1- This one is a loose idea because I don’t know as much as I would like to about astrology, but I think it would be a cool topic to have a card game about. So every player is playing as their zodiac sign, and there are certain cards to pick from for all zodiac signs. When you pick a card each turn, it has a challenge on it based on your zodiac sign and their traits.
2-use a standard deck of cards and give one to each player. you have to pass your card to the person to your right. if you get a lower card than your original, you have to pick another card up (then youd have 2) keep doing this until the deck is gone. whoever has the most cards loses.
3-The cards are standard, except all white (no text) and laminated so you can write on them with expo markers. The players will write a dare, task, or challenge on the card. every turn the players pick a card and have to do what the card says. each player gets 3 chips and a chip is taken away when a dare is refused.
4-This is a variation of idea 3, with the same expo cards, except the players are divided into 2 groups. one group draws an image on a card and the other writes a saying on theirs. the cards are shuffled and, as a group, everyone judges which picture and saying are funniest when combined. Both of these players get a point. establish a winning number of points and when someone reaches it, they win.
5. everyone gets 7 cards. The goal of the game is to get every other card within the same suit. Each turn you pick up a card and the discard one. Your score once someone wins is based on your remaining hand. 10 points for all number card, 20 for face and aces.
Fluxx Review
Fluxx is a fairly slow paced game. The first act sees players slowly collecting and playing keepers, and setting early goals and rules. The second act is the bulk of the game. The rules will be changing, which changes how much you can do in a turn and affecting your strategy. The third act is nebulous as one player can still be trying to find their path to victory while another can be ready with a big play that will end the game. It is never clear who is closest to victory as the goalposts can move at any time. It is a game that takes some getting used to and benefits from being played multiple times.
Starfluxx review
Before last class, I had never played starfluxx before, so the first step was learning the rules. Half of my group had already played before, which sped up the game explanation. The basic rules were ‘draw one, play one’. Act 1 of us playing this game consisted of confusion, mess ups and rulebook referrals. Through this stage, we were all getting the hang of it and understanding the game basics. In act 2, we further understand the game and it got more competitive. In act 3 we knew what we were doing enough to actually try and plan how to win. We are able to figure out game strategies. The winner of the game is ultimately the only one to fully experience act 3, in this game at least. I think this game is half luck and half strategy.
Game Ideas 1/28-2/4
Dungeon Crawl
Players would explore a randomly generated dungeon collecting items and fighting enemies to beat the boss and get the treasure. They would be able to find items to help throughout the dungeon. The dungeon would be made of tiles akin to Zombies!!! or Betrayal at House on the Hill. Items would be represented by cards similar to Munchkin or Betrayal.
Competitive City Builder
Players would build medieval cities on a randomized map. They would compete for land and resources and have to defend from threats. City building would be similar to Kingdoms and Castles and resources would be represented by cards.
Zombie Resource Management
Players must defend a base from zombies while also gathering resources to keep themselves alive and better defend their base. Game would end after a goal is met or the players could play until they lose or get bored.
Tarot Game
Players would have five tarot cards in a plus sign in the center of the table that they can manipulate and replace with the cards in their individual hands. Each player would have a unique goal card that would tell them which cards they need in certain positions to win.
Bartender Game
Players draw and collect cards of alcohols and drinks and have to try to combine them to create different mixed drinks in order to score points. The first player to x points wins.
Zombee Fluxx Review (Madisyn Kovach)
When first starting the game, I was already very overwhelmed. Just by looking at the directions that was in about 5 point font, front & back, on several pages was not fun at all. Also, the directions were just a little confusing. After reading the directions and talking them over with the group we understood that there were different cards that meant different things. These cards include a Keeper (you keep it in front of you), Action (you do the action then put the card in the throw away pile), New Rule (a rule that can override the basic rule), and Goals (played by the basic rules/ kind of similar to action). After figuring out the different types of cards and what they meant, I started to understand.
