This is how I made the card tiles look in my most recent prototype, Freezing Frolly. Though I did this project with a partner, I may incorporate this design in another solo project that I am going to do for the final (Gallery Grippers)
HW
- Question Set 1
- what is the difference between a game designer and a game developer?
- Game designers are responsible for the conceptual side of creating a game, including the mechanics, the story, Avatar concept, level or round concepts, and overall player experience. Whereas the developers are the artists and creators who actually create the physical game to be a real thing.
- what commonly occurs during the game development process?
- Conceptualizing, brainstorming, prototyping, art style planning, arranging core mechanics, building parts
- what are the challenges of balancing a game?
- making everything make sense and have a clear reasonable end purpose in the game
- what should every player of your game believe? why?
- They should believe that this will be not only fun, but also witty, because there are many aspects of this game that you can literally do by yourself, or with 6 people. A lot of versatility.
- how can you avoid stealing players fun?
- By making the mechanics not too complicating, nor simplistic either. Balancing it out.
- what 10 maxims should you follow when writing rules?
- 1. Use real words rather than made up jargon
- 2. Make no more work than necessary when it comes to laying out the steps
- 3. Make it understandable so that anyone can comprehend your writing
- 4. Be concise, Keep rules as short as possible without sacrificing essential details
- 5. Organize rules in a logical order. Go from start to finish as though you are playing.
- 6. Use examples, don’t just name a card, describe whats on it as well
- 7. Use visual aids, include diagrams or pictures that correspond with what you’re talking about
- 8. Anticipate questions so that you know what to explain for a new player in the final rules
- 9. Separate setup and gameplay rules so that it’s not confusing
- 10. Make the rules engaging and approachable.
- Question Set 2
- how has play testing changed your game?
- Play testing allowed me to discover that anyone can play this game solo, and that multiplayer is only necessary when one wants to compete more. It also gave me other outlooks in terms of how much I can add to the game, to not only make it more engaging, but more competitive as well.
- who from class would you like to play test your next game or version 2 of your first game?
- Dylan. I also wanna play his game too. Maybe Evan again as well.
- who is the audience for your game?
- My target audience is a group of people, such as a group of artists, classmates, family, or friends. I don’t want my game to be too niche to the point where its too exclusive to be enjoyed by anyone. I’d rather share this game with as many people as possible.
- who should play test your game outside of class?
- Johnny, Kiora, Robert, maybe family too
DA RULES 2
Gallery Grippers: is an Art Heist game in which players assume the roles of a Cat Burglar Mastermind trying to assemble a team to collect the most valuable art pieces from a series of high-security museums across 4 corners of the world (a game board). The board features 4 different famous museums, each with unique artworks. At the start of the game, out of the 4 to 6 players. Each player at the beginning, sets up their heist crew, by choosing 6 cards (3 specialist cards and 3 Attribute cards)
Specialist cards: Are your added crew members to your gang (the stealth specialist, the master of disguise, the hacker, etc.)
Attribute cards: include tools for the specialists to use (Such as Added Stealth, More Tech, Steroids, etc.) These cards can increase your percentage roll total once you add them to the rest of your stats.
- After the players set up their crews, the leftover specialist and attribute cards are shuffled and placed down on the side of the board, so that later on in the game, if someone lands on a recruitment tile, they get to pick from the unused specialist/attribute cards to gain another teammate.
- Players must roll a six sided die to determine how far they move on the board
- Players must use specialist cards and attribute cards to bypass the security guards and alarm systems
- Players must roll a percentage die when they land on any of the Obstacle Tiles (Red Alarm tiles or Black Security tiles) to determine if they receive a strike. or if they bypass that said obstacle and move closer to the art tiles in hopes to collect the art (2 strikes and you must return to the E tile at the exit of the museums) A score of 100% or higher bypasses a security system. Anything lower gives you a strike.
