Tag: games

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Rules for Barrel of Truth (Version 1)- Colin Kenny

Each player is given a Sharpie or any type of pen, but all of them must be identical. Each round, the host (me) hands each player a slip of paper and asks them to respond to a question or prompt pertaining to the other players. It can be in the form of an assumption, and opinion, a secret, etc. No direction is given whether the responses SHOULD be positive or negative. Some rounds will require players to write their own names on their slips along with their answers, other round they must be completely anonymous. After every player has answered, they will put their slip in the barrel, the barrel is closed and mixed, and each answer is read aloud by the host. The players are suggested to share thoughts and feelings of the responses. Once everyone is ready, the next round begins. The game ends whenever the players either hate each other or get bored.

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Review of Gideon’s The Unseen Directive – Colin Kenny

  1. What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? Trying to scan the QR codes and then being met with requesting access to a Google Drive every time, and the thinness of the paper making it difficult to pull a card out and put it on the table.
  2. What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? The narrative and the reveal at the end were very clever. I played with Kelsey, and throughout the game we new something was up and that the colors and the action of grabbing the right color meant something, we just didn’t know what.
  3. Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? Well maybe being able to read all of the cards but for time we couldn’t.
  4. If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? It would be cool to see this as a computer game or something that doesn’t require a moderator to give the list of colors.
  5. What should be improved with the next version? Better materials and better graphics, but I’m confident Gideon can do that.
  6. Describe the game in 3 words. Color Match Mystery

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Review of Ames’s Civilization Simulation Game – Colin Kenny

  1. What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? The lack of knowledge of what we were “supposed” to be doing. The testing phase for this game still felt very loose.
  2. What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I liked the dedicated 3D printing style. The pieces and board just had this interesting aesthetic that brought me into the world a little more. I also enjoyed taking out the civilians before they could reach the edge of the board and adding them to my collection.
  3. Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? I’ll be honest, I did kind of fudge the number of moves I had to do the things I wanted to do. It was hard with 6 players taking loooooong turns to think ahead and make moves that feel like you are actually progressing.
  4. 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 try my best to keep the turns moving quickly somehow, or just limit the max number of players.
  5. What should be improved with the next version? I don’t think we were necessarily the right audience for this game, but if it was for us I would say simplification of things like goals, actions, amount of times you could roll the dice, etc.
  6. Describe the game in 3 words. We Live Inasociety
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King of Tokyo & Bonanza Game Response/ Collecting Game Ideas- Colin Kenny

King of Tokyo Response

Was it fun? It was, but not my favorite.

What were the player interactions? It always felt like we were attacking each other no matter what.

How long did it take to learn? 10 minutes

Would you play it again? Yes

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure. Start of the game we decided whether to go for points or taking out other players. Then people started to be killed and it became a battle between just two people and then one eventually came out on top.

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game? It was purely competitive, but it was quick enough to make you want to try again

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? I guess there was no real metaphor except for giant monsters trying to kill each other. The dice rolling mechanic for points, healing, or attacking combinations was the main focal point and a fun alternative to always just drawing cards.

Bonanza Response

Was it fun? Not really

What were the player interactions? We spent so much f*cking time trading and talking that we only got through the deck once and had to end the game.

How long did it take to learn? 10 minutes, with help from Ames

Would you play it again? Nah

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure. 1. Figuring out how the game works and the best bean combinations, 2. Getting the hang of the order of operations and beginning to trade better. 3. Realizing the game is too close to call and finding out who has the most coins

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game? Trading was a key element and as I said we spent much more time than we probably should have trying to trade and team up.

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? The metaphor I got from it was “Don’t play games with the theme of f*cking dumb*ss beans.”

5 Game Ideas

You’re a Geologist! – Players take rocks from a limited selection and try to keep the other players from stealing them.

Ooh Shiny- Players must avoid being distracted by shiny objects and get out of the treasure cave alive.

Swap Meet- Players buy and sell good to and from each other to get the best collection sets for the most points.

Tooth Fairies- Players draw card sets and compete to try to collect an entire set of teeth.

Knick Knack Tower- Players play card in their hand to build their knick knack tower the highest or with the most pieces.

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Takenoko Response & Game Ideas – Colin Kenny

Was it fun? It was long but it was fun strategizing.

What were the player interactions? There weren’t really any direct player interactions because everyone was only capable of controlling their own actions. Some effects caused some players strategies to fall through but that’s about it.

How long did it take to learn? It took about 20 or so minutes to learn.

Would you play it again? I think I would consider trying it again if there weren’t many options. but to me it wasn’t that compelling.

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure. Act one I would say would be us starting to build the bamboo garden and trying to understand how to achieve the goal cards. Act 2 we started to achieve the goal cards and set up ways to get and achieve more goal cards. The game still felt close as Amber and I were each at 3 or 4 goals met. Then Act 3 I made a push to meet a couple more goals and although everyone got one more round of actions, it was kinda clear I was going to win.

What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game? Weirdly, although this was a competitive game, we ended up helping each other at times to follow the rules and make the best possible moves. The overall experience was very casual and though we had some disagreements about the rules at times, we still remained respectful and tried to enjoy the experience for what it was.

What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? I think one of the game’s main metaphors was that forces outside of our control and other people can mess with our plans, but we just have to redirect and not get distraught by our downfalls. One mechanic I found really fun was the giant panda running around the garden to eat pieces of bamboo, and when a storm came the panda would run away scared and you could move the panda to any space on the board.