When starting the game I knew you always had three cards and you would pick one up from the pile and then place one in the throw away pile. Then, I realized how confusing it was getting after laying down several New Rule cards at one time. The amount of rules that can be down at one time is just a little crazy. After talking to my group, I mentioned that I felt like order of operations made the most sense. During this time I also started to learn that when you successfully match two two goals to your keeper cards, you win automatically. So I kept looking at my opponents cards to see how close they were getting.
In the final stages of the game, I finally started to comprehend. We played about three times around total. As you know the first time was for sure the hardest but got much easier each round. I would love to play this game again because it was a brain teaser and really made me think. I guess one thing I wish this game would revise is the rule booklet that they give out. I feel like if the rules were simplified, I would have actually enjoyed the game during the first round.
Game Design: Week 1 Homework
Madisyn Kovach
Assignment: 5 game ideas that can utilize social distancing as a mechanic or make it part of the game.
Idea 1: Pop-up Checkers (Over quarantine, my brother and I seemed to always be playing checkers)
Meaning: A 3D virtual board will pop up on your phone and you will still feel like you are with someone playing.
Need: 2 players
Audience: Could go for the younger or older generation
Idea 2: Hey Alexa, Move the Dots (Inspired by Sorry)
Meaning: You will have a normal board with a plug. When you plug in the board, colored digital chips will pop up on the screen. You will need to say things like “Alexa shuffle the cards”, “Alexa pick a card”, or even “Alexa move the blue dot three spaces” (depending on what card you get). The board will be in the shape of an Alexa. Directions will be on the QR code on the back.
Need: 4 players, an Alexa, a phone to download the app
Audience: Younger People/Teens (10-20)
Idea 3: Quarantine (drawing game)
Meaning: While in quarantine, you must draw how you think your friend would redo each room in their house. After a player is done drawing, your drawing will be revealed to you friend. Whatever items are in the same place in both of your drawings will earn you a point.
Need: 2 players, white board/markers, or even could be done on your phone
Audience: 20 and up
Idea 4: Wash Your Hands!
Meaning: Wash your hands is to keep the game fun but not touching anything at the same time. When placing your hand under an electric soap dispenser, it will tell you how many spaces to move. (Maybe the board could plug in so it can show the sink dripping and thats how your spaces will move from point A to point B)
Need: 4-8 players
Audience: 5 and up
Idea 5: One Way
Meaning: Kind of working off of Candyland, you will only be able to move on way on the board. Its a start to finish game.
Need: 4 players and the game
Audience: 5-12 years old
Card Game Ideas
5 card games
War Game
Every Player gets a deck of cards. The deck is a specific army in history and there are cards that have attack abilities, blocking abilities, and victory abilities. The higher the card the more attack power they have. There are also blocking cards that will help block against the attacks. If you get attacked and you lose, you lose those cards. If you block, you lose the cards you block with. There is a victory card that will grant you automatic victory if you are being attacked. However, there are only 3 victory cards in your entire deck. You can play with multiple people and chose who to attack. If you do not come across a victory card, but want to win, you will have to attack and the opponent and the opponent will have to use all their cards against you and lose.
Color Card Game
Something with only color-coded cards. Everyone gets 5 cards. You go around and pick up one card and put a black one down. If you only have colored cards, you can put a color down but then you have to discard one too. If you run out of cards, you lose. Majority of the cards are colored black. If a red card comes up and everyone has to put a colored card down. If someone does not have a color card they lose. The rounds continue until one person is left standing.
Zodiac
You have to match the correct personality traits to their proper zodiac signs. There are 12 zodiac signs and there are a bunch of cards that match up to their zodiac signs. There are two decks, one for the zodiac signs, and one for the traits. The person who has the closest birthday picks the zodiac sign. The object of the game is to have most of the zodiac traits for that particular sign. Everyone gets 7 cards, and you are able to see which sign they belong to. You need to have 12 different traits for the zodiac sign to win. On your turn you can put down as many traits as you want, but you can only pick up one card at a time. You can also trade your cards on your turn. You can select a player and ask to trade as many cards as you want. Since you are trading the other person needs to accept cards from you, and they can decline. If they decline you need to pick up only one card.
