Love letter Game Review

This is a card game played with 16 cards and they all have different abilities. The object of the games is to remove all opponents by using the cards to exclude them from the game. When you are the last person standing you win a token. The person that has 4 tokens at the end wins.

This game is based on medieval characters like a prince, princess, wizard, knight, etc. All of the cards have special abilities and rules that come into play with the game. This game allows you to use deductive reasoning and strategy to play against your opponents.

In the matter of reviewing the Acts of this game, there are multiple acts throughout. The first round is essentially one act, but you play multiple rounds in order to get your tokens to win the game. Therefore, there is a larger act being completed while playing in the smaller acts. The learning curve with this game is not very difficult, but the first round is definitely helpful to understand how the game is played. Once you learn how the game is played you are able to come up with a strategy and go into the second act. Once you are in the second act, this is a very confrontational part of the game. Anything goes, and this part of the game goes quickly. Towards the end there are the rates where you feel the alarm of victory or defeat, but you are really not sure who is going to win. It all depends on how the cards are played out. So, initial game is quick, but when you play multiple games in order to get tokens the conflict lasts longer. This is where you can really drag out act 2 because multiple people can win the small games. Once you hit act 3 towards the end there can be either a clear winner, or other people can attempt to play and get more tokens. There is some strategy to winning, but there are some curveballs in there to really give you that alarm at the end.

5 Game Ideas 1/28/2021

Kahoot and drinking combined

This game is played on a mobile device or a computer. This is where the player will fill out a questionnaire and those answers will become the questions. Once the questions are made then people will start answering the questions. If you get a question wrong you have to take one drink. If you get 3 wrong in a row you finish your drink. The person who gets the most questions correct wins.

Meme Generator

This game is also played on a mobile device. You will have a meme saying come up and you will have to go through your camera roll or your photo library to match the meme. Every person takes a turn to not play and to vote on the funniest meme created and continues. The person who reaches 21 points wins.

Mad Lib Creator

This game is played on a cell phone. This is where you have a paragraph or a story with a bunch of blank spaces in it, and you can only click on you suggested text messages. You are not allowed to type anything, but you must select the middle suggested text every time. Everyone takes a turn doing this until you finish the story.

Race Game

Mobile game or a video game. Single player or multi-player. A horse racing game where you can bet money that you earn by answering trivia questions. Once you get enough money you can bet on a horse to win the race and if you win you double your earnings. If you lose, you lose 10 points.

Shot Roulette

This will be a virtual board that you can spin and share your screen with others to show. Theres a wheel where there are different types of alcohol shots on the board. Everyone selects their guess. You bet on which one you think the arrow will land on and then if you lose you drink the shot that was picked.

Five Game Ideas: Social Distancing

Hidden Objects

What is in the box? In a group of 4 or more people, you are given four plastic boxes and a bag of items. Each box is labeled: Person, Place, Thing, Idea. You are placed in teams. The goal of the game is to help your team guess what is in the box. One person is the clue giver and the rest of the people on the team are the guessers. The guessers have to guess what is in the box all at the same time. They cannot guess each box individually. Each team is trying to guess what is in the boxes before the other team does.

Similar to: Code Names, Clue, Taboo

Stolen Identity

Someone stole your identity in the group of people you are playing with and the goal of the game is to be the first one who finds out who. You stole someones identity in the group as well. You want to make sure you do not get caught by the others in the group.

To start, each person writes their name on a piece of paper and puts it in a bowl. Each person picks their new identity from the bowl. There is a deck of cards that have questions in the middle. Each time it is your turn, you pick up a card, read off the question and then answer the question how you think the your new identity would. You might have to be creative with your answers because you do not want people to find out who you are. After three rounds of answering questions, each person takes a guess who they think stole their identity.

Similar to: Bang, Clue, Guess Who

Build Your Way Out

This one needs some development but the theme is you and the people you are playing with are given a scenario where you are physically stuck somewhere (in a jungle, out in the ocean, underground, etc.) The goal is to be the first one to break free. I have not fully figured out what steps would be taken in order to get out and the different obstacles that would be included. The picture I have in my head is to have different questions you have to answer. If you answer incorrectly, it will be a struggle to try and get out.

Color Changes Everything

Color is important. It can be informational, emotional, exciting, scary, etc. It is time to see how other people see and feel color. You are given a color wheel. When it is your turn, you spin the wheel and land on a color. The other players do not know the color that you landed on. Your goal is to try and explain the color without saying what color it is. This game needs some obstacles because for most people, explaining colors can be easy. You win by guessing all of the colors on the color wheel.