- *IMPORTANT*: Each player has a Score Sheet which they can add up their total percentages on (both from their rolled number, plus from their added or subtracted attribute percentages from the attribute cards, as well as from the base percentages of success rates on each specialist card) which are added to the total percentage of your chance of bypassing an obstacle. Your specialist’s Success Rates increase based on which Attributes they choose (what that means is that if you have a team with a Muscle Specialist card with a 20% success rate, and you draw a Steroid Attribute, you will earn a plus 10% to your percentage roll for Matching a Specialist with a corresponding Attribute)
- When a player lands on an obstacle, they must choose one specialist card and one attribute card to use to fend off against that obstacle, as well as a percentage roll which is added together on their Score Sheet. Each player gets two potential strikes of getting caught by one of the obstacles whenever they enter a museum before getting sent to the exit tiles of that museum
- Once a player reaches the ART tile, they can choose one piece of artwork from that museum. Only one artwork available to players per museum break in. (this means that if you break into the Louvre, you can steal only one of the Louvre’s pieces. If you wish to steal two of the Louvre’s pieces then you must either travel to a different museum and back, or to home bass and back. (You can’t abuse one corner and stay in that corner the whole game)
- If a player successfully steals 5 pieces of art, they win
- If there’s no more art left on the board, whoever has the most art wins
Tiles within Museums:
Alarm tiles– you tripped a wire on this Red tile, now use your specialist and attribute cards to ensure whether you either bypass the alarm or not
Security Guard Tiles- This is the Black tile, You encounter a security guard. Now you must use your specialist and attribute cards to ensure whether you escape the guard or not
Art Tiles– These are in the corners of each museum,
Tiles outside the museums:
Airport tiles- any Blue tiles are airport tiles, which allow a player to travel from one airport tile to another if they land on it.
Recruitment Tile– these are the Green tiles that when landed on, allow players to pick one of the face down attribute or specialist cards from the miscellaneous deck on the side board.
Exit Tiles– Border each museum, and are the tiles that say E on them. If a player gets caught twice within a museum, they are sent to an exit tile bordering that said museum.
Each museum will have one Museum Description card. There are 3 description cards to match the 3 museums on the board. On the description cards, it reads the intensity level of that said museum’s security, as well as that museum’s art pieces. Higher security museums will be harder to break in and out of, yet have higher valued art.
Everyone must roll a die to determine how far they move from their base each turn
Attributes:
- Added Stealth
- Determines likelihood of avoiding detection from any of the two obstacles
- +5% chance added to your total percentage of bypassing the triggering of alarms on alarm tiles
- +10% Chance added to your percentage roll of bypassing the security guard tiles
- Determines likelihood of avoiding detection from any of the two obstacles
- Steroids
- Physical movement and obstacle navigation with strength
- Subtract 1 added movement of a tile space per turn
- +10% success rate added to your total percentage on physical challenges such as fending off a security guard on a security guard tile
- Physical movement and obstacle navigation with strength
- Charisma
- Ability to talk through situations and manipulate Guards
- +10% added to your total percentage for social interactions with the security guards on a security guard tile
- Subtract 10% from your total percentage for talking too much; which in turn, gives a higher chance of tripping a wire on accident on an alarm tile
- Ability to talk through situations and manipulate Guards
- More Tech
- Ability to bypass surveillance
- +20% added to your total percentage for your success rate of shutting down alarm systems on the alarm tiles.
- Add 1 extra space moved each turn for your attempts at reducing the heat
- Ability to bypass surveillance
Sarah’s Trinket Game
Amber’s Game
Sushi Go
Was it Fun?
This game was fun and engaging
What was the interaction?
all players had a fun time competing against each other to collect the right amount of sushi cards.
How long did it take to learn?
very fast
Would you play again?
yes
Act 1-
Everyone started grabbing random cards
Act 2-
Everyone started learning which cards did what
Act 3-
Everyone competed once we all knew exactly what we were supposed to be doing.