Transylvania
There’s a deck of cards filled with different monsters. Everyone picks up 5 cards, and there’s one person that sits out every round. Everyone puts a card and then the person that sits out shuffles the cards thrown in the pile and then deals them out. If someone gets a Dracula card, they are instantly dead. Then everyone has to figure out who killed the person who died, and if you are accused you must argue your case. The person who sits out put everything to a vote and then that person who is voted out can reveal if they killed the person or not. The game continues until one person is left standing. If you win the round you get a point. The person with the most points wins the game.
Speed Russian Roulette
Card game where there are images of a gun and there are 10 bullet cards. You sit in a circle and everyone picks up cards as fast as they can when it’s their turn. If you get a bullet card you die. Whoever has the most cards at the end wins. You keep score by counting how many cards you earned, and once you reach 500 you win.
Card Game Ideas
Eat the Rich
This game is similar to love letter, being 10 cards for each person, everyone keeps a card to keep and one to discard each turn, keep discarded cards in front of you. Once all cards are gone, all players reveal their hand and the round is over. The lowest rank wins. Highest does not receive a token and is out for the rest of the game. However, if you have the highest card in the first round and you have the lowest card in your discard pile, you are back in. Rest (not highest or lowest) of the players continue on but get a black token. Continue playing until everyone is out. 3 black tokens means you are out. There are no ties with ranks, only higher or lower. This game focuses on the class dynamics during the French Revolution so the lower ranks are fighting back and dislike the higher ranks. Therefore, lower ranks are better in this game. Cards: 1. Peasant 2. Farmer 3. Servant 4. Merchant 5. Knight 6. Count 7. Duke 8. King 9. Priest 10. Pope. Keep playing until everyone is out and someone wins.
Match
Each player starts with 3 cards, you want these cards to match the win cards. The win cards 3 cards chosen from the stack on win cards, that the players want to match in order to win. Once a round is over all win cards go into a discard pile. The round goes on by players picking up a card and discarding one. The first player to match the 3 win cards, win. Shuffle the discard pile when there are no more cards. Shuffle the win card pile each round. 4 piles: New win cards, discarded win cards, new match cards, discarded match cards.
Not it
There is a deck of 10 cards, 2 of which are all black, 4 players max. You want the black cards, but you don’t want anyone to know that you have it. Other cards may allow players to see your hand. All players will start with two cards, then choose one to keep and one to discard. The round begins and ends rather quickly, either in or out. When the round ends, and if you have a black card in your hand, you get a point for the round. All other cards besides the black cards have different actions applied to them. If you discard cards 1-8, follow these actions: 1. Out of the round 2. Swap card with the player to your left 3. Look at the hand of the player to your right 4. Nothing 5. Lose one card, pick up a new one 6. Swap hands with another player 7. Show one person your hand 8. Out of round. Since there are 4 players max, 2 cards will be set aside and not picked up when the round begins.
Green Thumb
Goal of the game is to grow your plant the fastest. Players will get level cards and element cards. Level cards show what cards you need to level up and eventually win. Element cards are used to level up. This game works like go fish, where you ask players if they have different element cards. Yes = get the card, No = nothing happens. Each player starts with 2 cards. If a player has 0 element cards, they can pick up 1 at their next turn. Element cards include: water, fertilizer, sun, soil. Level cards include: seed, bud, sprout, flower. Each level consists of different element cards:
Level 1 to 2: 1 water, 2 sun, 1 soil.
Level 2 to 3: 2 water, 2 sun, 1 soil.
Level 3 to 4: 2 water, 2 sun, 1 soil, 1 fertilizer.
Level 4: win
There are a decent amount of sun and water cards, a few soil cards, and only a few fertilizer cards.
