- Corporation – Players choose their type of business by selecting one of several occupation cards. Each player is handed a certain amount of money cards (or paper money) depending on the occupation chosen. Each round a player picks up three employee cards and chooses one to have for their business. Employees have personality ranks which can help or hinder the player’s business. Players can have up to ten employees, therefore if a player finds a better employee in the deck, they must choose one of their existing employees to “fire”. Then the player picks up an action card which can help or hurt the business or has the player make an executive decision. If a player runs out of money, they are declared bankrupt and exit the gameplay. The last player to have money or to have the most money after a month (30 rounds for 2-3 players or 15 for four players) wins.
- Lucky Kings – Using a regular deck of cards, two players are given eight cards face down and six cards are laid face up on the table. There can only be six spots for cards on the table unless a player picks up a king and they may place it on the table immediately. Players flip their cards one per turn and lay a low numbered card on a higher numbered card in the middle (ex. 7 of clubs placed on an 8 of clubs). Once the players have gone through their cards, they are given enough cards to have eight in their hand. Play continues until a player cannot add any of their cards to the table cards and still have eight in hand, and the other player wins. Or play goes until all of the cards have been used and the first to run out of cards wins.
- Atomic Dogs – Players pick up cards from a deck until one picks up an atomic dog card and is out of the game unless they have an inceptor card (tennis ball, dog therapy, bacon biscuits). Players may use various action cards to help themselves or hurt other players such as skip to pass picking a card, attack to skip you and make the next player pick two cards, favor to make someone give you a card of their choice, see the future to peek at the next three cards in the deck, and shuffle the deck. Each card would have something random on it like hot dogs, magical chicken butts, Indonesian Santa, and an all-seeing llama. Play continues until one player is left and is the doggone winner.
- Harvest 400 – Players deal out seven cards each and leave the deck in the middle. Players must lay down runs in sets of three or more (same fruit/vegetable cards and sequential numbers, or same numbers with different fruit/vegetables). Wild cards can be any number and any fruit/vegetable. Players must place 25 points on their first turn or they must pick up two cards and skip their turn. Players can place their cards on opponent’s runs. At the end of the turn, players pick up two cards from the deck. Play goes until one player has no cards in their hand and everyone adds up their points (wild cards are worth whatever point value it is used for on the run) and opponents subtract their total with the cards left in their hands. The first player to reach 400 or more points wins.
- Secret Sarge – Based on the recent game “Secret Hitler” and the Red vs. Blue web series, players are split to two sides: the Reds and the Blues. One player on the Reds is Sarge (the leader), less than half of the players are Red followers, and the other half are the Blues. In 5-6 players, Sarge and the Red followers identify each other, and in 7-10 players, only the Red followers know who each other is and who Sarge is; the other players have no idea who anyone is. Play starts with one of the players as General who decides who is Colonel for the round. If everyone agrees with the pairing, play continues, and if not, the player to the left of General is the new General and continues until there is an agreement. If there is no agreement after 3 tries, the first policy card on top is placed on the board and the marker for failed voting goes back to the start. General picks up three mission cards (Red or Blue) and hands two of them to the Colonel, who then decides which one to place down. Once 3 Red missions are placed, whoever is voted Colonel must honestly say if they are Sarge or not. Depending on the amount of players, a certain amount of red missions placed activates a certain action (General chooses who next General is, General investigates anyone, General sees the next three mission cards, or current General shoots anyone). If 5 Blue mission cards are placed, the Blues win. If 6 Red mission cards are placed and Sarge has not been killed or found by the current round’s General, the Reds win. If Sarge is voted Colonel after three Red missions are placed, the Reds win.
Week 2 – Chess Board Ideas
- Corner Chess – Chess pieces are placed in the corners of the board, with the King piece in the furthest corner and the rest around it. Pawns would move diagonally toward its opponent and would attack horizontally while the other major pieces keep their natural movements and attacks. For example, a pawn would move two spaces towards its opponent, but this allows the opponent to strike horizontally or vertically. Rooks would move horizontally and vertically as in a regular chess game. Checkmate the opponent’s King to win.