Sell Yourself

How good are you at interviews and making yourself fit a role? For this game you are given a dice and a role (stay at home mom, grounds keeper, college student, etc.). In the game, you are applying for a new role. Every time it is your turn, you role the dice and depending on what number it lands on, you pick the card associated with that number. The cards are characteristics about your person. Once you pick up three characteristic cards, you then have to sell yourself with your characteristics to your new role. The people playing with you are the judges and have to determine if you got the job or not.

Similar to: Fun Employed

Week 1 Game Ideas

  • Alike an upscaled version of the game cyclone in arcades. (Circle of lights that go around and you must time the button click with the light) With more players and instead of pressing the button when light comes, you must jump off a button that is underneath you. Much like a game of jump rope.
  • Each player has a different color button. You get a pattern alike simon says/ bop it and must repeat it as a team. Time slowly goes down while patterns become increasingly more challenging.
  • Shuffleboard like game with golf/hockey sticks. There are tiers of the goal. Closer to the middle is better.
  • Reaction time game where each player has a button. The game says go and you must be the fastest. But it can also fake go and if a player presses then. They get a penalty.
  • Game where each player has a hoop near them. Each person rolls dice to see how many shots they get to take at each other’s hoop. Start at a certain score and the last one knocked out wins.

Jackbox Split The Room Review

Describe interactions between players? – There would be more of a social interaction if we were all together instead of over meet. That would add a lot more to the game. Also having more of a connection with the players would allow for people to play with inside jokes to better “split the room”. This would allow for much more to be said if the players know each other’s barriers of what can and cannot be said.

How long did it take to learn? – It took the first round as a learning curve. But after the first round I understand this game mode fully.  I may have been slightly frustrated with the learning curve if I was trying to be more competitive at the time.

Would you play it again? – Yes this is not the first time I have played and will most likely not be the last.

Week 1 Game Ideas

Thro Fish – Played like “Go Fish” but the players are ~6 feet apart and cards are thrown. Only caught cards are added to the hand, the rest remain in the center pile.

Simple Ball Bounce – Players stand in a circle, six feet apart. Players bounce a bouncy ball to other players who try to catch it. If a player misses a ball, they are out. More balls can be added for extra difficulty.

6ft Laser Tag (AR) – A laser tag system that can be played anywhere, but players cannot shoot other players that are less than six feet away. Could include various game modes.

Infection (AR) – Similar to tag in that one player starts off “Infected” and must try to “Infect” other players. Other players are infected when an infected player is less than six feet away. Infection isn’t instantaneous, rather a progress bar slowly fills and fills faster the closer the two players are to each other. The progress bar would slowly deplete once the two players are far enough apart. Last one standing wins.

Snowless Snowball Fight (AR) – Players have targets attached to them and a set of balls. Players throw the balls at the target’s on the other players to score points.

Jackbox Game review- Zeeple Dome

I really enjoy a lot of Jackbox games. I always find myself having fun regardless if I am in the audience or not. However watching people play Zeeple dome was not enjoyable at all. It was very frustrating. A lot of the players were not able to hear the rules announced so they did not know that they were supposed to match the colors until the game was almost over. Even though the bag guys were glowing a matching color to specific players it was still hard to catch on unless you heard the rules announced through the TV. Two of the players were also very close in color which made for some more confusion. It was also not immediately clear that you could revive other players by touching them. This is a type of game that you would have to play once first to understand if you did not hear the rules. The character design is very cute and likable however when it comes to the bad guys it was a little hard to notice their colors. This game would most likely be a game that I only play a few times just to see all of the stages and then never really play again. There is a lack of satisfaction when it comes to playing this game.

5 Game Ideas- Social Distancing

Target Ball

Players wear vest with led targets, team members must hit opposing team members targets with soft tennis balls/foam balls. When all targets are hit you are out. The team with the last player standing wins. Can be a group game or individual.

Parachute Toss

People pair off into teams and take turns using a parachute to launch a ball into various baskets. Each basket is worth a different amount. First team to reach a certain score wins.

My Spot

Flat target with various divots is placed in the center of all players. As the start signal all players must roll balls simultaneously and try to get their balls to stay within the holes. The holes are shallow enough where players have the ability to knock other people out. Round of play lasts a certain amount of time and the person with the most points wins.

Zombie

Players must stay away from the infected. Players are given some time to hide and the zombie must find them. All players wear a band on their wrist. The band notifies hiders when a zombie is nearby(6ft). If a player and zombie make eye contact while the band is going off then the hider is now infected and becomes a zombie as well. Game ends when time is up or all hiders are found.

Shhh

Players take turns. On the table there are various items. In the center of the table is a machine/sleeping character. Players draw cards that say various different tasks they must complete. Players are given a certain amount of time and must complete as many tasks as possible without going over the sound limit of the machine. The person who completes the most tasks wins.