Smoothie Smash
Players get fruit cards and a recipe card. Fruit/ingredients combine to make “smoothies”. Each smoothie has a different point value associated with it, more points = winner. Round/game is over when all fruit cards are gone. To play the game: players pick fruit cards, make a smoothie with those cards, receive points for the smoothie, and then pick more cards at next turn. Sort of like scrabble in how the game operates. Example: you get a orange, blueberry, strawberry, and banana card: you can make a orange sunrise (10pt) by combining orange and strawberry or you can make a berry blast (15pt) by combining blueberry and strawberry, you pick.
Week 1 Game Ideas
- Each person has a score card that is ranked 2-12. When you roll a number mark it off on the sheet. If you roll a number that you already marked off subtract that number from the overall score at the end. Whoever has the highest score wins.
- Each person has 5 cards and rolls the dice. Whoever rolls the highest number takes a card out of the shuffled deck. Whoever gets the most matches and is out of cards first wins. Each person also has their own dice and deck of cards.
- Everyone bets poker chips and rolls two dice. Whoever rolls the highest number wins the poker chips, unless someone rolls a double and then they win.
- Roll one dice and the number you roll is the number of cards that you draw from the deck – each person gets 8 rolls. Whoever can make the most matches wins. If the cards that you matched are the same color, number, or all of the same number – you get bonus points.
- Golf – Everyone gets a golf score sheet for nine ‘holes.’ Each person takes a turn to roll one dice to determine the ‘par’ of the hole. The par is applied to every player for that hole until the next hole, when someone else rolls the dice and then that number is the new par. Whoever is ‘teeing off’ has to roll two dice until they roll a double. Each roll is considered a ‘stroke.’ If you roll a double on the first try it is a ‘hole in one,’ second try is an ‘eagle,’ and so on. Every one has their own score card and dice.
Bang! In Three Acts:
Bang! is a wild west themed card game, where players take on the role of sheriff, deputy, outcast, and more to face off against other players. Each player starts off with a certain amount of health points and cards, and has to collect cards to take down their opponents’ health points. Furthermore, each player has a role, which is secret for all but the sheriff. The player’s role determines their win conditions. When playing Bang! gameplay fell into the pattern of the three-act structure of the story of a game.
Act One:
This was the start of the game. The first few turns were tricky. It wasn’t until every player had had multiple turns that the gameplay and end aim of the game became clearer, which launched us into act two right around the third round of turns.
Act Two:
This was the longest part of the game. At this point, everyone was oriented with the gameplay and their goals. Now players continually used their turn to use bang cards on the other players to try to get them a step closer to elimination, while other players fended off bang cards using missed cards. Additionally players utilized beer cards to restore some of their health to stay in the game. However, the game hit a turning point when a dynamite card got thrown around. The dynamite card would take away three health points. The player it was thrown at had only two left, and when they failed to pull the card out of the pile that would fend off the dynamite, their game was over.
Act Three:
With the first player eliminated, the game reached the third act. The gameplay was intensified as the players made final plays to win the game. Victory went to those playing the roles of rogues and outcasts. They managed to whittle down the last health points of the sheriff, which ended the game.
zombie fluxx review
Emily Buzzie
Zombie Fluxx
Zombie Fluxx was all about being flexible and adapting to new rules and goals. The goal of the game was to follow the rules and complete the goals. To win, you complete the goal, sounds fairly simply however, the rules would change constantly, and so would the goals. One minute you could be seconds away from winning, another minute, you may not have anything that matches the goal. This game was broken up into 4 cards, actions, goals, keepers, and rules (play, hand limit, draw, etc.).
Was this game fun?
At first, this game was not fun at all. Also, our group did not play with the zombies, so maybe that could affect my opinion, but without the zombies, it was not fun at first but got fun later on. Since none of us have played the game before we had to learn it and it was quite confusing. So at first, the game was stressful rather than fun. Once we understood what we had to do and what we could do, it got a bit more fun. I’m sure over time and playing the game, it would be a lot of fun.
Interactions between players?
