Author: Ethan Romito

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Class 1/30

Today in class we talked thoroughly about “games for change”. It was definitely an interesting topic and I had some strong input on what I thought. I explained how I think “games for change” can easily be misconstrued depending on your definition of “games for change”. If you interpret a “game for change” as something that inspires action related to large political issues such as climate change, voting, or inequality, that is one thing. However, if you are defining a “game for change” as something that simply makes you change the way you think or feel (empathy as we discussed), then I feel that every game regardless of topic or the message behind it does that effectively. Whether you like or dislike the experience you have when playing a game, you effectively come out of that experience with a new opinion of that game specifically or that genre of game.

Also, I felt that topic in general because of this lack of clarity on definition became ambiguous, as do many conversations in class. I do understand the principle surrounding discussion and sparking conversation, however there’s always going to be two sides to an argument and with my experience in these conversations no one ever comes out on “top” in these conversations, it simply goes in circles, especially with the unique characters we have in class. Not that that is an issue, I understand the conversations’ point: making us think about new things and scenarios or questions we may not have asked. I guess it is just an opinion I have with the open-discussion style that comes with the topics we speak about. It has its pros and cons.

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Changing Players Minds

generate 5 new game ideas that explore changing players minds about … (climate change, energy, politics, etc.)

  1. GoFundThat – Each player, similar to Monopoly, is given an amount of money to start the game. Rounding the board, each spot is a designated government funded organization that the players have to choose to or choose not to invest in. If you choose to invest, you take the card that aligns with that spot. Once your money runs out, you flip your cards and see your fate. The point of the game is to show that politically not everyone can get what they want and you can’t make everyone happy, but that there ARE certain things you as the government should invest in in order to prevent detrimental things such as unions forming and other revolts from the population.
  2. Journey to Rebuild – a video game journey with multiple paths, inspired by story games such as uncharted, the last of us or others where there are many cinematic scenes, but also many puzzle or interactive parts. In this game the goal is to restore the worlds environment after recent natural disasters. You are Rory, a recent college graduate who studied environmental science, trying to get back to your family across the country. Along the way, you face multiple challenges including flooding, wildlife, and cities destroyed. As Rory, you have to complete the tasks to fix the environment. You must complete the tasks in a certain order or else you fail and must restart from the last checkpoint. However, you may pick the direction you want to go in at the start, with each of the paths leading you to different challenges.
  3. Daily Climate – similar to wordle, Daily Climate is an app on your phone that once a day gives you a word to figure out. What makes this different to wordle is that once you get it, it gives you a definition and some ways to improve your environmental friendliness.
  4. Voter – similar to temple run or pepsiman, you are a voter running through the city, dodging obstacles to reach your destination, voting. Each levels gets faster and faster, starting with a low level voting position, going all the way up to world leaders. When you level up, you can customize your character and show your friends how far you’ve come, all meanwhile spreading the word to vote.
  5. Planter – a first person shooter game, you are shooting liquid at monster weeds to kill them and plant fresh flowers. Similar to changing between guns, you can shoot the liquid to kill monster weeds and then switch to your planter tool to plant seeds.
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Class 1/23

In today’s class we continued to explore the many kinds of games, more focused on adver-games such as Pepsiman and Chex Quest. I personally had never heard of either of these, so brainstorming persuasion examples for my 5 game ideas began to get interesting. I don’t think I quite grasped the true concept at first of what was meant by the concept of persuasion. At first I thought of it more as a reason for someone to play said game, but soon realized it was more of a reason to keep on playing, continuing with the theme of endless games.

For my example of an OCD game, I think this can be a way to spread awareness for a disease many people suffer from. This can become a way for those with OCD to be at ease and also enjoy a game. Similar to games such as tetras or solitaire that you play when you are bored, people with OCD can use this game a way of easing the compulsion to organize or any anxiety that may fall over them during the course of the day. I plan on prototyping and providing more graphics/concept art in the near future.