5 game ideas revolving around collecting
- Tasty Travels is the game that I was talking about last week, in which players must travel across the board to collect ingredients before making their dishes.
- another game idea which involves collecting would include Plant Life: Theme: Botanical Collection
Gameplay: Players cultivate their own gardens using a grid-based board. Each player collects different types of plants and herbs (represented by tiles or that are placed on the grid) that require specific conditions to grow. Players must gather water, sunlight, and soil cards from the conditions deck in order to nurture their plants. Special events can change the environment, affecting what plants thrive. Collecting rare plants earns bonus points, and players can also trade plants at a market. The market is where it gets competitive. Here, payers must sell their tiles with the cards attributed to them. If the cards are the perfect conditions for the tile (as listed on the tile’s underside) they get the full amount of points. If it is off, they will make less depending on how severe the conditions are for their crops. - My Little Monsters is a fantasy collection game set in a whimsical market where players collect magical tiny creatures and monsters. Each player starts with a small amount of currency and must navigate a market board to acquire these pet creatures/monsters through auctions, in which you can buy a creature from someone else, or trades, in which you can swap a creature with someone else. There are also duels in which you can kill a creature/monster with your monster and it dies completely and can’t be used anymore. these creatures have different abilities and rarity levels, affecting their value. Players can form alliances or sabotage others to gain valuable creatures. The goal is to have the highest valued collection by the end of the game.
- Oceans 14: is an Art Heist game in which players assume the roles of art thieves trying to collect the most valuable masterpieces from a high-security museum (a game board). The board features different rooms, each with unique artworks. Each player when it is their turn must draw a card, and role a die to see how far they move on the board. Players use strategy cards to bypass the security guards, but they can also set traps for rivals. such as smoke bombs, bear traps, or slippery oil. The goal is to collect the most points from stolen art. However, players risk losing points if caught by the security guards. This is if they land on a security guard square on the game path.
- Scribble n’ Sell: is a Drawing based collecting game in which Players create their own art pieces using drawing prompts provided by cards. Each turn, a new theme card is drawn (e.g., “fantasy landscape,” “abstract emotions”), and players have a set time to draw their interpretation (there will be a two minute long timer). Once completed, players can trade their art pieces at the trading post for various art supplies or other player artworks. Players earn points based on creativity, originality; all judged by their successfulness or unsuccessfulness with their trade of the artwork. Each bid is documented. The game ends after 10 rounds, and the player with the most valuable artwork spread wins.
5 Game ideas / start of Da Rules.
5 Food based Board Games:
- 1. Order’s Up is a team based word play game, similar to scrabble. However, every tile is an ingredient. Each player gets 7 random ingredients to start the match. There will also include a card deck. When drawn at the beginning of each round, each player must “spell” or “cook up” an order that would fit the cards description of how the food must be. If one cannot complete the order with their ingredients, they either loose that round, or they can choose to continue working for another franchise (another player). Once this is done the new 2 player teams can get 11 ingredients. Whoever makes the most orders (team or teamless) wins.
- 2. Restaurant Wars is a economic, strategy, and competitive game with elements of sabotage mixed throughout it. whoever is the oldest in the game is the Executive Chef. At the start of each round, each player (besides the Executive Chef) will pick a card at random from the characters Deck. when that player finds out who they are, they get that character’s abilities for that round. Characters include:
- Executive Chef: Abilities include plus 4 tokens each round, and this player can fire other chefs
- Sous Chef: Abilities include plus 3 tokens each round, this player has the ability to stab another employee
- Prep Cook: Abilities include plus 2 tokens each round, this player has the ability to poison another chef’s lunch
- Busser: Abilities include plus 2 tokens each round, this player has the ability to leave the restaurant a mess, which will scare customers, causing the manager who’s playing to give up one token to the busser.