The interactions between players was a lot and also a little. There wasn’t much communication between players, you could probably play the game without talking to each other if you wanted to or had to. Interactions were more focused on the cards that each player had. Each card that someone would have, could affect all the other players. The action cards could involve other players, an example would be, getting one card from every member in the group. The goal card would affect your goal and what you are working towards, it could also sabotage another player. If you see a player is close to completing the goal, you could put down a new goal card, causing them to no longer be close to winning. The keeper cards don’t affect or interact with other players, however, these cards can affect your strategy and how you play. Also, some action cards allow you to trade the keeper cards. The rule cards would have the biggest effect on a player. These cards affect how many cards you can pick up, how many cards you are allowed to have, how many cards you need to play, and so on. So in summary, players interact through the cards.
How long did it take to learn?
This game took a while to learn, and even then it was so difficult, confusing, and stressful. Luckily Professor Ames explained a good bit or else we would have taken even longer to learn the game. The rules and directions don’t explain A LOT, for example, order and hierarchy of the rules are VERY important, but that isn’t mentioned anywhere in the directions. Was a lot of text that wasn’t very helpful. Just reading the directions, and never playing the game before make it a very very difficult learning experience. Unfortunately, how stressful it was to learn is one of the main things I remember about the game.
Would you play again?
Due to the stressful and difficult learning experience, I will probably not play this game again. I will definitely not buy it, or go out of my way to play it. If someone ever asks, “want to play zombie fluxx?”, I’ll just watch. Even if I ended up playing the game, I wouldn’t hesitate to mention my learning experience. All in all the game isn’t bad, for me, the learning experience outweighs the potential future games of zombie flux, i could play.
The story of Bang!
Bang! is a social deduction game mixed with elements of resource management (your health) as well as other abilities and weapons you have to keep track of. Bang! immerses the players into its world of a spaghetti western, by the theming of all the actions and cards that you partake in, as well as the characters that you become. All of the actions from the primary means of damage; the bang! card, to other utility cards such as the beer card add to the western world that you become a part of. The greatest element I believe however is the addition of characters and their unique abilities. Not only are there a lot of different characters you can play (adding replayablility to the game), but combined with their abilities the immersion these characters add greatly enhance the game. For example in the one game we played, one of the players was El Gringo. This character conjured a western world in my mind as I inserted each character into my imaginative story. In addition, El Gringo dying at the beginning conveniently played into my expectation of who El Gringo is, and overall it became hard not to become immersed in the world of the game.
The acts of the game were pretty straight forward, however act 2 of the game tended to last the longest with act 3 either lasting equally as long or very short. To start, act 1 would be the beginning of the game as each player grows accustomed to their individual roles and characters they were assigned. Then begins act 2 which would progress until one of the characters, or the sheriff in particular was brought to 1 health. This meant that act 3 could last a long time if the players couldnt finish off the player with one health, or it could last a couple minutes as all it takes is a bang! card to finish someone off. Add in beer which can save you at the last second, as well as miss cards that can save you from dying, act 2 and act 3 are in constant flux and can constantly shift back and forth.
5 Game Ideas 1/28 Frankie
1: A super-condensed RPG type game where two or more people compete to build a kingdom first. Progress is achieved by completing “quests” that are on a deck of quest cards. These can be real world tasks, like doing jumping jacks with one leg, or little dice-oriented combat encounters in the game world where you face off against the enemies of the king. Each quest will grant some kind of progress, whether it be new structures for the kingdom or just upgrades for your character.
2: A game about making players do questionable things in the name of victory. Players will draw a task card that determines the objective of their game. The goal is to get another player to do that task, which will usually be some obscure or random innocuous task like scratch their face or do a push up, but the stipulation is that they are not allowed to directly reference the task in any way, trying instead to manipulate each other into doing so. Every turn, players will pick a card that allows them to make other players do specific things, and these cards can be held or played immediately. Additionally, more than one of these cards can be played at a time, but the player’s goal is to use cards and persuasive competence to get at least one other player to do one thing.