- Reality Chess – the rules of each piece are entirely different. Rooks become defensive barriers, knights can move pawns for reinforcements, bishops can convert opposing pieces for a certain amount of turns, and the king and queen have almost equal movement and attacks. Starting position is regular except the knight and bishop are switched and the rook and the pawn in front of it are switched. Castling is not used. The goal is to take an opponent’s king OR queen and then checkmate the other.
- Where’s My Rooks? – Rooks are removed from the board. Knights sit next to the king and queen, bishops sit in front of the king and queen, four pawns surround the bishops and the rest sit next to the knights. This adds a third row of pawns compared to regular chess. If pawns reach the opponent’s back row for queening, they MUST change to a rook until both are on the board or have been used on the board. Checkmate the opponent’s King to win.
- Transport! – Six colored portals, two of the same color each, are laid out prior to play. Placement is up to the players as long as it is not where a chess piece sits at the start. Regular chess ensues except if a piece lands on one of the portals, it must immediately move to the other same-colored portal. Colored portals are removed from the game once four pieces have used the same colored portal (two white pawns count as one tally; one black and one white pawn are two tallies; one white queen and one black bishop are two tallies; pieces may travel back and forth and will still count as one tally used). A small version of the chess piece is placed on a tally board for a portal once it has been used by said piece. If a piece blocks the way and another piece lands on the same colored portal, there is no transportation. Once a piece moves off the portal, the portal is open and the opposing player MUST decide whether to move their piece off its portal or to move through it. Their move counts as one turn. Checkmate the opponent’s King to win.
- Tri-and-Go Home – Much like Chinese checkers, players use triangular pieces (same amount per player as chess) to jump over each other, including the opponent, to reach the other end and line up exactly as two rows. Pieces can jump forward (vertically or diagonally) or horizontally but cannot jump backwards. Players can jump one piece as many times as possible before the opponent’s turn.
Week 3 – Game Theme Ideas
- Final Flight – It is the apocalypse. The government has sent out a broadcast stating that there are earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, and a meteor the size of Europe heading for Earth. They have tried everything and it seems that all hope is lost, except you and your friends are the smartest rocket scientists and engineers. Your job is to collect all of the parts and resources around town to build a ship and fly to Mars. But the army is corrupt and wants to put a stop to your life-saving project, and time is against you as you only have 30 minutes to beat the meteor from impacting the Earth and your friends. Can you beat all odds and save yourself and your friends from impenetrable doom?
- The Red Menace – In the city of Proton, chaos ensues as villains and thieves broke out of Creighton Sanatorium and raid the civilians and their homes. Only the smartest villain could cause such mayhem: The Red Menace. Players are split playing detectives who are stopping the thieves and gathering intel to find the Red Menace, and thieves who try to put a stop to the detectives’ hunt. Will chaos continue to roam the city or will order take place and will the detectives stop the Red Menace?
- Last Chicken Standing – As a farmer, you have been selected to send your best chicken to Rooster Island, an abandoned and slowly sinking island, in an epic battle royale. If your chicken wins, you win ten million dollars! Players pick their chicken and place them anywhere on the island. Roll a dice to move around and pick up cards to gain useful chicken weapons. If players land next to each other they use the weapons, armor and dice to decide who survives. But time is ticking as the island gets smaller until the last chicken stays standing. Who will be the chicken (dinner) winner?
- Tunnel 57 – It is October 3rd 1964, East Berlin. You and your friends have heard about a secret tunnel on Strelitzer Strasse that goes under the Berlin Wall and out to an abandoned bakery on the other side. But rumor has it that the East Berlin border guards are finding out about it as well. The border has been closed for three years, this is your only chance at getting out. The following night, you and your friends walk alongside the road counting house numbers, “53, 54, 55…” getting closer to the border patrol down the street. A Fluchthelfer guides you to an outhouse behind house 55. You say the passcode “Tokyo,” and you enter. There is no turning back. Now you must make it through the small tunnel, your only chance of freedom. Players must build the tunnel, avoiding danger in every direction. Can you make it to the other side?