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5 game ideas with no explicit end state

Examples for inspiration:

  • Flappy bird
  • Flower ps4 game in class
  • Minecraft
  • Fortnite Creative Mode
  • Cod Zombies
  • Animal Crossing
  • Temple Run
  1. Timelapse – build your world from ground up, including architecture and life with preset models. The twist is, you have to build the entire timeline of your world. Do you start with cavemen and continue to the current ‘norm’? Do you start with today’s world and end with alien mayhem? Maybe even create a utopian or dystopian society. The choice is all yours with an unlimited creative platform.
  2. Float your boat – phone based app; vertical flow and orientation; water constantly lowering level, if your boat fails to stay afloat you cannot continue. As the water is getting more shallow, tokens fall from the top of the screen and you can lean your phone left and right to get said tokens. The more tokens, the higher the water level stays.
  3. World of Football – football or soccer based game, pick from a handful of preset characters and start a career of football. You are in a world where you can roam around and do social things with your character, as well as go to stadiums where you play games for a club. Inspired by NBA 2K, GTA 5, and Elden Ring (ability to roam and endlessly interact). There is no end to how good you can make your player. Break records and push the limits of what’s possible.
  4. Sort it Out/Sort it – for people that like those satisfying things videos or have OCD. With endless levels and different objects to sort. Similar to tetras or those parked car games where you have to unpack a lot of cars. In this case there are levels where you sort blocks, sort shoes, or sort shirts. Different orientations.
  5. Paintball – similar to call of duty, counter strike or any other shooting game, Paintball is a console based first person shooter that has a multiplayer game mode and realistic paintball war modes to emulate the real activity.
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Thoughts – 1/9/23

Today’s first class was pretty successful I’d say. Feels like we picked up where we left off in the first semester, but added some more intriguing ideas. I enjoyed the Calvin Ball demo. Although very loose and abstract, my dad read me Calvin and Hobbs before bed when I was little so I’ve always like it, so that connection was nostalgic for me personally.

The Painstation presentation was interesting to say the least. I had never heard of that until today, and was curious about a lot of the morals that surround such an idea. I asked in class
“how is that even allowed?” and Prof. Ames explained that there are waivers involved. Also, taking it a step further I tried to get into the rules and objective of Painstation, asking how you win, and questioning whether there are points involved or if the winner is the person less injured in the end. It helped spark an interesting thought and brainstorming moment in my brain for future projects: the idea that there doesn’t necessarily need to be points involved, but maybe things you can feel such as emotions. For example, the winner of the game is somehow determined by a certain level of happiness achieved through gameplay. I think that would be an interesting thing to play around with this semester.

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Romito Flick Soccer Update

Today I prototyped and play tested. It gave me some more ideas and I will definitely be expanding on the idea of having a goal surrounding the Velcro’d area. I also adjusted the height of it to be less of a angled flick and more of a surface level flick, to make it less like a football field goal and more of a penalty kick type flick. I still have to figure out the best way, whether it be sharpie, paint or something else, to highlight the target or point areas within the goal on the black velcro. I also added the idea of having a goalie in the middle which isn’t velcro and whom if hit rejects the player from receiving points. This has potential. To be continued…

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Pentago Game Review

After playing Pentagon, I really enjoyed it. As the box indicates, it is very quick to pick up and similar enough to tic tac toe which everyone has played. One connection that isn’t very similar that I would make is chess. Chess requires you to think multiple steps ahead of your opponent and challenges you to see every single possibility. This is something I found in Pentago. Being a very competitive person as well, I enjoyed the idea that it was me vs the other person, and that it is in a sense who is smarter or who is thinking further down the line in terms of moves.

I am definitely going to purchase this game and give it to my dad as a Christmas gift because he is the logical type that would obsess over a game like this with friends and family.

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Romito Soccer Dart Prototype Concept

If you have ever seen a dart board, just imagine that in 10x the size and kicking a soccer ball instead of throwing a dart. That is already a game that exists, but what I wanted to do is create a smaller version of this game that is portable and fun for friends to break out quickly. It is a game that is similar to flick football with paper, but in this case the board is made out of velcro and comes with a soccer ball made out of velcro.

Each player gets three tries to flick the mini soccer ball at the target. The target has 5 possible zones to hit with points ranging from 1-10. For reference see my wall section in the classroom.

