Week 8 Questions – Sara Estus

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

A game designer creates the basics of how a game looks and feels in a player’s hands or on a table, but a game developer is the one who gets through the nitty gritty parts of rules, mechanics, and functionality.

  • What commonly occurs during the game development process?

Deciding rules, mechanics, and the modifications needed for those parts to work as desired. There is also often a lot of trial and error and prototyping.

  • What are the challenges of balancing a game?

You must be able to scale how much freedom and power players have in games, how much can they really bend the limits of the rules, and the challenge behind maintaining the balance is to maintain the integrity of the goal and process of the game getting there.

  • What should every player of your game believe? Why?

For me, I often struggle with getting through certain tasks for games. I can get easily frustrated. For my playtesting, I feel that being able to hold players accountable for their choices and give them the motivation to keep going regardless of whether it looks like they will win or not is a big thing I want players to believe.  

  • How can you avoid stealing players’ fun?

Don’t make games so easy to win right away for one player

  • What 10 maxims should you follow when writing rules?
  • A clear objective · 2. Constraints · 3. Interactivity · 4. Runaway leader killer · 5. Inertia · 6. Surprise · 7. Strategy · 8. Fun. 9. Flavor 10. A Hook
  • Question Set 2
  • How has play testing changed your game?

It has allowed me to see new ways mechanics can be used as well as rules

  • who from class would you like to playtest your next game or version 2 of your first game?

Amber, I haven’t played her first game, and she hasn’t played mine either. I have only seen the gameplay a little and I’m super interested in it

  • Who is the audience for your game?

For the first game, with AI called Academic Integrity, really all ages, younger people will have an easier time though, but for the second game “A Box for my Trinkets” is young adults, as there are too many small pieces.

  • Who should playtest your game outside of class?

I want to see some of the media arts faculty play Academic Integrity, I think it would be so fun and silly

Catagories play test

the most frustrating pasrt about the game was trying not to repeat what someone had previously said. my favorite aspect was the fun catagories. some of them i didnt know a lot of but there were ones where i could have gone on for days. If i could change one thing it would be the point system because if you knew a lot of things in that catagory you would not always be rewarded. the game was fun

Week 8 Questions

Question Set 1

  • what is the difference between a game designer and a game developer? A game design is typically the one who comes up with the idea and the design (characters, story, gameplay). Where a game developer takes those game ideas and developes them into a working game by writing code and handling the technical developement.
  • what commonly occurs during the game development process? Planning, Pre-production, Production, Testing, Pre-Launch, Launch and Post-production
  • what are the challenges of balancing a game? crafting difficult obstacles that resonate with everyone.
  • what should every player of your game believe? why? The should be believe that your game is both fun and enjoyable because if they don;t then they won’t want to play your game again or tell others about it.
  • how can you avoid stealing players fun? When the instructions are too long or unclear so players argue about what is right.
  • what 10 maxims should you follow when writing rules? Avoid jargon; stick to plain language. Keep it simple and straightforward. Add a bit of personality, but don’t overdo it. Make sure the text is easy to understand, don’t use complicated terms. Break up any confusing rules; keep it flexible. Make it visually appealing without too much bolding or capitalization. Test your final draft, and address any mistakes in the FAQ after it’s published.

Question Set 2

  • how has play testing changed your game? Helped me to be able to further develope my game and make it suitable for not just those in the basketball community. The game no allows for someone whon may know nothing about baskteball to win.
  • who from class would you like to play test your next game or version 2 of your first game? I don’t really have a particular person in mind, nobody in class has actually got to play it yet so anybody would be fine.
  • who is the audience for your game? Anyone 12+ just because some of the Trivia Questions are hard.
  • who should play test your game outside of class? I think people at my work since everyone is pretty much involved in sports.

