Ames' syllabi

1a. What Mechanics would you like to use for a game with a theme that revolves around being the size of a nanometer?

The first thing I thought of reading this was Little Nightmares for some reason, and then I kind of went with the aspect of playing as something so little and how it makes you have to play sort of cautiously. So, I think that game piece movement, and movement from area to area would be something I’d want to explore in terms of finding a way to incorporate that caution

1b. Who are you making games for?

Most of my ideas stem from things I myself enjoy, or find interesting. So, when I make a game I’d say its targeted at like-minded people.

1c. Who will be your play testers outside of class?

My roommate and my brother primarily. Potentially, some of my other classmates/friends as well.

2a. Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules?

Pictionary, Headbandz, War, Blackjack. These were all games that were easy for me to just jump in and play.

2b. How do you define what a game is?

To me, a game is a structured form of immersive entertainment.

2c. What features can make your games more intuitive?

I think that having a reason behind the games design is important , and not just creating game pieces mindlessly or because you “need” them. The pieces of the game should have a purpose that is easy and clear to see when you view them. They should also fit into the game as a whole.

3a. What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming?

Spoons. I mean I played all kinds of video games before, and boardgames here and there as a kid, but I can remember Spoons as being one of the first games I got truly fascinated with. I always wanted to play it, and I always enjoyed it.  

3b. What features do gateway games share?

• They’re easy to learn/play
• They have a theme that can appeal to a wide variety of people. 
• They’re simple
• They include interaction between players
• They are not solely based on skill 
• They aren’t overly time-consuming, but also aren’t too short. They hit the sweet spot. 
• They have an original aspect to them, something unique
• They are easy/fun to replay

4. What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own?

• Kingmakers Noblesse Oblige
• BattleTech’s Heat
• Set’s Set-Making
• Magic’s Card Tapping
• Battle Cattle’s Cow Tipping Rule
• xXxenophile’s Popping
• Bohnanza’s Hand Order Rule
• Mississippi Queen’s Paddlewheels
• Time’s Up!’s Communicationn Breakdown
• Dominions Constant Shuffling

I should aim to have a game mechanic that makes the game enjoyable. Something that doesn’t feel tedious, but fun and works to elevate the game as a whole.

5. How does luck and strategy factor into game play?

Both Luck and Strategy are key factors in playing and winning a game. While playing with strategy comes from having a deeper understanding and knowledge of the game, it is still not always a surefire way to win. This is because luck exists randomly. It is a crucial part of gameplay that can either boost a player to a win, or cause their downfall. Luck is also what helps keep the game interesting, it’s an unpredictable lement and it helps to ensure different outcomes.

1. What Mechanics would you like to use for a game with a theme that revolves around being the size of a nanometer?

I think movement and perception would play large parts in this type of game. At that size, something the size of a pepsi can has enough of a gravitational pull to hold you rooted to its surface, and that surface is a lot more uneven and bumpy than we perceive with the naked eye. Additionally, atoms are about .1 to .5 nanometers in size, so you would see the world in terms of atoms. Electromagnetic forces could also play a huge part, and perhaps the movements of these half person sized atoms can play a part in the game.

2. Who are you making games for?

Mostly myself, but my close friends as well. My pen and paper RPG is primarily for myself. I make the game the way I want with feedback from players and my own ideas mixed together. Of course I want it to be fun, but I think that at some point I have to say, “to heck with that, this is MY game!”

3. Who will be your play testers outside of class?

Several of my family members and close friends will be the testers, perhaps unwillingly.

1. Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules?

The game, “The game,” is played by everyone on the basis that the only rule is you lose when you think of, refer to, or otherwise become aware of the game’s existence, at which point you must announce you have lost the game and therefore cause all others around you to additionally lose the game. In this case, I have just lost this game by referring to it.

2.How do you define what a game is?

To me, a game can be just about anything. It’s always a set of rules, whether basic or otherwise, with the objective to make something fun. If I wanted to I could elaborate further, but the fact of the matter is, sometimes, stepping on only the green floor tiles is how a group of kids keep themselves entertained at a family party at the local fire hall. Even that much can be a game.

3. What features can make your games more intuitive?

Rules as simple and dumb as possible. Not everyone is stupid, in fact, the majority of individuals nowadays are quite the opposite. That being said, one of the biggest hurdles to learning and sometimes even enjoying games is too much complexity. Having a deep game is good, but if you can pick something up in 5 minutes, without having to refer to a rulebook along the way, it makes it a lot more fun to learn, and if done right, it leaves a lot of room for depth and freedom in play. Nobody likes having to stop a game halfway through to look up rules or settle a debate, especially if it’s the first time they’ve tried something. It’s like my friend Alex, a military man, once told me: Keep it simple, stupid!

