Author: Carson Bauer

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Week 8 Question Set

  • Question Set 1
    • what is the difference between a game designer and a game developer?

Game designers create concepts of games, while developers actually fully develop them.

  • what commonly occurs during the game development process?

Game creating, Prototyping, testing, repeat

  • what are the challenges of balancing a game?

It is hard to balance a game because while doing so you must keep the game fair and fun. You have to manage expectations, keeping everything working well.

  • what should every player of your game believe? why?

Every player of my game should believe that they are a struggling person getting by by scratching lottery tickets.

  • how can you avoid stealing players fun?

Clear rules, easy mechanics, and intuitive to play.

  • what 10 maxims should you follow when writing rules?

No intermediary technology, no jargon, dont over complicate, add flavor, don’t write text smarter than your players, keep sentences short, make things visually pleasing, test games, mistakes aren’t the end of the world.

  • Question Set 2
    • how has play testing changed your game?

Play testing has helped me develop my game to a different level, since everyone sees my game differently with different issues.

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

Brayden and Owen

  • who is the audience for your game?

17+

  • who should play test your game outside of class?

My fraternity brothers on a Saturday night.

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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.

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Zombie Fluxx Review

Was it fun?

Yes, but took a while to start to understand the game and what the different cards do.

What were the player interactions?

The player interactions were the vast majority of the game by implementing new rules such as only being allowed to have so many cards, and how many cards you can draw.

How long did it take to learn?

About 15 minutes to sort of understand the game enough to start.

Would you play it again?

Not specifically zombie fluxx, but I would play other fluxx games in the future.

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure.

In the beginning, there are no rules and the game just starts and goes like normal. In the middle, the game starts to get interesting based on what keepers you have and what rules are going into place. In the end, you start to get more keepers and the game ends when you reach the goal card, which tends to come quickly when a lucky goal comes in place for someone.

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

Collaborative includes placing rules to better the pace of play. But, competitive can be the same by implementing bad rules on the same people to make the game go slower.

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

The metaphor is that you are always trying to reach a goal that isn’t reachable at the moment. But eventually, your cards will align and you will reach your goal. Just like real life.

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Collecting Games

Hungry Hungry Chopsticks

In this game, it has a base sort of like hungry hungry hippos. In the game though, you have to put the small balls in your corner by picking them up with chopsticks. You must pick up the ball and not roll it back to your side. The whole point behind this game is for it to be funny to watch people try and pick up spheres with chopsticks.

Mega Jacks

For a while, I have wanted to create a very large jacks game. Jacks is a simple game that involves you bouncing a ball and grabbing small metal “jacks” before the ball hits the ground. To make this big, you would need a ball roughly the size of a dodgeball, and jacks that are similar sized. When it comes to collecting games, this in an interesting take on a classic game.

Luck of the Lottery

This game is a traditional board game, but the catch is that the only way to collect money is by “scratching” a lottery ticket after each turn. These lottery tickets would just be not scratched on one side and scratched on the other so you may reuse them. Most of the cards would be losers, with some giving a bit of money and some giving a lot.

RMU Runners

This game is more or less a joke (for legal reasons). In this game, all of your players start in one room. You each draw a card from a standard deck of cards to determine order in which you go. If your turn is up, you must run around campus and take parking tickets off of peoples cars so the police force does not administer more tickets. The key is going first because you will have to run farther to find tickets when close by ones run out. The player with the most tickets at the end of the round wins, and you play to the first person to win three rounds.

Ground Hog Hunt

The aim of this game is to collect photos of groundhogs. All players will meet at the Gazebo, and will start the round with a timer for 5 minutes. Each player will run off and attempt to get photos of groundhogs. The player with the most photos of separate groundhogs at the end of the 5 minutes wins. Photos taken withing 5 feet of the groundhog rewards double points for that photo. If you manage to capture a groundhog, you instantly win the game (legally never said this).

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To Feed or Not to Feed Review

  1. Not feeding your animals all the way by the end.
  2. I enjoyed when we altered the game and had to take food away from our own animals to pay debts.
  3. I wish I was able to see the animals in my deck in order to read the other players and what they plan on playing.
  4. More food, and different food values.
  5. Being able to view your cards, food values, less than 3 rounds, and the power of certain animals were a little off. (EX: Donkey being too low)
  6. Simple yet fun
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Academic Integrity Review

  1. Figuring out whether or not something was AI, but it is the point of the game so it is fun.
  2. I enjoyed trying to trick other players into thinking a card was AI that I had to put down.
  3. I wish I was able to know which of my cards were AI so I can attempt to trick players, but it would also drastically change the game so it isn’t an easy change.
  4. I would add even more cards so you cannot memorize them.
  5. More cards, obvious cards and harder cards to tell.
  6. Tests your brain
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Building Buccaneers Review

  1. The most frustrating moment of the game is when someone finishes before you due to the card being much easier.
  2. I enjoyed the scrambling for pieces at the beginning of the round.
  3. I wish I was able to make even bigger pieces, upscaling the game to be even more complex would be fun.
  4. I would make the game board larger with more aspects.
  5. Larger / more complex board, more complex builds, cool building pieces.
  6. Quick Easy Fun
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Carcassonne Review

Was it fun?

