Ames' syllabi

• Setup
  • Everyone gets one character card with certain abilities, then everyone gets 5 action cards out of the pile, one chance card out of the pile face down, and one cat tower model, one cat icon, Everyone can only have 5 cards, and must play an action card
• Objective(s)
  • Climb the cat beds on the cat tower to reach the top, gain as many points as you can, and make sure no one else can win
• Actions players take
  • Regular Action cards you keep in your pile:
  • Spray Bottle Card- Skips Others Turn
  • Catnip Card- Skips your turn(stay where you’re at)
  • Chance cards actions that you are forced to play, 
  • Treat Cards- One extra point
  • Mouse/Toy Cards- Extra Points/Bonus Card
  • Build onto your cat tower
  • Risky Jump card- Roll a dice, if you get a number below 4, you miss the jump and stay where you are, above 4 and you go up a tower.
  • Rare advantage card- Zoomiez card, you get to jump up one layer no consequences
• Ending the game (win, lose states)
  • You reach the top of the cat tower, you win, and whoever gains the most points wins as well or is in second place (working that one out, need more ideas)
• Examples
  • In all honesty, my sister said it sounds like Chutes and Ladders which I have never played before so no clue.

• Rules must include:
  • Setup- Players create a deck that includes 10 fighter cards, 10 Mana cards, 10 items cards. (This may change)

Players will roll a die to determine what the map/playing ground will be.

Shuffle each of your decks and pick up 7 cards to start with

Each fighter has a different type of fighting style and abilities, which include, (Speedster, Brawler, Tank, Marksman)

The fighters will require a certain amount mana to either attack or use and ability.

Be careful who you choose because the map can negatively or positively affect them in the field of play.

• Objective(s)

The player has to use the brawlers to defend themselves. The player has 20 health. Whenever the player’s health is gone, you win the match.

• Actions players take

Draw a card whenever it’s your turn. Either choose to defend yourself or attack. Optional to use an item card to help you.

• Ending the game (win, lose states)

Player runs out of health or runs out of fighters

• Examples

I just attacked with my fighter and it defeated the opposing player’s final fighter, therefor I win, or I attack the player because there’s no fighters out there currently. I attacked the player and they ran out of health.

The opposing player used an item and got an ultimate from it. It knocked out my fighter and allowed him to use his second fighter to defeat me.

Tsuro Game review

1. Was it fun?
   • Yes, the concept of the game was not only interesting, but competitive.
2. What were the player interactions?
   • The objective of the game was to eliminate the other players. Furthermore, each player was not only making sure they were able to stay on the board, but also trying to eliminate the others.
3. How long did it take to learn?
   • The game concept was super simple, which made the game very easy to learn. Learning the game took about 2 minutes before we got into the swing of things.
4. Would you ever play it again?
   • I would most definitely play this game again.
5. Analyze the game using the 3-act structure.
   • The game setup was super simple, which required everybody to choose their respected color piece and pick three cards to hold onto.
   • Once the game has started, everybody moved around the board, inching towards other players, while making sure they don’t get killed. The paths connect from other players which cause people to slide around the board.
   • Once there were a few players left, people started targeting each other, altering their own paths to move towards the rest of the players. Once the players faced each other, they used their path pieces to throw each other off of the board.
6. What are the collaborative/competitive aspects of the game?
   • The entire game is competitive. Although I’m sure people could team up, everybody was striving to eliminate each other. The objective was to be the last person standing on the board, by pushing others off.
7. What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?
   • I’d say that a good metaphor for Tsuro is travel. The mechanic that sticks out most is when you run into another player, both you and the other person are out. I think this stands out the most due to the double-edged sword concept.

5 game ideas revolving around the same theme

Theme: Pirates

1. Sharks n pirates – Players must make it around the board while a shark piece inches up behind them. The spaces that the shark piece moves depend on a wheel between 1-3. On the other hand, players get to roll some dice to get away from the shark, make it around the board and win.
2. Treasure-seize – Players must take turns throwing a net onto plastic treasure scattered around the carpet. They must stand a reasonable distance from the chests, and rotate turns throwing the net. Once the pieces are out, the player with the most chests wins.
3. Drunken Buccaneer – During a turn, the player must spin around a certain number of times (determined by a wheel) and throw their ball at a target. They must make sure they stand a reasonable distance from the target, while everybody rotates turns. (The target is not too small, so it the game isn’t too difficult)
4. Ship builder – A fast paced game, that involves players shifting through scattered wooden pieces in order to build their ship. Players draw a small card with ship instructions on it, but they must race to shift through a pile of wood while other players do. The person that completes their instructions first yells “ahoy!” to signify they have won.
5. Loot luck – Players wear two pirate eye-patches while they sift through a treasure chest, using their sense of touch to decipher the right loot (they must pick a card to determine what they have to find). Ex: A plastic fish must be found in the chest, so you must feel out the item in the chest blinded.

Rules for Baller Buddies

Setup – Each player is given three small rubber/plastic balls and a ball launcher. There is a spinner, as well as three different heighted hoops on a board. (2-3 players)

Objective – Launch your ball into a chosen hoop which gathers points. There are three different hoops with different points.