- Server: Abilities include plus one token, however they have the ability to steal all the tokens from any player
- Manager: Abilities include plus 4 tokens each round, and this player can fire other front of the house or back of the house employees except for the executive chef
More Rules for Restaurant Wars:
- This restaurant runs like most restaurants; on power and greed. Each player can either choose to use their abilities, or gain plus 3 tokens instead. This game is similar to Dominion in that in order to win, one must buy out the cards from the specialty deck, which include things like new uniform, new shoes, new apron, new car, plus one wage increase, etc.
3. Tasty Travels is a scavenger like mind game in which players play as chefs competing in a high-stakes cooking tournament where they travel the world (on the board), gather ingredients, and cook signature dishes to impress the judge. The goal is to create the most impressive multi-course meal to win the prestigious “Chef of the Year” title.
Components of the game:
- Ingredient Pieces: Each ingredient piece represents a specific ingredient (e.g., truffles, saffron, fresh basil, shrimp) with different rarities and qualities. Each piece will be on a part of the board that corresponds with that piece’s region. Each tile landed on wins you ingredients from that region when landed on that you get to pick.
- Recipe Cards: These represent famous dishes (e.g., PB&J, Burgers, Home Fries, Beef Wellington, Sushi, Tiramisu, ratatouille). Players need specific ingredients to complete them. There will be a few rare recipe cards which incorporate fusion recipes. However, players can’t complete these harder card challenges until they have traveled to multiple regions on the board and collected needed ingredients. Categories: Appetizers, Entrees, Deserts.
- Chef Avatar: Each player is represented by a chef with a unique ability (e.g., “Gardemanger or Farm-to-Table Pantry Chef” gets bonuses for vegetable-based dishes, Diner Chef/Quick service chef gets bonuses for greasy fried things, Chef de Partie/Fine Dining Chef gets bonuses for luxury fresh ingredients such as lobster, wagyu beef, or scallops and a Patissier/Pastry Chef). However, any chef can still use any ingredient, but if their final meal matches their avatar, they get an extra point. Each player before the game starts picks one of these avatars, but can choose to cook in any regien out of the 4.
- World Map Board: Divided into regions that represent culinary hotspots (e.g., Italian, American, Mexican, French). Each region specializes in certain ingredients and each player must travel to different regions of the map to get these said ingredients. Each player moves on the map by rolling a 8 sided die, and deciding which paths to take based on the number rolled. There will also be vender tiles, which give you any ingredient on the board, as well as warp tiles which teleport the player that lands on it somewhere else on the map entirely.
- Judge Cards: These determine what the judges are looking for (e.g., “Sweet, Spicy, Savory, Healthy, Vegetarian, Salty, Bland, Carnivorous”). Bonus points for matching dishes to preferences.
- Bonus Points are given to players who come up with their own recipes, or match recipes to their region.
4. Ingredient Gathering is a culinary card matching game that is a game of chance. The cards are all laid out on the grid upside down so that the players don’t see the ingredients on the cards. The players then must match two unseen cards. Every item has a duplicate. Their goal is to match the duplicate with the other duplicate. (ex. If there are 20 cards in a deck, then there will be ten total ingredients all with duplicates). The object of the game is to clear the board. Once a card is turned over, it is then put back if not matched, but still must be remembered by the players (game of memory).
5. Battle Shop is a strategy type guessing game for two players, in which each player gets the same grocery list, however, each store (each side of the boarder) is different, and has a different store layout. It is then up to each player (chef) to sabotage the other chefs groceries in order for their opponent to not complete their grocery list. whoever has the least amount of ingredients when leaving looses. How to call out a sabotage: One player will say aisle 8 row 3. for example. If they hit a desired ingredient, they loose that grocery item.
Forbidden Island
Was it fun?
Answer: Yes, I liked the collaborative aspect of this game, kinda took a load of stress off.
What were the player interactions?
Answer: Slow to start but then everyone got into it as time went on.
How long did it take to learn?
Answer: After reading the rules, not very long.
Would you play it again?
