Author: Lindsay

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Lava checker reflection

Checkerboard lava game review

After the initial playlets of this game, I found that the general mechanics work well with little issues. The reason that it played well is because it is checkers rules with a slight twist. Since I used the standard rules of checkers as my base, it was easy to make adjustments that wouldn’t hinder or over complicate the game. My favorite aspect of the game was the possibility for the board to change (by flipping the lava tiles). Players can use this to their advantage to try to block or maneuver the opponent to their benefit. Since the initial creation I made it a rule that each player can only turn over a certain amount of tiles and disabling them. This limits the players and makes a point of incorporating strategy into the game.
Some kinks that need to be worked out include the number of pieces on the board. From the first round of playing, there were only 5 per player, but I think this makes the game start a little slower since both people have to be a little more cautious of their moves and what happens. If they had more pawns, then it would increase the initial stage of the game and allow players to get more aggressive—therefore making the game more interesting. The question is though, how many pawns should they have if more than 5. I think this ties into the size of the board. Since the board size can also be negotiated at the start of each game (allowing for a change in strategy and decreasing predictability)-the number of pawns should depend on the board size. Somehow a ratio should be worked in to this. My idea is to provide several variations in board sizes and then give the number of pawns for each potential game set. This will still allow for user creation by provide more structure as a basis to go off of.
In conclusion though, although I liked the mechanics of this game and think that it does have potential, I have decided not to pursue this idea. A major reason is because it is so heavily based off of checkers, it feels almost finished with little room for my own creativity. It’s simplicity doesn’t appeal to me and I would like to continue with a game that has a lot of room for growth and idea development. I want to challenge myself and I don’t think this game allows for much other potential.
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Carcassonne Review

Carcassonne Review

My initial opinion of this game upon playing it was daunting, after being brain fried and tired and I wasn’t prepared for a high intensity strategic game. Fortunately for myself, Carcassonne is the perfect balance where it require strategy and attention with multiple interconnected parts, but with an ease of catching on. After the first half of the semester and playing various games, I have developed an appreciation for games that are complex in parts but can be learned just by starting and seeing where it goes.
The building of the board game was my favorite component, as I’m sure it is with most other players. This dynamic took something that would have been simple and redundant and allowed the user to interact and call the shots- allowing each game to be different and cause different outcomes.
Taking a step back, I really appreciated the rule set, specifically the pictorial references to show exactly what it meant. This is an aspect I’d like to include in my game (if its complicated or hard to describe with strictly words).
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gnome playtest

Gnome game play test

After excitedly composing my rule set and the game pieces for my gnome game, I put it to the test in class on February 28th. Unfortunately the game play didn’t last 5 minutes without immediately seeing what corrections were needed. Overall I am pleased with the different components and how they fit together, at this point this is my biggest accomplishment. From the conception of this idea, I wasn’t sure how everything would play out and fit together, but after a lot of time on the drawing board I think I found a good overall layout of the game in how each aspect will work.
The main issue I found through this first play test was that there is not formula or ratio of cards. Therefore, it is takes a big handful of turns to even start any sort of motion on the board. It also didn’t help how unorganized and luck reliant the card aspect is. This is mostly due to the large variety of cards I created. I have learned that instead of 12 different action cards with 2 sets a piece, I should limit the actions to 5 or so. Same goes with my trouble maker cards. I also need to figure out a formula on the ratio of resource cards to the action/trouble maker cards. For instance, the cards that give the most positive feedback should require resource cards that are harder to come by.   With all of this taken into consideration I now know that I really need to think about this mechanic and how it affects the interaction of the players as well.
Some suggestions to fix these issues include:
– having a key card that shows what different combinations are needed to perform the action or trouble maker cards-this will help players dictate which cards to hold onto and which to discard
-incorporating more aspects to the house blueprint-whether it be to include hallways, or sections in the room so its not a simple 3 spaces by 3 spaces. It was also brought to my attention that the instructions are unclear as to which direction you can move in so I will need to elaborate on that portion
-do not show your cards in front of you
The last aspect that I personally need to focus on as well is the suspicion meter. I think I need to think of a different type of punishment for the suspicion meter hitting its max. Initially, you would get sent back to start and I think eventually players will grow sick of this, so maybe instead incorporate a lost turn or have everyone steal a card from you.
All in all I am excited to move forward with this game and explore the different possibilities it has, the first step is just getting the gritty details down to a t.
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Personal Card Game Review