Personally, I thought this game was a lot of fun. It had a lot of strategy involved, which to me is fun.

What were the player interactions?

The player interactions includes us bartering to place pieces in certain spots if we needed them, and placing pieces in spots to make the opponent have a disadvantage.

How long did it take to learn?

This one was pretty easy to learn, but it took a while to understand how the point system worked. The farmers, roads, etc all have different values so I did not understand how bad I was doing at first.

Would you play it again?

No, simply due to the games length.

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure.

In the beginning, you start by placing your first cards and slowly start to build small structures. In the middle, you start to place bigger structures all while screwing other people over. In the end, you finish your structures and the game ends. Once you count your points, the one with the most wins.

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

There aren’t really any ways to collaborate other than working together with another player to finish a structure. For the competitive aspects, it is basically the same in reverse by working with players in order for someone not to finish what they were trying to build.

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

The metaphor that I think of is that it is a game of life, and each tile you place represents your future. But each tile you look back on is the past, and it cannot be changed.

The game mechanics that stick out most to me are the builder pieces, which is a nice addition that makes it easier to finish structures. But also, I find it interesting how once the game is coming to an end, everyone is looking for that one specific piece they need, basically gambling on whether or not they will ever find it.

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Game Ideas: Red Solo Cups

Battle Cups

Battle Cups is a game Owen and I worked on last year, and I still believe that it is flawed and needs a revisit. The concept of the game is that you are playing battleship, but instead of trying to guess exact spots, you are shooting a ping pong ball into the cups. It adds a sense of skill to battleship, which others and I seemed to enjoy last year.

Cup Darts

This game is a teammate game in which you switch positions every turn, while also playing against another team. In this game, it starts by having a dartboard on the ground like a cornhole board, and you have to throw a red solo cup with a dart attached to the bottom at the board. It behaves much like normal darts, but your teammate that did not throw the dart has the chance to throw a ping pong ball at the cup. If the hit the cup, it is a 2x multiplier, and if you make it inside the cup it is a 3x multiplier. You can play this with any traditional dart game, such as cricket or 301.

Structural Integrity

In this game, you are given a deck of cards that are custom made for the game. On each card, is a different structure that you have to attempt to make out of red solo cups. In a separate deck of cards, there is a required weight that your structure has to hold. (EX: One pound, 1/2 pound, etc.). The way you win the round is by your structure being able to withstand the weight you have drawn. First player to 3 rounds won wins. To wrap this game up, why not add a classic sand timer as well.

Towers

In this game, you are given a large stack of red solo cups. The objective of this game is to create the largest or most creative structure out of red solo cups possible. You have 5 minutes in order to make your structure. At the end of the 5 minutes, the person with the largest or most creative structure wins.

Flip Cup Race

In this game, it is much like a normal game of flip cup. But instead, you will line 10 cups on the edge of the table and be on teams of 2. You will start about 10 feet away from the table and when the buzzer sounds, you run to the table and attempt to flip your first cup. If you do not land the cup, you must try again until you do so. If you do land the cup, you must run back and tag your teammates hand to let him go flip a cup. You keep alternating turns until the other team finishes first, or you finish your cups first.

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Tsuro Game Review

Was it fun?

Yes, Tsuro was an interesting yet simple game that I enjoyed since it was a game that relied on knocking other players out of the game by making their piece go off the edge.

How long did it take to learn?

This was the quickest game for me to learn, only taking about 5 minutes to figure it out by reading the instructions.

What were the player interactions?

The player interactions consisted of us yelling at each other when we make a good piece placement because it knocks the other player off of the board.

Would you play it again?

Yes, 100%

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure.

In the beginning, it starts of slow with pieces moving little by little. In the middle, the game starts to pick up and pieces start moving more and more and someone gets the dragon card. In the end, it only takes one or two turns for the game to end by everyone knocking each other off the board quickly once the board fills up.

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

This is a very competitive game, since everyone is playing against each other. But there are also collaborative aspects by seeing what pieces other players are putting down, and placing your piece according to that.

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

The metaphor “The path of the dragon” shows that you are supposed to choose the correct path of the dragon, and there is only one correct path in the game; the winning path.

