interesting to say the least. I had never heard of that until today, and was curious about a lot of the morals that surround such an idea. I asked in class
“how is that even allowed?” and Prof. Ames explained that there are waivers involved. Also, taking it a step further I tried to get into the rules and objective of Painstation, asking how you win, and questioning whether there are points involved or if the winner is the person less injured in the end. It helped spark an interesting thought and brainstorming moment in my brain for future projects: the idea that there doesn’t necessarily need to be points involved, but maybe things you can feel such as emotions. For example, the winner of the game is somehow determined by a certain level of happiness achieved through gameplay. I think that would be an interesting thing to play around with this semester.

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Review 4

I think how my group’s website would compete with Burgatories website would be a difficult challenge. Since both of our websites are closely related with layout, pictures, and the menu bar. I think we have multiple options to click more than Burgatory with the navigation on our website with different restaurants. The colors are a lot brighter on our website which may not be a good thing to some viewers for sensitivity reasons. Burgatory is easier to see since it has darker colors. Even the textures are a bit different with each other since our website is a lot more color full with pictures than Burgatories. Our effectiveness with guiding through our content I think is better than Burgatories because we have a top bar and a bottom bar so not just one but two to choose from to get to certain areas. But overall I think ours does stand out good because of the layout and colors. Seems that our classmates/viewers really liked it.

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Thoughts on Sample Games from My Observation (during Play, Analyze, and Ideate Month)

Fluxx

The game is filled with elements of uncertainty each player needs to find them and switch the card path as needed to accomplish the mission; the game is about discovering each others’ advantages and taking over them to fulfill each other’s pursuits.

Bang

The game is about war and surviving with different partners and how partners can protect each other to prevent irrevocable damage that causes one of the partners severe gun injury or death.

Love Letter

The game is about each character’s strategies to transmit messages to the princess and plan strategically to deal with opponents.

Hanabi

The game is collaborative objects sequence game in which each player needs to see the upcoming cards to determine wether the current owned cards match the value of the card pile for successfully launching the firework.

Carcassonne

The game is a random puzzle piece that players will face to determine the dream place for each player. This is a structural game that one player who gets the most quality and lengths built objects — rivers, farms, and cities get further steps wins.

Dominion

The game is about a ruler who wants to occupy land without other occupants taking advantage of it; to successfully achieve the landowner position, he needs to collect more decks for getting enough price amounts to unlock the lands.

Splendor

The game is about purchasing treasures from gems that can develop final products.

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5 game ideas that revolve around a theme of of my choice

My theme is drawing

A game where two teams get different prompts, but have to draw on the same surface to get the other team to guess what their drawing is of. There would be a limit of how long one team can draw, so as to not just make a mess.

A game where players add lines to a sort of open-ended illustration, and the others vote on the best interpretation.

Pictionary-style game, but the drawer has to wear some sort of distorted goggles.

A game where players draw a mask of a famous celebrity or character, pass them to the player next to them, then have to guess who they are through a series of questions.

A narrative style game where the story is dependent on the best drawing a player conjures of their preferred plot point.

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Collecting Games

A game that is basically Pokemon Go, but for sports trading cards, so you could use sports arenas and landmarks as stops.

A game where you can convince members of the other players’ tribes to join your tribe as you traverse a shared environment.

A video game where you’re a robot that can equip other parts of robots you overtake to become a sort of unkillable (or very hard to kill, rather) centipede robot.

A game that exists in town from the show South Park where you collect members of the show to unlock new scenes and scenarios.

A Beatles game where you drive around Liverpool collecting new chords to make new songs, much like IRL.

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Collaborative Games

The Way of the Dragon is a board game in which the players protect and build their villages by establishing stable and compassionate trade routes with other villages.

Cardisaur is a card game in which the players complete a “dinosaur skeleton” by drawing cards from a large pool.

Boiling! is a mobile phone game in which the players must figure out who in their group is the odd man out by moving one step each turn, and their phone telling them if they are ”hotter” or “colder”.

Late for Work is a board game in which the players have to find the quickest route across the city using their unique municipal functions, all while navigating obstacles placed by the lone antagonist.

Invention Convention is a drawing game in which the players create the most useful and/or marketable invention by using the prompts and features the game provides.

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Divided Review(Clay and Mia)

Frustrating Aspects:
needing one card to get rid of your last odd number and being unable to pull it.
The wording on the rule regarding a round based system of scoring was vague enough that we completely missed it.
Favorite Moments:
This game is super easy to learn and it’s quick to play. There’s a good mix of strategy and luck. Ronan and I had completely different strategies, but both won some of our games.
Anything Missing?
Odd numbers are tricky to get rid of. 7 is the main culprit as it is a prime number, so a 1 is required to get rid of it.
Anything to Add?
I’d add more prime numbers or variety. It could also be interesting to make trios a viable option rather than just pairs.
I’d play this game again, no question. Very fun and very simple.