1. What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming?

My gateway game was Halo: Reach. This was the first game I ever played, and I played it a whole lot. I loved the setting, the world, the characters, the story, and obviously the gameplay itself. It got my foot in the door in regard to gaming in general, but after that, I branched out hard. Magic: The Gathering, Minecraft, DND, Scrabble, Skyrim. I wound up enjoying games in which I can make my own story, so I introduce people to gaming using my own game, Soul. I can control the rules, I can control the encounters, the story, the characters, and I can get everything just right and tuned to the people I’m trying to hook. I’ve managed to grab about a dozen so far.

2What features do gateway games share?

Ease of learning, lack of complexity, a theme, interactivity, luck, replay value, a relatively quick or short duration, and originality.

1. What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own?

The ten beautiful mechanics are: Kingmaker’s Nobless Oblige: simulating equality through creative means, BattleTech’s Heat, simulating stakes, and strategy, Set’s Setmaking, simulating pressure and internal tension, Magic’s Card Tapping, which simulates a sense of resource management and game progression, Battle Cattle’s Cow Tipping Rule, simulating symmetry, xXxenophile’s Popping, which represents numerics and chain reactions, Mississippi Queen’s Paddlewheels, which simulates a weight of benefit vs detriment, Time’s Up’s communication breakdown, which simulates communication feedback, and Dominion’s shuffling, which simulates luck.

With your own mechanics, you should aim for beauty, whatever that may mean to you. They should function as a piece of the final work of art that is the watch, and they may be in themselves a work of beauty. According to Mike Selinker, this means that the mechanic is at the core of the experience, guiding imagination and allowing the players to play more freely.

2.How does luck and strategy factor in to game play?

Strategy can get you far when it comes to design, and can make a player feel like they’re truly in command, but luck can add tension to the game. In Battleship, for example, strategically placing your own ships can make all the difference, but there’s always that chance your enemy will guess exactly right, and it makes you feel like there’s something other than just your opponent bearing down on you.

What Mechanics would you like to use for a game with a theme that revolves around being the size of a nanometer?

I’m picturing some sort of game where you are a fruit fly (I feel they are the size of a nanometer). I think I’d add a regeneration element or mechanic because a fruit fly life is so short. It would be fun if you had the opportunity to “come back to life” but only if you had been able to lay eggs as a fruit fly.

Who are you making games for?

Personally, I create games for myself. A lot of times when I have an idea for a game it’s a way to make mechanics that exist more fun and with a theme I enjoy.

Who will be your play testers outside of class?

My playtesters outside of class include my wife, mother-in-law, parents, and my small DnD group who will try out new things I create.

Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules?

Battleship? Guess Who

How do you define what a game is?

A game is an interactive activity created to provide divertissement from the mundane.

What features can make your games more intuitive?

I think that color in a game lends a lot of intuition when playing. For example, if you had never played UNO but you picked up the game and looked at the cards you might assume that you’d need to keep similar colors together in some capacity. In Connect 4, Checkers, and Chess each side has different colored pieces. Sounds stupid, but it’s hard to play a game if you don’t know who’s pieces are who’s that’s why you need color.

What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming?

I’m honestly not very sure about this answer. I feel like I’ve been playing games my whole life. My family is a very game centric family. We have had “game rooms” in every house we’ve moved to.

I would say that what got me into more strategic card games was when my older brother finally let me play Euchre with him and his friends. It took a while of learning strategy with my brother, but we became pretty hard to beat.

I think for tabletop my gateway game was this random game produced in 1999 called Pokemon Master Trainer. It was a board game where your “Ash” token traveled all over the Kanto Region catching pokemon and even battling other players. Catching pokemon depended on your dice roll (higher level pokemon higher dice roll needed). As a 5 year old I thought this was the coolest game in the world. My brother played an “easier” version of it with me until I was old enough to understand all the rules. Since then he and I have always been trying new and more complex table top games.

What features do gateway games share?

Easy to learn, interesting theme, lack of complexity, an aspect of luck, short duration, and good replay value.

What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own?