Collegiate Card Game

My first trial of my prototyped Collegiate Card Game was definitely helpful but proved that I do not wish to move further in elaborating and fixing the game itself. My initial idea behind the game was to showcase the different characteristics of college students and the different opportunities allotted to each based on financial needs, social etc. When it came time to make the rule set I found myself focusing in on only specific elements in hopes to simplify the game initially so that I could elaborate on it after making tweaks at each stage. The end product of my rule set and prototype focused solely on the characters and gaining points towards their “needs” (each character has a different set of points needed for categories such as financial, love, social, and knowledge). You gain these points to fulfill needs by giving up time (each player has a time chips that they can trade to complete an activity which in turn gives them points). While I liked this aspect of incorporating time management I realized through playing that there wasn’t conflict at all which meant  no interaction among players. Conflict is one of the most important components in order to make a game exciting between players and for yourself. Since my game lacked this, it turned into a simple self-fulfillment game where each player simple turned cards and moved on in the game with no important decisions or involvment from the other players. An idea offered by Maddie Ferucci suggested that I could incorporate conflict by making it mandatory to choose how you spend time. For example you have to choose between one thing or another so your needs board is constantly fluctuating. There was also a suggestion to incorporate a dice to add an element of luck to the game rather than giving all the power to the cards you draw. Other factors which need to be considered more is how much time players start off with and if they should be allowed to freely gain time per turn or if they have to manage a set amount established at the beginning of the game. I also need to consider more the amount of cards drawn and discarded as this needs to have more of a purpose than just a simple choice of which card to use and discard- an aspect of punishment would definitely also change this up.
After this first trial of playing I came to the conclusion that I do not want to pursue this game idea further. While it is possible I have found that there wasn’t any interest in any aspect of the game and it resembled the game of life but in a much more boring format. While I liked the initial concept, I realized only the concept has potential. In order to make the game more interactive and enjoyable a lot of different routes would have to be checked out and experimented with and I would prefer to turn my focus to a game with more creativity and imagination.
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Sushi Go Review

Game Review

Sushi Go
Sushi Go is a fast paced game that is easy to catch onto. Due to the overall speed of the game, winning is a mix of luck with only a little bit of strategy. You begin the game with a set amount of cards in your hand. You play a card face down and once the other players are ready you reveal what each player chose. The next step is what keeps the game interesting; you rotate your hand to the player on your left which keeps a level of uncertainty. From here you repeat the steps. The overall objective of the game is to match like cards together (so many kinds of a set allots a certain amount of points. The person with the most points at the end of all the rounds wins. This was the first card game I have played where you were not in control of your hand for the entire time. I thought this aspect was really beneficial and upped the stress factor slightly to keep everyone interested. Not to mention that the illustrations really lent a hand to the game itself.
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Week 6 Review

Game Review

Week 6
Game Played: Bang
This past week in class we played Bang, which had a team based aspect but with an individual perspective. I would compare this game to Mafia- a game played without props. In Mafia you have an overseer who assigns each player a role secretly and then narrates the story. The whole premises of the game is not knowing which player is which character and you must narrow down guesses in order to determine who is apart of the mafia. Bang, on the other hand has  a very similar role but with more structure and opportunity. In Bang’s western theme, you have a sherif, deputies, outlaws and a renegade. During the game you must figure out who is apart of which team without getting killed and protecting your “team”. The game gets interesting when it throws in extra lives so that you do not immediately die, and that you can counter an attack through action cards. Bang was able to take a simple context but put the fait into the players hands by letting them call the shots and react accordingly based on their hand.
While there were some struggles during the game and at times seemed frustrating to not know who was on which side, I admire the different mechanics woven into the game itself. It allowed for a good blend between saving yourself but also working towards a common goal. Because of this aspect, Bang is a very interactive game between players and calls for judgements to be made.  In the end, you can progress through this game by analyzing the other players actions and expressions which is probably my favorite part.
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Week 5 Game Review