3: A sci fi game intended for 2 players where each player has a capital ship, and the game is set in a space battle. Each player will draw cards from a pile that they may play one of per turn, unless otherwise specified. These cards will let them do things like sabotage their opponent, but the goal is to destroy their reactor, which can only be done by exposing it through at least 5 different successful sabotages.
4:A card game where the goal is to reach a total of 21 points exactly. The catch is that your opponents can subtract or otherwise manipulate your score.
5:A game where players battle to be the last one standing. Each player has seven cards that include attacks, defenses, and redirects. Each attack and defense will do different things as described on that card, and redirects will allow a player to redirect some damage to another player of their choosing.
5 Game Ideas: 1/21
1: A game that’s a hybrid of risk and chess. Different units can move through the map differently, but they have power levels that allow them to capture or deal damage to other units. The objective is to either take over the map or capture the enemies’ leaders.
2:A game played with dominoes that is more of a head to head experience. Each player will gain points for matching numbers, but will also be able to subtract points from their opponent based on the difference between non-matching dominoes that are connected.
3:A head to head card game with one deck of cards between two players. Each player’s goal is to reduce the health of the other to 0. Each player starts with 5 cards, and takes turns drawing one and playing one from the deck. Cards may include weapons, attacks, armor, or other means of interrupting or otherwise defeating your foe.
4: Similar to battleship, but designed around the idea of ground units. Pieces can only attack in a range in front of them, or they may move a certain number of spaces in a turn, but not both. The game ends when one side has no units left.
5:Doodle war: A fight game using drawings. Players will draw(ha ha) cards that tell them what kind of weapon to doodle for their characters, and then they have to prove that their weapon is better than their opponent’s to deal damage. The winner is the one who hits the enemy a certain number of times first.
Jackbox Review:Frankie
The Jackbox game titled “Patently Stupid” is in a few ways just that, but it is an overall entertaining game and I would say that it is fun. In this short review, I’ll discuss some of the positive and negative aspects of this game, and try to delve into how it succeeds, and where it doesn’t.
The game is relatively easy to play. One person acts as a host, and other players connect with either mobile devices or internet enabled computers. The benefit to this format is that most people have a cellular device, and if not, they probably do have a computer that they can use to fulfill the same purpose. The game is explained by a pair of narrators straight out the gate in very simple terms, yet the explanations themselves are very in depth and make sure to touch on the object of the game thoroughly. That being said, I did notice some slight confusion on my classmates’ faces at some points throughout the game. A disadvantage to this game specifically is that you are simply thrust straight in, and there is a surprisingly large amount to this game. It comes in 4 distinct steps, and each one is slightly different. The long and short of it is the creation of an invention to solve a nonsensical problem that is chosen by other players. Once you have finished your invention, the players convene and vote for their favorite. Only inventions that get a certain number of points are allowed to progress, or succeed, as the game puts it.
The game’s positive aspects outweigh the negatives in a lot of regards. It’s simple, the narrators employ comedy to keep it lighthearted and make sure nobody is getting too bored, the UI is clean and it matches the theme of the game, and there are two rounds, so even if you lose the first, you have a second chance. One of the advantages to this second round is that it’s slightly different than the first, and this means that everyone is competing more directly to see who can solve the problem most effectively, or in the funniest way.
Overall, I think that this game is a lot of fun, but the major downside to this particular format is that it can get repetitive during the second round. Hearing the narrator introduce the same prompt eight times is a bit much, and even though the inventions were funny and they kept interest high, this takes away a little bit from the overall experience.
Additionally, interaction with the game is done solely through a device. Though this allows for people to play remotely, as in our case, it may limit the amount of interaction that players have with each other throughout gameplay. Perhaps it was just our case, but playing over a video call made it impossible to gauge the reactions that other players had to the inventions displayed. In a more personal setting, discussion may be had about why they were good or bad, and a player could use this to their advantage during the second round. This is less a criticism of the game itself and more one of the manner in which we played it.
To conclude, I think Jackbox’s “Patently Stupid,” was an entertaining game and is fun for what it is.