Actions players take – During a turn, a player will place their ball into their launcher and aim for one of three hoops to score in. Each hoop is a different height. The higher the hoop, the more points the player will earn. After choosing a hoop to aim for, the player can shoot from anywhere in a region of the board, as long as it doesn’t pass the red lining. Each player determines how many attempts they get per ball by spinning a wheel from 1-3. If they don’t make the ball within the set number of attempts, then the player must forfeit the ball, move onto the next and let the next player make their move.

Ending the Game – Once everybody has made all three attempts with all three basketballs, the points are tallied up. The person with the highest score wins.

Example – Jimmy takes his turn and misses the hoop. Jimmy is left with two more basketballs. Next it is Brent’s turn. Brent makes it in the tallest hoop and earns three points. Brent is left with two more basketballs. Now back to Jimmy, he makes it in the medium hoop and earns two points. Jimmy is now at 2 and Brent is at 3. This goes on until all balls are gone. Brent and Jimmy ran out of balls, so they track how many points they have made. Brent wins with 9 and Jimmy with 4.

Example #2 – At the start of Jimmy’s turn, he spins the wheel. The wheel lands on 3, so Jimmy has three attempts to make his first ball into a hoop. Jimmy has missed all three opportunities, so his first ball gains 0 points.

Was it fun? Yes! I really enjoyed this game, it was a calm game, and the art was beautiful.

What were the player interactions? One of the main interactions for players in the game was stopping at the inn, and everyone passing around the meal cards, so there was a limited pick as each player arrived at that portion

How long did it take to learn? Not very long at all, the concept was easy to understand and the gameplay was also easy to catch on to

Would you play it again? Yes I would, I even consider buying it myself

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure. The story was set right at the beginning as you select a character that is traveling across the land (board). The second act in this game shows us that on our journey, there are multiple places we can stop at to acquire more items, money, or points! As a result of how many points you gain through out the game, you end goal is to have more then all of the other travelers.

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game? The only collaborative portion I can think of is the dinner portion with handing around the meals.

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? Traveling would probably be a good metaphor, and one mechanic that really stood out to me was the collecting “friends” that give you benefits

Was it fun?

Answer: Yes, I liked the collaborative aspect of this game, kinda took a load of stress off.

What were the player interactions?

Answer: Slow to start but then everyone got into it as time went on.

How long did it take to learn?

Answer: After reading the rules, not very long.

Would you play it again?

Answer: Yes it was fun ngl

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure.

In the first act things would flood but it wasn’t the end of the world.

In the second act we started to gain avatars and things flooding was a bad thing

In the third act, we made it to the helicopter lift and all won.

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

Answer: The competitive aspect WAS the colaborative nature of the game. It really brought every player into a team member state of mind.

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

]Answer: I think the games metaphor was to always do what’s right for the group. The game mechanic that I enjoyed was when a certain number of cards deemed a player a certain avatar.

Rees Edwards

1. Blind Help is a Strategy Game in which One player is blindfolded. This player then draws a card from the deck, and on the card is a detailed picture of something. He or she then must show this card to the rest of the non-blindfolded players in the match. They then will shout out one word descriptors of what is on the card. The blindfolded player then must use these hints to come up with the correct answer in three tries. Whoever gave the winning hint gets a point as well as the blindfolded player if they get it correct too.
2. Kill the Boss is a team based fantasy fighting game, in which a group of players each pick an avatar based on the player pieces they choose. Each player piece has their own abilities. In the center of the board there is the boss. All the players must team up to defeat the boss, but there could still be some betrayal. The boss has a deck of cards as well as the players (2 decks). The players can pull specialty moves or choose to take the loot associated with that power if that said power doesn’t retain to their player’s abilities. There are 4 different abilities: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. If one gains enough loot, They can buy power enhancements, which are unlock-able on most cards of the deck for those with enough loot. If someone gets enough enhanced abilities, they can then strike at other players and choose whether or not to kill or join the boss.
3. Start Up is a team based economic game, in which a group of players start their own start up brand based on the cards that they pull. Each person gets fake money, and pulls a card with details about a storefront. It is then up to the players to come up with different ways that they can invest their fake money to keep the store afloat. There will be another deck of cards that determines what they spend their money on or not, however at the end of the day, it is the player’s decisions if they want to make a purchase for their store or not. However, taxes and monthly sales also comes into play with the other deck, and this can cause everyone to either lose and go bankrupt, or win the game by becoming a monopoly
4. Order’s Up is a team based word play game, similar to scrabble. However, every tile is an ingredient. Each player gets 7 random ingredients to start the match. There will also include a card deck. When drawn at the beginning of each round, each player must “spell” or “cook up” an order that would fit the cards description of how the food must be. If one cannot complete the order with their ingredients, they either loose that round, or they can choose to continue working for another franchise (another player). Once this is done the new 2 player teams can get 11 ingredients. Whoever makes the most orders (team or teamless) wins.
5. Memory ice burg. This is a memory game in which every player collaborates with their minds to remember what “tools” they left on their ship that has crashed into an ice burg, but still hasn’t sunk. Each tool is a card, but the cards are faced down after being shown in the beginning. If everyone remembers where and what each of the 30 cards is, that was placed down, they are able to repair the ship and sail away. If not, they are stuck on the Ice burg forever and loose. Collectively, each team of players will have 10 tries total until they are stuck on the Ice Burgh.