Game Theme: Art

  1. Art Heist: At a party, players set up paintings around the room like an art gallery. One player must switch the paintings out for “fakes” without getting caught. Play can last as long as the party goes on or until the thief switches out all the paintings.
  2. Pictionary Art Gallery: Played in rounds, a prompt is given to some players. They must draw or paint this prompt in the allotted time. All other players then vote on who’s “painting” is the best. First place gets 3 points, second 2, third 1. After everyone has had an equal number of turns to draw, the player with the most points wins.
  3. Abstractism: Players compete to build the best abstract painting by drawing and playing cards and filling their canvas proportionally with shapes and colors.
  4. Color Bomb: Using some kind of catapult of other small plastic apparatus, players take turn launching small balls covered in paint or filled with paint at a wall or canvas. Whichever player has the most area of the board covered by the end of the game wins.
  5. Drippy Crayons: Players compete to answer questions to get their crayons to drip further down a canvas. But one player HATES art and is preventing this project from being finished at all costs. They must sway the others in the wrong direction so they answer their trivia questions wrong. If the project gets finished in time, the artists win. If not, the hater, or critic, wins.
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    Game Ideas Week 3- Colin Kenny

    FAVORITE FACE is a STRATEGY game in which PLAYERS WITH BLANK FACE CARDS COMPETE TO MAKE THE BEST FACE by DRAWING FACE PART CARDS AND PIECES FOR POINTS.

    RECORD SCRATCH is a PARTY game in which PLAYERS SLOWLY SCRATCH A “RECORD” TO TRY AND GUESS A SONG WITHIN THE SHORTEST AMOUNT OF TIME, BUT IF THEY PLAY THE RECORD TOO MUCH BEFORE THEY ARE ABLE TO GUESS THE SONG CORRECTLY, THE RECORD WILL SCRATCH AND THEY LOSE.

    TYPE TEST is a PHONE SKILL game in which PLAYERS TYPE WORDS WITH THEIR PHONES AS FAST AS THEY CAN IN UNIQUE AND CHALLENGING WAYS, SUCH AS WITH ONE HAND OR WHILE UPSIDE DOWN.

    NAIL BITERS is a STRATEGY CARD game in which PLAYERS TRY TO BUILD THE BEST (OR GROSSEST) NAIL MEALS by DRAWING INGREDIENT CARDS AND PLAYING THEM LIKE RUMMY.

    INFECTED: ZOMBIE OUTBREAK is a SOCIAL DEDUCTION game in which HUMANS MUST ROOT OUT WHO AMONG THEM (IF ANY) HAS BEEN INFECTED BY THE ZOMBIE VIRUS by WATCHING TO SEE WHO ISN’T DOING THEIR JOB IN THE SURVIVAL BUNKER.

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    Pandemic Response Questions- Colin Kenny

    Was it fun? It was moderately enjoyable. Strategizing and collaborating was fun because that’s something I can really sink my teeth into when I play games but the impending doom of knowing you probably weren’t going to win was just kinda meh.

    What were the player interactions? As I usually do in group activities, I took on a leadership role because I thought I understood the game the best and tried to help everyone else make the best moves. Everyone did try to share there ideas too which i didn’t shut down which I think made it a positive social aspect.

    How long did it take to learn? Hard to say because we left for Saxby’s in the middle of setting up but in total I’d say it took about 30 minutes.

    Would you play it again? Yeah I would say I would. I’m interested in seeing how much better I could do with more experience.

    3 Act Structure: We started by making small moves and following directions closely. When we got more comfortable we talked a lot more about our options and planned accordingly to account for the epidemics. We then got to a point where we realized we couldn’t win, but we reached a satisfying conclusion by eradicating the virus throughout North America.

    What are the collaborative and competitive aspects to the game? The game was fully collaborative, as everyone wins or loses together. We were able to share ideas and thoughts in a somewhat stress-free way.

    What is the games metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout? I think the metaphor is that without experience, really hard problems like curing a pandemic are almost impossible. And even with experience, things don’t always work out as expected. The one mechanic that stood out to me was the forced epidemic cards which made things harder throughout the game, but what I liked specifically was that the directions had us shuffle the epidemic cards into the deck in a way that spread them out across the game.

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      Question Set Week 2- Colin Kenny

      • Question Set 1
        1. What Mechanics would you like to use for a game with a theme that revolves around being the size of a nanometer?
        2. Who are you making games for?
        3. Who will be your play testers outside of class?
      • Question Set 2
        1. Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules?
        2. How do you define what a game is?
        3. What features can make your games more intuitive?
      • Question Set 3
        1. What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming?
        2. What features do gateway games share?
        3. What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own?
        4. How does luck and strategy factor in to game play?

      Set 1
      1. Being able to change objects’ sizes, limited movement, etc.
      2. I guess my goal would be to make games that have a wide range of audience so that people across age groups, like families, can play together and have fun.
      3. I could either go home and play with wonderful mom, or I could have so fun with it by asking my friends from RMU theater.

      Set 2
      1. Most of the games I have watched people play online are easy for me to get the gist of if I ever purchase the game for myself. For example the card game Anomia is a fast thinking card game with simple-ish rules that I was able to understand the pattern and quick turns of easily.
      2. I would say a game is a competitive experience where one or more players tries to reach a goal to “win.”
      3.I would try to implement simple graphics and simple action phrases so the rules are easy to pick up in an efficient manner.

      Set 3
      1. The earliest games I can recall playing are those Wii games I mentioned in my last question set post. If I were to introduce some to a simple gameplay experience, I would probably boot up one of those games because the motion controls and buttons are easy to understand.
      2. Quick rounds/turns, simples rules and actions, attractive designs
      3. Pass
      4. A good balance of luck and strategy should be involved in any good game so that the players still feel the experience is fair and that they could still win at any point.