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Week 3 Game Ideas: Carson Bauer

 5 game ideas that involve collaboration use the following formate : [Game name] is a [category of] game in which [the players or their avatars] [do or compete or collaborate for some goal] by [using tools the game provides them].

Socialism Monopoly is a cooperative board game in which the players work together in order to make a certain amount of money in a certain amount of years (turns). The catch is that any money made by anyone is divided up evenly among players. In order to make the game more difficult, there are more fines and taxes than normal monopoly.

Hide and Creep is a moving game that is similar to hide and seek in which the players have to take turns hiding each other, trying to keep their teammates hidden from the seeker in a room. In this game though, the seeker is blind folded so your goal is to put your teammate where it is very hard for them to be found without looking. Once you are placed in a spot by your teammate, you cannot move. After 5 minutes of the game, everyone must move 5 feet in any direction, no closer or farther. This indicates the creep aspect of the game. If the game goes to 10 minutes, the hiders win and the seekers lose.

AI Pictionary is a drawing game in which partners have to work together in order to find out what the teammate is drawing. It is much like normal pictionary, but rather you have to use an AI Image generator instead of drawing, and you are not allowed to use the word you are describing in the generation description. Your team wins if they guess it in the shortest amount of time compared to the other team, and first team to 5 wins.

Bomb Squad is a cooperative card game in which players have to work together in order to “diffuse the bomb”. In each round of the game, there is one teammate who reads you the instructions off a card, and the other teammate (diffuser) has to follow the instructions and make the specific pattern out of the cards. The diffuser is not allowed to look at the instructions. The cards that the diffuser has are different color wires that have to be organized in a certain way. I’m still scratching my brain in order to figure out a unique way for the instructor to tell the diffuser the instructions, but this concept has me interested so it is going in the list. Also, can’t forget a classic timer that has the clock ticking.

Maze Runner is a cooperative “maze” / puzzle game in which the team has to ask each other trivia questions in order to move through the maze. The maze will be complex enough to make mistakes, but not too hard as to make the game impossible. The teammates must use the honor system and play fair when asking questions from the stack of cards, each having an “Easy, Medium, and Hard” question. Depending on the difficulty of the question and if it is answered right, that’s how far you will move forward. But if you get a question wrong you will move backwards.

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Week 2 Question Sets (Carson Bauer)

  • 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?
  • If I had to design a game that revolves around being the size of one nanometer (roughly), I would make a game about being a piece of bacteria. In the game, you would have to basically infect and try to multiply and spread bacteria to everywhere you can before you are stopped in some way. It would basically be a big role playing game. Your movement mechanics would be just as you are a piece of bacteria, moving ever so slowly.
    1. Who are you making games for?
      • I would like to make games for people like me who hate reading instructions. I want to be able to design games that are so simple that you do not even need instructions (even though they would still be provided).
    2. Who will be your play testers outside of class?
      • My play testers will be my fraternity brothers that live inside my 10 person suite.
      • Question Set 2
    3. Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules?
      • The only game I have ever been able to play without reading the rules was Uno. Obviously I didn’t understand the game fully at first, but I figured it out very fast just by watching other people play the game.
    4. How do you define what a game is?
      • My definition of a game is some sort of exercise that influences your brain in the way that you want. For example, if you want to challenge your brain you will play a puzzle game. If you want to get your creativity going, you will play a game with a creative aspect. Another example is a game that makes you mad on purpose, so you play Overwatch.
    5. That features can make your games more intuitive?
      • Simple rules, Simple features, wide player-base, open to all ages, little amount of pieces.
    6. Question Set 3
      • What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming?
      • My go to gateway game is Minecraft, who doesn’t love it? For shooter games, I’ll point people to Call of Duty black ops 2, and for action sport games I’ll point people to Skate 3.
      • What features do gateway games share?
      • I believe that all gateway games have to be simple, but also a very good game in their category. For creative players, Minecraft has kept us entertained for over a decade and the player-base is still getting bigger. Even Call of Duty Bo2 still has online servers going all the time. These gateway games have to be truly legendary games to keep players hooked.
      • How does luck and strategy factor in to game play?
      • Luck and strategy have a huge factor in gameplay in certain games. I’m personally going to use Minecraft as an example. In Minecraft, you have to get lucky in order to find biomes and resources you need, but strategy comes into play for Villager trading, attacking, etc.
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Game Review: Forbidden Island (Carson Bauer)

Was it fun?

I do believe that forbidden island was a fun game, although it was difficult to understand at first. But after the learning curve was gone, I enjoyed playing it and avoiding the flood.

What were the player interactions?