Week 8 Questions

  • Question Set 1
    • what is the difference between a game designer and a game developer? A game developer does not design the game, but “they make a lot of the games you buy better” (pg. 74). The game developer helps perfect the game by suggesting often minor changes to the rules, mechanics, etc. The designer comes up with the idea and inspiration for the game, but the developer turns this into a finished product. 
    • what commonly occurs during the game development process? Initial playtesting, reviewing and editing the rules, blind playtesting, and settling on titles and theming. 
    • what are the challenges of balancing a game? Players should be able to feel like they all have a chance to win and that makes balancing a game difficult, especially when there are cards or mechanics that have drastically different rarities or power levels.  Additionally, the interactions between the components need to be balanced, not just the components themselves. You also need to consider a card or components value. You also need to consider the different strategies that players may use in the game and if there are special techniques that will dominate over others and win every time. 
    • what should every player of your game believe? Why? Every player needs to believe that they have a chance to win up until the end of the game. Games become uninteresting if you know that you are not going to win; it just feels like the game is dragging out and you want to get it over with. Players also want to feel like they have some sort of control over the outcome of the game. 
    • how can you avoid stealing players fun?Based on Dave Howell’s guidelines, “don’t kick a player out out before the game is over”, avoid kingmaking (including kingchoosing, kingmaking, and kingbreaking), “don’t reward the leader”, “include inherent declaration”, “a player’s ability to influence other players should fall between none and lots”, and “don’t force a reverse”. 
    • what 10 maxims should you follow when writing rules? Use no intermediary terminology, use real words, make no more work than necessary, add flavor (but not too much), make your text no smarter than your reader, discard rules that can’t be written, take a breath (aka break up your rules), go easy on the eyes (not too much bolding and capitalization), get your final version playtested, fix any errors that pop up after publication in the faq 
  • Question Set 2
    • how has play testing changed your game? Playtesting has made me realize quite a few critical flaws in my game rules and design that I wouldn’t have considered. For Garden Sabotage, I didn’t anticipate players planting plants that they didn’t want in their garden and I had no way for players to remove them. For The Lamp, a lot of the fun cards of the game went unused because I didn’t realize I had put too few spaces in the game. 
    • who from class would you like to play test your next game or version 2 of your first game? For Garden Sabotage test two, I would like to have some of the people in the class that are interested in garden games or sabotage games test them, because I think they are similar to what my target audience would be. 
    • who is the audience for your game? I haven’t taken much time to consider the audience for my games. But for Garden Sabotage, I think it could include people who are interested in plants and flowers and also people who want to be able to sabotage other players. For The Lamp, I’m honestly not sure what the audience would be. I think I need to take further time to establish an audience for both games. 
    • who should play test your game outside of class? Ideally, my target audience would be the playtesters of these games. Because quite a few of my friends and family are interested in plants, I think they would be good for a primary test of Garden Sabotage. 

Garden Glory Test 2

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

not being able to plant out of season and not being able to harvest out of season. 

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

buff tokens are a smart touch. it helps you plant out of season. 

was there anything you wanted to do that you could not? 

no i thought the game was very well designed.

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

something with the bundle system. i found it too complex to the point to where i didnt want to pick any bundle cards up. 

What should be improved for the next version? 

the bundle system. 

Describe the game in 3 words.

Fun, Creative, Colorful 

The Lamp Playtest – Game Maker’s Notes

  • What questions did your players have? If they could only go forward, if when you decide to stop playing you can change your mind, 
  • How quickly did they learn to play? The players seemed to learn pretty quickly. The only thing that took them a while to get the hang of was what the numbers on the die indicated (lamp on or off, and 1-2 orbs)
  • What kinds of interactions did the players have? Players didn’t really interact much in terms of the gameplay. They kind of reminded each other of the rules and mechanics at times and suggested when they might be getting a little too close to the lamp. 
  • What confused players? The dice and what each of the numbers meant
  • What made players excited? The mini lamp
  • What did your players enjoy doing? I think the players enjoyed the trading post cards although they didn’t really get to use them very often. I think they enjoyed being able to turn on and off the lamp too. The players also enjoyed having their own paths on the board, versus one path for everyone. I believe they also enjoyed the art. 
  • Did any aspect of the game frustrate players? Players wanted to be able to use the trading post cards more because there were so many of them and so few spaces on the board. 