Game Review Week 5

Games Played: Settlers of Catan and Bonanza
This past game we played Settlers of Catan and Bonanza.
Settlers of Catan combines several aspects noted in previous games which include, board building, cards, and growing personal resources. The set up of the game is all apart of the fun-the randomization of tiles and dice chips allows each game to be slightly different. This hexagonal board is broken up into territories of different landscapes which therefore produce different resources. The resources are stored and traded in order to build settlements. The overall objective of this game is to reach the most amount of points. You gain points by having settlements, cities, roads, armies, and resources—each having a different value. The whole premises of this game is realistic in that you can have a city without supplies and you can’t expand your territory without roads. In this case, not only is it a building game of the board, but building in terms of a “kingdom/territory” if you will. The main leveling out factor is that you can only obtain the resources in which your settlement/city is on. Therefore in order to gain the other resources you must revert to trading among other players or trading with the bank. The trading aspect of this game probably assisted the most by allowing for more interactivity between players and strategizing so you do not only focus on yourself and your cards but the other players as well. The many different components of this game made it fun and definitely a Gateway game. I knew that Settlers of Catan was a widely popular game, but having never played it myself I didn’t quite understand why. Although there were different parts of the game and it wasn’t as simple as rolling a die and letting the board do the work, it was simple in a way that it was easy to understand and made sense, mostly because it followed standard economical fashion.
Bonanza is a trading card game which involves strictly beans. The entire deck is made up of several different types of beans-some with more cards than others. The amount of cards per bean determines its value. The overall goal is to get as many coins as possible by the end of the game. However, obtaining them and trying to win proves slightly more challenging. The main difference between Bonanza and something as basic as go fish is its speed and method. To break it down, the beans are worth coins (but you must have so many beans in order to get any coins). Therefore you must continuously/directly add on to your bean chain in the hopes of “growing” enough beans to get coins. The game gets switched up because of 2 simple rules. 1: you MUST always play the top card in your hand. and 2: You can only have 3 beans growing at a time. What breaks this down slightly is that the game does allow for trading among players-however ALL new obtained cards must be planted as soon as they are received. Because there is constant movement Bonanza is a fast paced game where anybody has the opportunity to win. While it is more complex than Go Fish, I’d put Bonanza on the lower end of the spectrum in terms of it being a Gateway game. This is because it was easy to learn, luck involved, and a theme. However there wasn’t much as semblance and the duration lasted maybe 30-40 minutes where as typical Gateway games last 1 hour to 1.5 hours.
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5 trading ideas

5 ideas around the aspect of trading

1.Who ville themed
-It is the annual Who-Dilation and you are sick and tired of Martha May Whovi-a winning the best light decor in all of the town. You begin unplugging bulbs from the refrigerator, stove top, lamps, etc. However, you have a family to raise and they cannot be living in the dark so you must make sacrifices. You and all the other players are Mrs. Betty Lou Who with 3 kids (a girl and two older boys). Everyone starts off with 7 lightbulbs they have pulled from their house-but if they take anymore they are at risk of losing their kids sanity. In order to obtain more you must barter Martha May—who has the most lightbulbs or..steal.
Objective-to have the highest electric bill of all who-ville. This is achieved by gaining light bulbs-some are more wattages than others.
2.Mutate Your Veggies
-Every year there is a farm show, where the farmer with the weirdest looking fruit gets the top prize. The show isn’t for 7 months but you want to get an early start. Every player gets a plot of land they are all the same. The differences will be the add ons (poor drainage, clay like soil, insect infestation, etc)-these will eventually be evenly dispersed at the command of certain cards and have the capability of rotating throughout the game. The end objective is to collect the resources you need for your plants (only have max of 2) based on your typographical situation. Plants all need sun, water, and room to grow, but different plants need different things. Once your plant grows to a certain extent you must draw an add on card-this will either switch up the game or allow you to slightly mutate your plant.
3.Build your character
-You’ve been single now for 5 years and haven’t found the “one” yet. Is it because you still live with your parents? or maybe you just have this dead set idea of what the person should be like which ultimately makes you shallow.
-Each player is given a card of what their ideal character should look like-a general frame work. The whole concept of the game is to build your own personal character in the hopes that you will attract someone..and hopefully they’ll be what you’re looking for as well. You will obtain cards like different hair colors, hobbies, eye color,job, and other personality traits. However you have to constantly be changing cards and cannot have more than one type of trait in a hand—however trading cards with other players can allow for less reliance on luck on the deck
-First player to get 80% of criteria wins.
4.Stranded on an Island
-The plane you’ve been flying on has crashed and after a week of being with everyone, you decide to split off and start your own “colony”. You are torn between surviving and trying to get rescued. Each turn you can obtain a resource, add to your hut (like facilities etc) or build onto your sos sign. But be careful because if you spend too much time on your sign you will die and if you spend too much time finding food you will never be found. Gain resources through farming, hunting, and trading with your fellow neighbors.
  1. Janitoral Closet
    1. The game board is a layout of a school with classrooms, bathrooms, cafeteria, gym, etc. randomly lay out the different issues (1 per room: such as vomit, raccoons, infestation, glue, etc). The objective is to clean up as many messes as you can before the end of your shift (run on a timer). If you clean more than the rest of the janitorial staff you get a raise. However, in order to clean you must have the supplies but there are only so many to go around. There will be up to 5 closets and up to 5 players (1 closet per player)-however not all of the supplies are located in each one and will be dispersed.
    2. Different messes have different points for different people-switch and trade supplies to clean up the school faster than your colleagues.
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2 Rule sets