The player interactions consisted of handing your teammates different artifacts, and moving your teammates with an action if you are able to.

Would you play it again?

I wouldn’t go out of my way to play it again, but if someone else asked me if I wanted to play it, I would play.

How long did it take to learn?

It took us about 15 minutes to understand the rules and get the game setup. After about 5 minutes of gameplay, we were more or less smooth sailing.

Analyze the game using the 3 act structure.

In the beginning, everything starts out easy and you are moving around the board to collect artifacts. Middle of the game, locations start to flood and the clock is ticking to get out. At the end of the game you get to the helicopter pickup spot, and leave the game in order to win.

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

The whole game is collaborative rather than competitive, since you are working together to gather all the artifacts and leave the game board. To collaborate, you can give your teammates different artifact cards in order to get 4 of the same card to collect the artifact. Once you have all 4, you can go to the landing zone and take the helicopter to leave and win.

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

The metaphor to me is that you are on a “Forbidden Island” and that you aren’t allowed there so the different locations start to flood as you gather the artifacts. For the mechanics that standout, I like the aspect of the water level, and however deep the water level is is how many flood cards you have to draw, making the game move even faster and making it more intense.

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Bean Game

  1. Was it fun?
    • I would say that this game was fun, there was an aspect of luck when it came to drawing your cards so I enjoyed that. But sometimes it would be frustrating finding the cards you needed.
  2. What were the player interactions?
    • The player interactions consisted of trading for other beans when you didn’t need them, and by screwing over other players by not trading with them so they have to plant a bean they don’t need.
  3. How long did it take to learn?
    • It was pretty easy to learn, more or less just takes a second to pick up on the drawing and placing aspect, and when you get coins from gathering your beans.
  4. Would you play it again?
    • Yes, would play again.
  5. Analyze the game using the 3 act structure.
    • In the beginning, you are starting out with no coins and small bean plants. In the middle, you start to get coins, your bean plants get taller, and you possibly get a 3rd field. At the end of the game, everyone counts their coins and sees who wins.
  6. What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game?
    • Collaborative / competitive aspects include trading and making sure people don’t have their beans that they need.
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Card Game Designs

  1. Card Darts
    • This game isn’t necessarily a card game, but it involves cards so not sure where to draw the line. This game involves using metal playing cards or trading cards, and throwing them at a block of styrofoam. It’s essentially darts but with cards. I plan on looking deeper into this one to see how you can spice it up, like involving a game of war and whoever wins each round gets to throw a card.
  2. 3 Card Poker Slots
    • This game is a game in which revolves around luck mostly at the moment, but needs to be dug deeper into. The game involves a dealer giving you 3 cards at random, and if you hit a certain hand (2 of a Kind, 3 of a Kind, Straight, Straight Flush, Royal Flush) you get a payout depending on the rarity of the hand. It’s almost kind of like gambling… well it’s gambling
    • Draw from the deck’s heart,
    • Match pairs, discard with each turn—
    • Count and claim your score.
  3. Match Maker
    • The idea of this game is simple. You get a standard deck of cards and deal 5 cards to all 2-4 players. Your goal is to get matching cards and place them face up in front of you. The players will take turns drawing cards, and if you get a second number that you have (EX: you have a 2 and during your turn you draw a 2) you place it in from of you face up and say “Match”. At the end of each turn though, you must discard one of your cards in order to keep the game moving and to avoid people hoarding cards. The person with the most matches when the deck runs out is the winner.
  4. Low-Card Blackjack
    • Ah, yet another way to gamble our points away. This game isn’t for the faint of heart. The idea of Low-Card Blackjack is pretty easy to understand. In this game, your goal is basically to be as close to 11 as possible, rather than 21. The uniqueness of this game is because it is designed to make people upset at their “points wagering” abilities. In a standard deck of cards, the most common card is a 10, whether it’s actually a 10 or a face card. So more than likely, you are going to bust when a hand is dealt to you. Instead of being dealt 2 cards, you are going to be dealt 1 card. That one card makes it interesting since if you happen to get a lowcard such as a 2 or 3, you basically have to hit since the dealer is most likely going to have a higher card than you, but at the same time you won’t want to hit since you are most likely going to go over 11. Just like Blackjack, if you get an ace and a 10, your payout is more. The game may seem complex in my description, but it is rather simple.
  5. Bobby Mo Go Fish
    • First of all, who doesn’t enjoy a game of go fish. For this game, I would like to put a spin on go fish in some way but make the entire deck Robert Morris themed. I enjoyed designing cards last semester during my 4D Design class, so this would give me the chance to design more cards again. But alongside that I need to find a way to put a spin on Go Fish; a rather simple game.