Potential changes

  • Make sure that next time I have the ON and OFF dice instead of a 1-6 die, like I originally intended
  • Include reminders on the board itself to let players know what the number on the die means for collecting orbs
  • Make the board bigger
  • Create more opportunities to collect trading post cards 
  • Add functions to the trading post cards that allow you to distract players with the new light source
  • Create opportunities where players will move backwards as well, such as when the light is off or when someone plays a trading post card
  • Clarify that when you choose not to roll anymore you cannot change your mind and go back into the game
  • Create more ways to earn points
  • Change the shape of the board path a little bit
  • Maybe incorporate action dies or cards that affect turns 
  • Add more opportunities for player interaction

Evelyn’s Counterfeit Couture

Overall, I really enjoyed this game and I think it is my favorite of your playtests yet.

  • What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? Running out of money to buy some fashion items and there being no minimum price when you sell one of your pieces. 
  • What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I really enjoyed how the values aren’t attached to the cards so each game will be a bit different and it’s more replayable. 
  • Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? I wanted to have more control over the personal auctions when I place something up for sale. 
  • If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? I would change the experience of the personal auctions to both be able to impose restrictions on the minimum price but also keeping the secretiveness of what the true value of the card is. 
  • What should be improved with the next version? Maybe clarify that the auctions go around in a circle; I was a tiny bit confused at first. I would also explore some different alternatives to the way that the private auctions work. Additionally, I would explore how people can get restocked on money throughout the game board. 
  • Describe the game in 3 words. Strategic, suspenseful, intuitive

Playtest Review – Sara’s A Box for my Trinkets

I loved this game and all of your little trinkets! I think it has really good potential!!!

  • What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? Not having super clearly defined rules about the actions you can and can’t take on your turn. Also the fact that having players offer to trade with you meant that you might have to give up a random trinket that you want to keep. 
  • What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I loved all of the different trinkets in the game. It was super fun pulling them out the bag and seeing what I got. 
  • Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? It would be nice to have a feature where you could trinkets without it being entirely luck-based. It was a little frustrating that it was almost just based on what you pulled out of the bag, although I still like that. Maybe having a little marketplace could help, but you don’t want to make it too easy to obtain trinkets at the same time. 
  • If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Make it so that players could totally randomly grab items from the bag or items to trade. I think pretty often people will try to cheat by feeling what item or memorizing the location of it in their trinket box so they don’t have to give up what they want. 
  • What should be improved with the next version? Overall I really loved this game, but some suggestions I have are to clarify what actions you can take on each turn, clarify the rules about trading in trinket cards and getting new trinkets, clarify swapping and trading rules (can players pick what they get to trade when another player wants to trade). You could also explore the idea of some different actions like forcing two players to swap trinket boxes. You could also have a marketplace where players can buy select items from there. 

Describe the game in 3 words. Fun I Spy-like Collecting

Catan Review

What were the player interactions?

Trading, Negotiating, Blocking

Was it fun?

Yes

How long did it take to learn?

15-20 min

Would you play it again?

Yes

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure.

  1. Setup and build initial settlements.
  2. Conflict starts to arise from resources and trading.
  3. The final starts when strategies start to unfold and someone wins the game

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game?

Trading resources and building / scoring

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?

Metaphor for resource management and community building. The trading and building stand out to me.

game reviews

anansi’s web of tricks

  1. the rules not being on the cards and having to look in the rules over and over again.
  2. it was like uno
  3. no
  4. no
  5. more cards, suits
  6. cultural, fun, trickster

word relay

  1. nothing was very frustrating.
  2. the fast pace.
  3. no
  4. more ways to get points to make it more even points wise.
  5. more points
  6. fast, fun, intuitive

dillon’s game

  1. knowing how to start and how the damage parts work
  2. i don’t think i had a favorite moment , maybe going into the negatives of stats for fun.
  3. no
  4. have more points possible for skills and have more health.
  5. how the damage system works.
  6. challenging, dnd, interesting