Author: Mia

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Staring Roots-Game Rules

Materials- 6 gardens, 6 player boards, 30 Customer cards, 40 Material cards, 60 Plant cards, 30 Money cards, 52 water chips, 52 sun chips, and 52 fertilizer chips

Set up- Separate and shuffle the material, and plant cards and place them in separate piles. Separate the money into piles by value and lay them out in the middle of the players. Then each player should be given a garden, player board, 4 material cards, 4 plant cards, 2 sun chips, 2 water chips, and 2 fertilizer chips. Your material cards should be hidden from the group but your plant cards can be laid out. Next, lay out the customer cards. They are divided into easy, medium, and hard. Take 1 from each pile and lay them face up in the middle of the group. 

Starting the game- The player who bought a plant the most recently will start first. Each plant card will have specific rules to fully grow the plant to be able to be put into your shop. At the start of your turn, you will pick up one material card and 2 of any chips. You can only grow up to two plants per turn and sell to one customer per turn. Your hand limit is 4 cards. 

Shops- Each shop can hold up to six plants at a time.

Material cards- These cards can give you extra chips or contain special events. 

Plant cards- These cards will show you what plant they are and a picture of the plant. The bottom of the card will show what it requires to grow. For example, it may need sun, water, and fertilizer or it could be sun, sun, and water. Once you have all the required things to grow your plant you can now grab a plant model and put it into your shop to sell. You will also return all the chips to their piles. 

Customer cards-  Each customer card will show the required plants you need to be allowed to sell to them. The money you could receive from the customer is listed on top of the card. When you sell to a customer, you will trade in the plants that were listed, take the customer card and put it back in the customer card pile, and grab the money that the card said. 

To win the game- The first person to get $100 will win the game. 

Wild cards- You can use a wildcard to replace any sun, water, or fertilizer chip. For example, if you have a Peace Lily which requires 1 water, 1 sun, and 1 fertilizer, you can use the wildcard instead of the fertilizer to grow the plant. 

Steal a plant- If you get a “steal a plant” card, you can keep it as long as you like and use it on your turn. When you steal a plant the plant has to be in the player’s shop. 

Plants died- If you get this card you must play it immediately. The only plants that will die are the ones in your shop. If you have none in your shop you can discard this card. This applies ONLY to the person that pulled the card.  

Robbed card- If you get robbed, all the plants in your shop will be gone. The only plants that will die are the ones in your shop. If you have none in your shop you can discard this card. This applies ONLY to the person that pulled the card.  

Switch plants- If you get a switch plants card you can play this on any of your turns and you can switch any plants whether it’s in the shop or still growing. 

Superfoods- With this card, you can fully grow a plant with one of these cards.

Flood card- This card must be played immediately and affects every player. When this is played you must lose 3 plants that are in the player’s shop. If you don’t have 3 plants in your shop, it will take what you have. 

Mega buy- A mega buy card is a big buyer and will purchase up to 3 of any plants from your shop. If you don’t have three plants it will buy what you have. You can receive $10 per plant. 

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Game makers notes

  1. What questions did your players have?

What some of the material cards meant.

  1. How quickly did they learn?

Fairly quickly

  1. What kinds of interactions did the players have?

They liked stealing cards/plants from each other

  1. What confused the player?

The event cards and what order to play your turn

  1. What made the players excited?

Being able to fill the orders of customers

  1. What did your players enjoy doing?

Stealing the plants from other players and getting money

  1. Did any aspects of the game frustrate players? 

Just the event and material cards. I feel I need to go back and fix my rules and add more filler material cards so its not just event after event. 

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Playtest for Starting Roots

Playtest for Mia (Starting Roots)

Playtesters- Family

Most Frustrating?

The event cards. There were too many in the deck and kept pulling the same cards.

Favorite moment?

Liked stealing plants

Wanted to do it but couldn’t?

Play material cards at any time during a player’s turn. Not having a specific order in which to play cards. Wanted to fill more orders for customers. 

Magic wand?

Have groups of plants with different difficulties. Make less event cards. Separate events into a separate pile and have an event card in the material cards in which that player can hand another player that card for them to pick an event card. 

Would you play again?