Private College Card Game

-rich kids (nice car, no job)

-time

-time is spent between homework,working,social

-character cards have/requore so much

-major, lifestyle, organizations

 

Cards: character cards, action cards (clubs to join, social events, homework amounts, work, financial aid), extra additives (change of major, gets in relationship=more time), resource cards=(time cards, social cards)

Each resource card counts as 1 point, you collect these cards in order to spend them on something your character needs/needs to do

Characters each have distinguishable needs and abilities:

-needs: certain social points, money, homework

Set up: Separate character cards, action cards, and resource cards

-Each player selects one character card at random

-Shuffle resource cards into action cards

-Each player draws 5 cards from this deck and may look at them

-Lay character card face down—you will build up their components

-Start off by building a back story for each character so everyone knows their classmates

Turns: -Each player takes their turn

-You may only lay down objective cards which fulfill your character if you have the resource

cards to support them

-You can only have 7 cards in your hand at a time

-During your turn you may either play, discard, or draw

-Some action cards can be played on other players

Win: When your character card has fulfilled all of its needs

Checkerboard idea:

1.Floor is lava concept—can’t step on one of the certain blocks but have to “rescue” one of your team members on the other side

1.-have add ons after so many rounds to limit board use (i.e. trees, overspill of lava, tunnels)

Pieces: board tiles that have reversible sides (normal chess board sides and then lava sides), 2 pawns/nights/whatever you want to call them

Set up: Put together the board black/white side up in a normal checkered pattern. Must be at least 5 pieces length and width wise. Place your pawn on any square as long as it is on an edge nearest to you.

Turn: Each player can either advance in any direction one space OR you can choose to slow down your opponent by doing one of the following

-flipping a tile into lava (disabling anyone to use that piece anymore), or adding a tile on top with a different landscape that will either allow 2 moves,slow down,etc

Win: first person to get to the other side wins

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5 building ideas

1.Build you boat
-Objective: to shuttle as many people you can across the moat, passed the alligators and ogres living in
 the swamp.
-Concept: You acquire money/ and or supplies to build extensions on to your boat. The bigger the boat, the more people that you can safely get into the castle before the war breaks out. You can cross the moat as little or as many times as you’d like, but it is full of uncertainty and does not guarantee safe passage.
-Twister, the longer your boat gets, the bigger the moat gets/gets filled with unwanted creatures.
-Choose wisely-you cannot save everyone.
  1. Treasure hunt
-you have a starting point and an end point. You build the your pathways towards the finish spot (lets say treasure “x marks the spot” for example). You and your opponents are both trying to get to the treasure before the others so it is a matter of if you build upon your own path, or target your opponents. If your path intersects with another player’s on your turn you can choose to set them off course. These actions will include fight outbreaks, hurricanes/storms, raiding supplies, etc. Or the actions can take the form of rules such as only left turns, or other interactions within the game.
  1. Up a hill both ways
-You are an elderly man, reminiscing about your younger years. Where you worked your way through college and never took on any debt, never used a cell phone and knew what responsibility was all about . You are sitting with your grandchildren who are complaining about not being privileged enough and you are outraged. You begin telling them how hard your life was, specifically your walk to school, which took you 3 hours through a farm, in the snow, with holes in your shoes and…up a hill both ways. What if your trek to school really was this difficult?
In, “up a hill both ways” you are in charge of your journey and your destiny. You can build the board and your path with different tiles, horizontally along the board or even vertically. The harder the journey, the better the story-but remember you aren’t as nimble as your 10 year old self, so be weary and make it home on time for dinner.
  1. Wild Goose Chase
-Based off of/inspired by Bamboo. You have a goose figurine who continuously is on the move…by whoever’s turn it is not. Therefore this is a game of luck. The board will continuously grow and the goose will gain more and more land to run off too. You can prevent and direct his path by building fences or cutting down the trees so that you can see him better. You can also opt to ask the goose moover for a hint on which direction you can take—the catch is that they are allowed to lie to you a certain amount of times.
-Objective: to find the wild goose and land on the same space to “capture it”
  1. Egyptian themed
-Objective: building of the pyramids
-You have so many laborers and materials to show that your nation is superior.
-The building of a pyramid is a process, you must mine and get your materials and acquire each block of stone. This is a very process oriented game and you must build your pyramid before your opponent to show superiority.
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Reflection week4