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Earn It Review

Most Frustrating Moment of Play:
I feel as though this game has the potential to become very tiresome and repetitive with an entire 52 card deck. Additionally, it’s a game that allows either player to ignore the action on the card if they don’t feel like performing that action. This can lead to games where both players are fighting over the cards they feel it is worth the effort to acquire. It may end up shortening the game significantly depending on what players are willing to do.
Best aspects:
The idea of a game based around completing physical tasks is always an interesting one, especially if a judge is involved to determine when a task is actually complete. This is a very interesting idea for a game, and I think it could be fun if it was refined a bit.
Add/Change anything?
I’d probably shorten the deck, but you can also change the actions. Imagine this game had a deck of its own cards and materials, and the actions were things like, “draw a smiley face,” or, “stand on one foot longer than the other players.” The competitive aspect of this game can really be leaned into.
Play again?
I’d definitely consider playing this game again, provided it was refined. I like the concept, just think the execution could use some work.

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Blocksploitation Review

Blocksploitation
Tester: Frankie
Most Frustrating aspect
The goal line is waaay up there. It took forever for ethan to finish his tower, and he kept drawing steal cards to take my pieces. If it was roughly 15-20 minutes to finish the game with one player effectively taking all the turns, it may be that the goal needs to be made a bit more accessible. Additionally, the steal cards are interesting, but there are just so many of them. I felt like every time I started to make progress my tower got confiscated.
Best aspect:
I love legos. The ability for players to pick their pieces and strategize on the way up is a great way to foster creativity and replayability. The well defined play area is a good way to direct players’ creativity toward the goal rather than just having them go nuts. The addition of the minifigures and other pieces that are more difficult to add to the tower is another aspect of the game that makes it more dynamic and interesting.
If I could add anything or change something, it would be the manner of construction. I would stray away from cards, and instead use a turn based gameplay. Perhaps there are certain ways to earn a steal or a figure or unique piece. I think the prospect of bonus points based on tower construction could be cool too. Maybe, if this game is meant to be a long one, you could play until the pieces are gone, and there could be bonus points for different categories, like part variety, height, architecture, etc.
I’d play this game again with some different rules. I think it has a lot of potential.

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Kubold Kuestions Fore

What is the difference between a “working” and a “display” prototype?

A working prototype focuses on the mechanics you hope to have in the game. A display prototype focuses on the game’s appearance and feel.

What is required of a working prototype, and what might cause one to fail?

A working prototype should be most concerned with every aspect of the game working as intended, rather than being visually appealing.

What makes for a good prototype according to Dale Yu?

Consistency, color and organization.

What advice from Richard Levy will help you pitch your game?

Get a good agent and sell yourself before the game, but watch your ego.

Where might you pitch your game?

Pick a game publisher that is currently accepting submissions from the general public.

What do publishers look for in a game?

Something well tested and easy enough to understand

What makes a good set of Rules?

They should include: an overview, components, setup, gameplay, card types, endgame and winning, examples of play, and credits

Describe the best game you’ve made this semester in 250 words? Follow Michelle Nephew’s outline.

I hate games. I hate all games. I would never play any of the games I made this semester outside of testing them for this class. But if you forced me to choose one to call my favorite, I would choose the lego game made with Ronan. I wanted to do something customizable and colorful, and he latched on to the idea of using my LEGOs very early in the idea making process. Originally we made provisions for a card based game where you would pick the pieces the other player or players get to use to build their towers, in the hopes that you could give them particularly unstable or inconvenient pieces. In testing that, though, we found that there really aren’t any substantially unstable or inconvenient LEGO pieces, as they are designed to be infinitely stackable. From there we took the focus away from the offensive aspect of the game, but kept a few cards that allow you to choose what pieces the opponent gets. The game we brought to class has cards that control which pieces you can add to your tower, like how many and in what fashion. The goal had always been to build the tallest tower, and the target height fluctuated a little – even in the final game. In order to discourage just putting every piece you get on top of the one before it, if any part of your power breaks in adding a new piece, you lose the new piece and everything that came off.

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Flick It Soccer Reveiw

What I liked

I liked the customizable nature of the final product. It’s simple, easy to set up, easy to play, and there’s not much to it. It’s pretty much completely in the hands of your players, being more skill than luck. I know Ethan plays soccer too, so this was incorporated nicely into his other hobbies.

What I didn’t Like

Not much to speak of. Maybe more balls?

What I think could be changed

I’d like to see a version with more pieces, maybe the ability to customize your scoring.

Overall

I’d play this game again, especially at a party or a bar. It seems like something that would be great in social situations.