Yes   

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Task analysis- with Clay

  1. What is the goal of this task?

To learn how to crochet

  1. What conditions or context must be present at the start?

What are you making and what yarn you are using

  1. What is the reason for this task? 

For fun

  1. What conditions are being classified or changed? What actions and decisions must be implemented to complete the task?

Depending on the thing you are making, the stitch, size of work, the color of work, and how your work may feel, could all be different. These could all be different decisions that you decide before you start. 

  1. What concepts, processes, or principle knowledge is required to adjust this task to fit novel elements?

I feel this may depend on the project you want to work on because making socks compared to a blanket is going to have different instructions. Also, they might require different stitches which you will need to require the knowledge of how to make.  

  1. What equipment and materials are required?

Crochet hook and yarn. Stitch markers are helpful but not required. 

  1. What performance standards must be achieved?

It’s usable. If you are making a shirt it must be able to be worn like a shirt or if your making a blanket, can it be used like a blanket. 

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Week 4-Thoughts

This week we played crossing the bridge. In this game, you cross the border and you have 3 vehicles to start with each vehicle gets loaded with cargo, however, the cargo can either be weed, cocaine, fruit, pork, and an alien. You have to try and smuggle these things over the border to get money. With that money, you stop at the mall and buy things to furnish your house.  I know this is supposed to be a serious game but I didn’t really take it that way. I felt I was more worried about getting drugs over the border to make more money. While playing the game it felt more comical but looking back I could see how it was supposed to be serious. Due to the smuggling of drugs to get more money to buy simple things such as a stereo. People are sacrificing themselves to just provide things for their families and going through the whole process just to buy furniture or a TV.  

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Week 4- Game Ideas

Clay- When people press the close door button on elevators. I feel a cool game for this is to play like elevator police and stand in the elevator and get points every time someone presses the close door button.

River- Captions (wrong/incorrect captions or captions that don’t line up. What’s the point?) For this issue, I was thinking you can listen to audio and write captions for it. This can include picking a font and how they are displayed. 

Max-Baby Formula Shortage. For this game, you play as a mother going to a grocery store looking for baby formula. At first, it’s easy but it slowly gets worse and you might not be able to find it and go to a different store. I also feel it would be cool to include a grocery budget so the player can be aware of how expensive it is.  

Ronan- Animal Rescue – save more cats (unless your Ames). In this game, you play as an animal rescuer and have to save cats. You explore different areas that are on your map and have to save as many cats as you can. 

Ronan-Inflation – no one actually knows how this works. For this game, I was thinking more educational. Teaching people how inflation works and putting them in real-world situations to find out how it works.

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Week 3- Thoughts

During class, we played Dumb Ways To Die, which was probably one of my favorites that we went over. However, I played this game when it became available on IOS in 2013 and I never knew it was a PSA for rail safety, I thought it was just a game not really spreading a message. I was like 10 at the time so I may have just missed it but out of all the games we played in class this was the most fun. The other games were really wordy; if we weren’t doing it in class, I would have never touched them. I enjoyed Cards Against Calamity, but we as a class seemed more worried about losing fish and gems than the message it was supposed to spread. 

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Week 2- Thoughts

I unexpectantly liked the Mcdonald’s game even though I failed multiple times. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, I thought it would be like a food simulator or tycoon but it was kinda dark. I mean from growing cows and killing them, to overlooking a restaurant and even being in a corporate office. At one point while when I went to my cow field, they were just dead, bones all over the ground and I could no longer use that land. Then my employees wanted to go on strike and have to promote them to keep them happy. Also in the corporate office, there were options to bribe nutritionists, and politicians and so many shady options. I could definitely tell that this game wasn’t supposed to persuade you to get Mcdonald’s but to not eat it. Another game we played was monopoly but the rules were changed for every player. I played as the blue-collar white male, they had females, minorities, and the 1%. It was really interesting how much it changed the game and really brought to light many issues we face with inequality.

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Week 2- Game Ideas

Gun control- To invoke change and to persuade players the game I thought of is for gun control. In this game, you play as a student in a middle school and have to go through a school shooting. The player’s main goal is to survive. However, in each game when you load it up it can happen at random times. Your character might be going to the bathroom or switching classes or being completely left in the halls. 