This past week we played Nanobots. Due to time restrictions, we weren’t able to play the second game offered in class. However, after playing Nanobots, I got a very thorough understanding of the game and its components. Of all the games previously played in class and on my own time, I would definitely say that this game ranks easier to learn than than the majority. I was curious as to why this was, so I began to section and compare different aspects to the other games I have played. I think the ease of learning is tied to the simple structure.
For instance, each turn you have a set of instructions. You lay down a piece in a certain direction, play or discard an action card, perform said action, then draw another card. While every game played will not be the same, it will not greatly alter. The only changing components of this game are the individual strategies by each player and the board itself. I do like this aspect and would consider incorporating it into a game of my own.
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Game theme ideas

Game themes

  1. Dinosaurs
    1. Explore evolution and mass extinction
  2.   Possible bad days, things that go wrong, bad luck
  3. Showers, bathing-routines, products,
  4. Blanket forts
  5. Snoring, sleeping positions, amount of blankets
  6. Trash—recycling, landfills
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Week 3 Reflection

Game design

Reflection
week 3
1/23/17
Games Played: Pandemic, Takenoko, 8 minute per un impero
These games in a sense of gateway game, which as described by Lisa Steenson as a a game in which to bring people together and non-gamers to get non gamers involved. Gateway games usually have some assemblance of the following: easy to learn, slightly complex, a theme, some aspect of luck, a duration of around 1hr-1.5hr, originality, and replay-ability. While this list may seem like a lot of qualifications or a checklist for that matter in order for games to “make it”. However if you have a good concept and a thoroughly thought out set of rules, this is very much achievable. In regards to the 3 games played in class, some of these qualifications were apparent.
Takenoko, a game that first grabbed my attention and interest through its use of graphics and movable parts. Everything included in the game was very intricately designed and purposeful to unify every different element. The overall theme/ plot of Takenoko was to in theory feed a panda while maintaining the emperor’s bamboo gardens.  While it seems like a simple original goal and idea, the makers of this game were able to turn it into something more complex with a variety of parts and actions. Of all 3 games, I think this one ranked highest in terms of being a gateway game. While it took a little bit to learn, it definitely kept your attention and interest throughout the learning curve. The different components and mechanics allowed for complexity but also to make the game more interesting and more subject to change-which allows for re-playability. These different pieces included building bamboo, customizing the board, cards, and character pieces. Because of the ability to change the game board and tactics depending on the players, Takenoko lends itself to being very gateway friendly
Pandemic’s theme is centered around major outbreaks of disease and illness as they spread across the earth affecting different civilizations. The overall goal is to cure the 4 different diseases before your time runs out and you’ve had too many outbreaks. This game is team oriented where everyone playing is a contributing party to the same goal. This twist was interesting as its the first time I’ve ever really played a game where everyone was on the same team. For this reason it was a little hard for me to grasp at first because you have to turn a competitive attitude into a collaborative one. I think because of it’s unique approach, it qualifies as a gateway game.
8 Minute per un Impero was definitely the hardest game to understand, especially as the time spent on this was far lesser than the previous two. I think a big part of the confusion was contributed to the translation of the instructions so some things were unclear and a lot of the game was left up to guessing. I think this game made the most sense when we didn’t rely so heavily on the instructions and just went with our gut and talked out our own opinions on how the game should run.
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Checkerboard Ideas

 

  1. Hopscotch concept where you build the board with chalk at random- this will prohibit moves later on—you can only draw signs on your specified color. objective is to get your pieces across.
  2. Checkers—but objective is simple to occupy the other side—territorial
  3. Play with ingredients, and collect secret ingredients along the way, objective is to make a food based on a drawn card
  4. Set the table—each team has different dinner themed items ( i.e. table cloth, plates, utensils, cups)—objective is to obtain what you don’t have to build a place setting for your dinner party—like checkers
  5. Floor is lava concept—can’t step on one of the certain blocks but have to “rescue” one of your team members on the other side
    1. -have add ons after so many rounds to limit board use (i.e. trees, overspill of lava, tunnels)
  6. capture the flag—like battle ship, but its underneath side of checker so you don’t truly know where it is
—if squares were magnetic so you could build the exact structure of the board