1. Players are attracted to shiny objects – Kingmaker
2. Forcing players to make hard choices -BattleTech’s Heat
3. Set making games – Set
4. The “tapping” of cards, the visual idea that cards are turned on and off – MTG
5. Symmetry in a game is important – Battle Cow TDN
6. Card Popping (making comparison more fun) – xXxenophile
7. Hand Order Rule or using cards in the order you draw them – Bohnanza
8. Moving and not knowing where you are going – Mississippi Queen’s Paddlewheels
9. Communication Breakdown – Time’s Up!
10. Constant Shuffling – Dominion

Well Mike Selinker said that these mechanics were the bar, so I should aim to clear it with my own game mechanics.

How does luck and strategy factor in to game play?

Luck in a game is something that occurs while playing that is beyond your control. It’s not necessarily good or bad it’s literally just chance. Strategy is when you are making active decisions about gameplay and plans given the information you have while playing the game.

1. 1. I feel that I would like to see that the character that Im playing is very limited in what they can do and maybe have it that my character has to come up with different ways to complete task.

2. I would say I want to make games for young adults

3. My brother, since he is obsessed with games in general I feel he would have a good opinion and provide feedback 

2. 1. UNO

2. A game to me is following a set rule list that has a sort of victory at the end

3. To make a game more intuitive, I think that means to have game mechanisms be w. hat people naturally want to do. Like in UNO, TECHNICALLY you’re not supposed to stack the +4 with a +2 but everyone kinda naturally does it. 

3. 1. My first game that I played mostly by myself was probably guitar hero. A gateway game to introduce to other people is probably Mario party or jack box

2. In my opinion, gateway games have to be easy, to the point and have an eye-catching theme. You cant have any complicated controls like pressing A B at the same time as you move the joystick to the right. Or even in card games, you usually won’t start a person out with poker or Rumi. Gateway games should be a game that pretty much all ages can understand. 

4. 1 would be uncertainty, although each player may or may not be created equal certain events in the game can determine players’ win or loss. 2 making hard decisions. 3, creating different strategies. 4, Turning a card “on” or “off” by flipping it 90 degrees. 5, In battle cattle, you had a weight that your cow is and when it knew over you have to roll a dice to determine whether your cow stands back up or stays knocked over. 6, “Popping” cards, if symbols matched after you spin a card then you compare numbers, the lower numbered card pops off the board. 7, Keeping your cards in order and not rearranging them. 8, Seems kinda like guessing and hoping you pick the right speed to make a delivery but you as the player have no idea where you’re going. 9, a Guessing game where you only have a short amount of time to give the other player clues on who it is. 10, playing a few cards then discarding your entire hand, then picking up more cards playing a few then discarding the rest, which ultimately makes you reshuffle the deck.  

Out of these 10 mechanisms, my favorite that I would like to use is the first and last one, I like the uncertainty of things and it depends on how others play the game and what events come next. For the last one, I feel it keeps everyone on guard because you don’t fully know what everyone’s plan is and what you going to be delt next. 

5. Agreeing with the book, I feel luck and strategy play alongside each other. In a game, you are probably coming up with multiple decisions on what to do next and how it can affect your game. Luck comes into play when one of your strategies plays out. If you need this one card and you got it to complete your plan then that is luck, but you usually have a backup plan because you’re not always going to get the exact thing you need to win or complete your strategy. 

• In your opinion what should every game have? Why do you like your favorite game?

I think every game should have a set of rules that have been workshopped to focus on the ability to teach and understand. A game needs to be able to be taught to new players in a quick and timely manner, because if it proves to be too difficult or time-consuming, I personally will lose interest. My favorite card game is Poker because it doesn’t take very long to understand and it can be explained without huge paragraphs of text.

• List the games you’ve played and currently play.

Sea of Thieves, Grand Theft Auto 4/5, RDR2, RDR, Counter-Strike: Global offensive, Minecraft, Little Nightmares, Little Nightmares 2, Limbo, Sims 3/4, Simulation games, Ready Or Not, Mount and Blade Warband & Bannerlord, etc

• Can you apply the three act structure to your favorite game? What is it’s pacing and how long do you find yourself in each act?

My favorite game is Red Dead Redemption 2. In that game there is a very definite three act structure, but what makes it interesting is that there are incredible amounts of side missions and freedom. Players can decide to follow just the main story, or follow the new, smaller stories that pop up along the way, as well as any story they decide to create on their own.

• When coming up with ideas where do you find you start, with the metaphor or the mechanic?

I personally start with the metaphor and develop that along-side the mechanics. The metaphor is what will be remembered, so it should take priority when possible.

• Over the course of this semester, who would you like to collaborate with and why?

I would like to collaborate with Ethan, Clay, Max, and Frankie because we all seem to have similar motivations and think in a similar way. I also am very familiar with all of them, which would remove a level of stress when trying to think creatively.