Week 1 Game Theory Jackbox Review

I actually have never played any Jackbox games before so playing last class was very enjoyable.  I say the game that stood out to me the most was Split the Room. Again, I have not played Jackbox ever, but I feel like this game was my favorite because of the style. The style of  Split the Room is a set up as sort of a would-you-rather game but made you think a little more. I thought the game was very easy to learn and I quickly picked up that the less that the group votes for one option over the other, the more points you get.  Getting to think who would pick what answer and trying to go with the opposite was fun because it made me try and think hard and fast before time ran out. At first I was a little confused but I feel like it was a very easy to learn game.   

The game that I found least enjoyable was patiently stupid.  I know drawing is not my thing so when I went to play it, I was more anxious about not knowing how to draw rather than enjoying the game.  Maybe if they gave us a little more time to think about what to draw I would like it a little more.  Also, I did not like how all of us could not play it at the same time. Maybe they could fix the game a little more by making the time to draw a little longer and allowing more players to play at a time. 

Game Design JackBox TV games-Split the Room

Split the Room is in a room that has a line down the center. This room shows us how many people end up on each side. The more split the room is on the prompt the more points the player gets. Whenever the game is starting a cat guy starts talking and tells us how to play the game. The cat also shows us an example of the game and what would happen. It is really interesting seeing what answers people choose with the given prompts. The last few questions are then doors which have a generated answer to the prompt or our own answers. We are then given a player and have to guess what they would answer. The game is pretty fun and it’s cool seeing what people come up with for answers to the prompts. I would play it again.

Patently stupid review

In terms of this game vs other Jackbox games I’ve played, I would say I’m a little underwhelmed. The idea of the game is to use a prompt (worded by another player) and draw an invention on your device that would solve the hypothetical problem. It sticks with a constant shape and color theme, which makes the game easier to understand and flow. The idea isn’t too original, and I would probably have liked it more if you drew for your own prompt. Another thing I noticed was how the automated voice had to repeat the prompt before every invention is shown. This is very repetitive, so maybe if they created more options for the computer voice or took that feature out all together. Usually Jackbox games are so original but this one seems a bit repetitive. I liked, however, how eight people can play at a time.

Five Game Ideas that Utilize Social Distancing

Mobile Murder Mystery:

A game like Clue or murder mystery parties where there’s a mystery the players race each other to solve.  They each start off with some amount of clues, and at some point during their turn they can ask another player for another clue.  There would be 2 or more players that were imposters of some kind.  When a player asks another player for a clue, only those two players can see the conversation, and all the rest of the game can see is that those two players are discussing (to add to potential paranoia.)

Escape from Haunted House:

A phone based group game that uses exercise and movement as a game mechanic.  All the players are trapped in a haunted house, and must explore it to ultimately find a way to escape.  The way players are able to move spaces is by moving spaces in real life.  The total distance covered between all the players determines how much they can explore the haunted house, and there’s some kind of time limit, so it benefits players to split up over a large area.

Crowd Sourced Story:

A choice-based adventure game, similar to choose your own adventure games.  The players will play through a story making choices to decide what happens in the story.  Each choice will be decided by a player vote, and they will be able to try to persuade others to vote for a certain choice.  Could have two modes: relaxed and competitive, where relaxed simply has a group of players telling a story together, but competitive starts with each player getting a secret goal of bringing the story to another outcome.  Relaxed mode would have no victor but competitive mode would have the winner as the player that successfully makes their outcome happen in the story.

Connect the Path:

An exercise based game utilizing phone GPS (and would only be playable in certain locations.) The game would assign the players a long path in the nearby area to fill out. The path would consist of multiple smaller “tracks”.  A player would complete a track by walking through it, and only one player would be able to complete a track.  The game ends when the full path is complete, and the winner is the player who has completed the most tracks.  A path might be to walk from Yorktown to the Neville Island RMU Sports Center.  Tracks along that path might include from Yorktown to Walmart, from Walmart to RMU entrance, from RMU entrance to Coraopolis, and from Coraopolis to RMU Sports Center. Players cannot feasibly make it from each location to the next in a shortened time frame, so they need to spread out to cover all the paths before the timer runs out.

Garden Growth:

A resource management and building board game.  Each player has their own board representing a garden, with different slots in which to plant things.  (The plants are represented with different colored chips.)  Different plants have different advantages.  One plant might yield a harvest every turn that allows the player to purchase more plants or supplies to tend to plants. Another plant might not offer any harvest, but have a fertilizing effect that causes nearby plants to be healthier or produce faster.  Each turn, the player would have to use a limited amount of actions to tend to their plants.  (At the beginning of the game, it would be easy for a player to tend to all plants in their garden, but by the end, the player would have to prioritize some plants over the others, and if a plant goes without, say water, for a certain amount of turns, that plant would die.) The game would have a finite amount of turns.  At the end, the victory would be calculated by points, awarding different points for features such as amount of healthy plants, money earned, etc.