Luxury brands- Luxury brands are ultimately unethically sourced and should be brought to more people’s attention. In this game, the player will play as a worker for a luxury brand. You will go through each step of the process. The game will teach how the materials they use are unethically sourced, the treatment of workers, animal abuse, heavy carbon emissions, and polluting materials. 

Barista- In this game, you play as a Starbucks employee that is making drinks and food to order. This game is just supposed to persuade you to buy more Starbucks drinks by promoting their brand in a game form. 

Serving Life- Since tipping has been a topic of interest lately, this game will take you through being a server. You are a server making $2.50 an hour and have to go to work. In this game, you will play shifts on Monday-Friday 8hrs a day. At the end of each week, you will have certain bills to pay and maybe even some inconveniences that may occur either with your apartment, car, pet, or even yourself. When working some customers are going to be mean with either not tipping, dining and dashing, and or tipping under 20%. This game is supposed to persuade you to tip your servers at least 20% when eating out and show you the importance of it. 

The life of an object- In this game, you get to pick an object and see the life span of said object. For example, if you pick a water bottle, this will take you through the process of making, packaging, consuming, and where the bottle ends up after were done with it. At the end of each object’s life span, there will be a screen that pops up giving you facts and information on how many water bottles end up in the ocean and how to prevent it. This game is supposed to persuade you about the environment and to be more aware of how trash is disposed of and treated. 

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Week 1-Game Ideas

Starting roots- This is a video game where the player opens a garden shop. Throughout the game, you can buy/breed other plants to make new plants for your shop. You sell your plants and get money to purchase new plants or hire employees to do a task to make more money. 

Closet dreamers- This is a video game where you play as the owner of a closet organizer. You go through levels of people’s closets and reorganize them. The levels are endless and become more complex the more you play. 

 Just the beans- In this game, you play as a coffee shop owner. You start at a small side-stand coffee shop and as you get more business you can upgrade the shop. As you upgrade the shop you can get more coffee beans, and more equipment, hire employees, and even open up other businesses. 

Food runner- In this game, you own a restaurant and you are a server. You have to get people’s orders, place them, and deliver them back to customers. Each customer will tip you based on service. Each level will progressively get harder with more complicated orders, getting drinks with food, and even more customers. You have options to upgrade different appliances or hire more employees to get work done faster. You could even customize the restaurant’s decor and even open a chain. 

Expanding- In this game you have objectives to do certain tasks for a village. Your job is to try and expand the village and build it to your liking. Each villager has certain jobs that you may need to go to, to further the development of the town. As a player, you can collect materials that are around the village and collect ingredients/objects to build more houses/businesses to further the development. There is no set end to this game since you can expand in an open world map as well as design it in any particular way you would want. 

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Thoughts-1-9-23

I like how this class picked up from last semester and how most of the class wasn’t taken up with reading the syllabus and doing introductions. I was also interested in the Painstation because I had no idea that game existed and how many people wanted to play it. During class, we talked about how some people are completionists and want to fully complete the game by getting all the achievements and checking every box, myself included. Another question that was asked was why this was, why do you feel you need to complete the game to that extent? I feel I want to get everything out of the game that is possible. I want to find all of the hidden elements of the game and check all the boxes. During class when Max was playing the flower game, I felt a little frustrated with him for not hitting/collecting all the flowers. Although, I don’t think you needed to get every single flower, just the flowers that glowed around them. The user experience wouldn’t change from not collecting them and you would continue to open/brighten more areas of the game. When I played Journey, I liked the aspect of the game by just following subtle paths that were presented and how easy it was to pick up on the game.