- The World’s Greatest Mystery – You are the world’s greatest detective. You just received a call from multiple country leaders that lost their most prized possessions. You have an idea who it is, but they are always moving from place to place, leaving almost no trace. But you (and perhaps a few friends) are up to the challenge. Travel around the world, avoid danger at every corner, and gather clues to pinpoint the thief’s next location. Can you solve the world’s greatest robbery?
- Papers, Please: Electronic Board Game – From the highly positive indie video game, Papers, Please comes to the tabletop electronic-style! You and your friends are border immigration officers of a communist Arstozka, checking immigrant papers accurately and earning money to keep your family alive. The game has 20 different endings depending on how long you play and survive this dystopian country. Each player might miss something that you don’t, and whoever survives the longest wins.
- Hello Neighbor: The Board Game – You’ve returned to your childhood neighborhood after being evicted from your apartment. You move in to the building across from your most feared figure: the Neighbor. As a curious child, you broke into his basement and he locked you in, only to escape months later. Now, you must conquer your fears and break into his basement again to find the truth about the Neighbor. Collect the right materials, get in the right rooms, conquer three of your past fears, and get into the basement. Once you’ve done this, flip the board over to make it through the basement, defeat the Neighbor and your biggest fear yet: the Shadow. Just don’t let the Neighbor catch you or you will be sent home! (This game is good for 1 or more players)
Week 4 – Building Game Ideas
- Sorry!: Build Home – Pawns start as usual along the board, except each space has a part of a house. Players choose to pick up these pieces for each of their pawns, taking possible pieces for other players. Once a pawn has all four (or five) pieces of a house, the pawn is safe and is finished. If a pawn continues around the board without enough house pieces and is bumped by another player, SORRY! They must go back to their start, put the house pieces back on the board and try again. Once a player has built four houses for each of their pawns, they win.
- Jamestown Properties – A modern rendition of the first United States settlement and based on the mechanics of Takenoko, buy and upgrade properties, collect taxes, stop other players from sabotaging your buildings and survive the upcoming frozen winter. Compete against other players to gain the most points through building and sabotaging Jamestown to win.
- Troll Bridge – Players are trolls building their bridge to lure adventurers. Players collect supplies and materials in the forest to build their bridge while other players try to sabotage other bridges. But they must be careful as an adventurer walks around and a troll loses all of their materials if they are caught. The first to build a troll bridge wins.
Elements of User Experience Questions
- The objectives of the website are to advertise and sell Apple’s products, and to educate and help the customers, both potential, first-time, and long-time users. MacBook users can go to the Mac tab and find out some basic uses of the MacBook, or they can go to the Support page and ask a specific question about their MacBook or scroll through FAQ’s for the computer.
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The functional specifications of the Facebook wall include the site showing a current holiday or sport event in which the user has liked or followed, posts from the user’s friends that have been made within the past 24 hours, and advertisements from businesses or subjects in which the user likes or follows or from the user’s friends who like or follow them.
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The four architectural approaches to information structure are hierarchical (tree-shaped; nodes have parent/child relationships with other related nodes), matrix (move from node to node along two or more dimensions), organic (no consistent pattern, nodes connected on case-by-case basis, no sections), and sequential (one by one nodes, individual articles or sections). An example of each can be Facebook, Amazon, vintagehope.co.uk, and Pizza Hut, respectively.
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The Huffington Post is mostly content that navigates to articles which can be confusing to tell the difference. Google is all navigation, leading to the website in which the user is looking for. Wikipedia is really half and half, since half of the content has links to navigate to another Wiki article. Finally, Etsy is at least 2/3 navigation, with most images being links as well.
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The home page focuses on the white bold text stating their mission on top of a yellow-hued image. When scrolling, the text and hue fade to the original color of the image, and more scrolling transitions to another image before finally scrolling through different articles of brands Landor has helped. The article links and their images glide up as you scroll, keeping attention on the boxes and their titles, whether they’re white on yellow or black on white.