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Romito Week 8 Questions

  1. The difference is that a game designer designs the initial concept and game itself, whereas game developers interact with the users and tune the game to meet their needs.
    1. During the game development process the game goes through initial tests, defining of the rules and acquiring an identity (title, theme, etc.).
  2. What is challenging about balancing a game is how difficult or complex you want to make it for the user – if it is too challenging the user might not want to play again – as well as the cost of the game.
    1. the user playing the game should feel fulfilled and accomplished when playing the game, having a feel of hope driving them to want to play till the end.
    2. To avoid stealing players’ fun, things in the game that allow the user to influence others, but not simply deal to the leader allows for fun.
  3. no intermediary words, use real words, no unnecessary work, add some theme, readable text, all rules must be written, keep writing to the point, keep text uniform, play test the rules
  4. Play testing allowed me to understand what worked well in my game and what didn’t. I received really good feedback. I would like for those who haven’t already played to play to get different feedback. The audience for my game is anyone interested in card games, not any particular age.
  5. I could play test my game on my little sister. She is 9 so seeing if even a younger demographic enjoys the game and has a chance at winning it allows for a wider range of people to play.
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Week 2 – Magic Circle and Pacing

The Magic Circle as we discussed in class is more of a frame of mind. It is not necessarily a physical space or circle, but it is the area in which the rules of the game apply.

Pacing is important in game design obviously, but specifically it plays a big role in how likeable the game itself is. If a game is too slow paced, it can bore people or disinterest them. If a game is too fast, the game has no real incentive to play and can be found pointless, not entertaining. There has to be a balance in the pacing to allow for some strategy but also some gratification that allows the users or players to feel like they’re winning in some sense or at least have the chance to win.

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Week 1 Discussion – better late then never

The syllabus I am very familiar with for the most part. However, the one new thing that Ames has added this year is the different grading system. Although its kind of an experiment, I think it provides the student with this unspoken rule system of a game which is the whole point of the class. The game is how to get points towards your grade. You can take different routes to get the points, whether it be discussion posts, comments on others’ ideas, or even posting your own ideas periodically. This freedom has its pros and cons obviously, but I think it offers a unique experience as a student.

As far as good games, after thinking about the games I enjoy playing I have come to the conclusion that the games all have a couple things in common. They are all simple, easy to learn, use strategy, and gives everyone a fair chance to win. Examples of this are games like War, Uno, Five Crowns, Solitaire, or even a game we played recently called Carcossone (i think thats how you spell it).

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Roley Poley Rule Set

Objective: earn the most points

Required Materials: Regular deck of playing cards (two decks if more than 3 players)

Setup: shuffled deck in middle of playing area

Turns: Players take turns rolling a dice. Whatever number they roll corresponds with how many cards they can draw. 

Points: Aces are worth 1 pt, 2=2pts, 3=3pts, etc. 

Winning/Losing: when the deck runs out, whoever has the most points wins.

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Thoughts on Carcasonne Big Box

  • easy to learn, simple turns
  • how does luck or RNG play a role? (tokens)
  • table space needed
  • if you run out of table, moving pieces can be difficult
  • strategy to use specific tokens to shape towards or away areas; certain tokens give more or less points (farming vs roads)
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5 Collecting Game Ideas

  1. Uno, Dos, Traceeee – Players take turns drawing playing cards (with 5 in hand) trying to collect three groups of either sequential numbers or same suits. First to three groups of three wins!
  2. Roley Poley – Players take turns rolling die. The number they role corresponds with how many cards they can draw from a regular shuffled deck of cards. The number on the card corresponds with a number and those give players points. The person with the most points wins.
  3. That’s Mine – players use a board similar to chutes and ladders, however each space is a territory. Players take turns spinning the wheel to know how many spaces they can progress. Each territory can be beneficial or negative in terms of points. Some may give players up to 5 points, but others can take away up to 5 points.
  4. Mix and Match – Players take turns flipping over cards to make a match, if you get a match, you keep it. The player with the most matches wins. Each time someone gets a match the cards get shuffled.
  5. Kick it to win it – Players take 3 turns each kicking a soccer ball at large grid of numbers ranging from 1-10. if a player hits a target they collect that number of points. First player to 21 points wins. Go over and you go back down to 17.