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Review 4

The website I chose is August Henry’s Burger Bar. This is a good competitor for our restaurant “Burger?” because for one it has burgers and it also has some interesting burgers you can’t have everywhere. The main colors of this website are red and green as well as a touch of light grey. The layout of the website is really easy to follow and is laid out nicely. I like how the front page includes images of their menu as well as displays all the basics of the restaurant. Another mechanic that they added was when hovering over buttons the font changed to red to indicate you are hovering over it. Also if you hover over certain images it brightens and zooms in. I like how interactive the website is without being too busy. The one thing this website doesn’t do that our website does is add a comical effect. Although our website isn’t for a real restaurant it definitely looks like it. We have a very underground feel to our website, almost like you shouldn’t be on it. This works for the target audience since it’s aimed at young adults and is placed on a college campus. Our website is also interactive with the user as we have multiple things to click on and have a fun slideshow of some of our featured burgers. Another thing our website has is a merch tab, unlike August Henry’s Burger Bar. Our merch is fun and sorta ridiculous, but it adds to the fun and makes our restaurant more approachable. Furthermore, our website’s colors are red, yellow, pink, and black. Our page is mostly black which does in fact stand out more since more web pages are white with bright colors. I feel our site is a great competitor for this restaurant since we both have outrageous burgers. Although I feel ours is better due to having a few more tabs and having a page that stands out a little more. 

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Review 3

When looking at the website for Burgatory I can tell immediately that it has a cohesive color palette. When I first clicked on the page I noticed on the top it shows the logo for Burgatory. I thought the background was black but it is a dark burgundy. Both contrast each other nicely also the bright red of the logo causes emphasis on the logo. The website holds a good balance between light and dark colors. I appreciate this because I’m not burning my eyes looking at a fully white screen but I also don’t have to turn up my brightness to see the page. The website also has great unity in the use of fonts. Furthermore, the complete layout of the webpage is clean and seamless. The design also provides great useability and is easy to use for many ages. The following website I looked at is No.9 Park. This color scheme is different from burgatory, it consisted of brown, white, and aqua. However, brown is only used on the top border of the website, and aqua is on the bottom of the page. Otherwise, the webpage is mostly white. It’s simple but I feel it fits the aesthetic of the restaurant. No.9 Park seems to be on the higher end of standards so the simple feel is fitting, It does bring a sense of unity to the website, and having the colors at the bottom and top of the page creates a balance. I also enjoy the font they used throughout the page since it is sort of elegant in a simple matter. Very fitting for the aesthetic of the restaurant and fits the whole vibe. 

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Kobold Guide to Game Design: Part 4 

  1. What is the difference between a “working” and a “display” prototype? 

A working prototype is intended for evaluation by playtesters or publishers. A display prototype is meant to be visually done, which means all the art and components are done.

  1. What is required of a working prototype, and what might cause one to fail?

A working prototype must include everything it takes to play the game and it should be about the gameplay. A prototype could fail if you include something that isn’t thoroughly tested. 

  1. What makes for a good prototype according to Dale Yu?

Having good first impressions, making sure the rules are clear and well-written, and making sure the components of the game make sense and are well constructed. Lastly having a good final impression, when you send a game off make sure you provide a playable game and it doesn’t look shitty since you are technically trying to sell the game.  

  1. What advice from Richard Levy will help you pitch your game?

Making sure I have a fun factor, player interaction, a strategy, an interesting theme, solid rules and mechanics, a correct target audience, and a good title. 

  1. Where might you pitch your game?

I would probably send my game to publishers that are accepting submissions from the general public 

  1. What do publishers look for in a game?

A fun factor, Player interaction, immediacy to play, strategy, interesting theme, immersive experience, interrelated theme and rules, solid rules and mechanics, innovative rules, innovative components, easily manufactured components, compatibility with other products, correct target market, good title, expansion potential, multi-language capability and easy demoing. 

7. What makes a good set of Rules?

Rules should be complete and easy to follow with no broken mechanics. 

8. Describe the best game you’ve made this semester in 250 words. Follow Michelle Nephew’s outline.

So far, the best game I have made this semester is “Divided” with Clay. This game was easy for other people to play and understand. I liked how simple it could be and it’s good for all ages. Also, each player can have their strategies on how they wanted to go out or if they wanted to go fast or slow the game down. We got a lot of compliments from people saying how much they liked the game. Currently, I’m working on a game called “Brain Cells” which is a trivia/memory game. I’m interested to see this get tested since no one in the class has made a game like this yet. The rules are pretty simple where there is a judge who will read questions to the group and if they get it right they play a memory game to collect brain cells. I feel this game has real potential since it’s not too complicated in the rules and the setup is rather easy too.