Answer: Yes it was fun ngl
Analyze the game using the 3 act structure.
In the first act things would flood but it wasn’t the end of the world.
In the second act we started to gain avatars and things flooding was a bad thing
In the third act, we made it to the helicopter lift and all won.
What are the collaborative and or competitive aspects of the game?
Answer: The competitive aspect WAS the colaborative nature of the game. It really brought every player into a team member state of mind.
What is the game’s metaphor and which of the game’s mechanics standout?
]Answer: I think the games metaphor was to always do what’s right for the group. The game mechanic that I enjoyed was when a certain number of cards deemed a player a certain avatar.
5 Collaborative Game Ideas
Rees Edwards
- Blind Help is a Strategy Game in which One player is blindfolded. This player then draws a card from the deck, and on the card is a detailed picture of something. He or she then must show this card to the rest of the non-blindfolded players in the match. They then will shout out one word descriptors of what is on the card. The blindfolded player then must use these hints to come up with the correct answer in three tries. Whoever gave the winning hint gets a point as well as the blindfolded player if they get it correct too.
- Kill the Boss is a team based fantasy fighting game, in which a group of players each pick an avatar based on the player pieces they choose. Each player piece has their own abilities. In the center of the board there is the boss. All the players must team up to defeat the boss, but there could still be some betrayal. The boss has a deck of cards as well as the players (2 decks). The players can pull specialty moves or choose to take the loot associated with that power if that said power doesn’t retain to their player’s abilities. There are 4 different abilities: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. If one gains enough loot, They can buy power enhancements, which are unlock-able on most cards of the deck for those with enough loot. If someone gets enough enhanced abilities, they can then strike at other players and choose whether or not to kill or join the boss.
- Start Up is a team based economic game, in which a group of players start their own start up brand based on the cards that they pull. Each person gets fake money, and pulls a card with details about a storefront. It is then up to the players to come up with different ways that they can invest their fake money to keep the store afloat. There will be another deck of cards that determines what they spend their money on or not, however at the end of the day, it is the player’s decisions if they want to make a purchase for their store or not. However, taxes and monthly sales also comes into play with the other deck, and this can cause everyone to either lose and go bankrupt, or win the game by becoming a monopoly
- Order’s Up is a team based word play game, similar to scrabble. However, every tile is an ingredient. Each player gets 7 random ingredients to start the match. There will also include a card deck. When drawn at the beginning of each round, each player must “spell” or “cook up” an order that would fit the cards description of how the food must be. If one cannot complete the order with their ingredients, they either loose that round, or they can choose to continue working for another franchise (another player). Once this is done the new 2 player teams can get 11 ingredients. Whoever makes the most orders (team or teamless) wins.
- Memory ice burg. This is a memory game in which every player collaborates with their minds to remember what “tools” they left on their ship that has crashed into an ice burg, but still hasn’t sunk. Each tool is a card, but the cards are faced down after being shown in the beginning. If everyone remembers where and what each of the 30 cards is, that was placed down, they are able to repair the ship and sail away. If not, they are stuck on the Ice burg forever and loose. Collectively, each team of players will have 10 tries total until they are stuck on the Ice Burgh.
haiku
hear the random sounds
chop and screw or mix it down
show the end result
Bang
Was it Fun?
Bang was more fun than Flux. I liked not only it’s aesthetic, but the playability was intense, fast paced, and interesting. I think I also liked it though because my player, the Sherif, was OP.
What was the interaction?
I didn’t know who was on my side or who wanted me dead, which gave me sort of a sense like the game mafia. Which I enjoyed heavily. I also liked that everyone was involved this time.
How long did it take to learn?
Not long to be honest.
Would you play again?
Yeah, I thought it was a total vibe.
Act 1-
Although we were randomly committing blood shed blindly for no reason, we knew the objective but didn’t know enough info on the players abilities (besides me)
Act 2-
At this point we learned more about who was who and the game progressed how it was intended to be played
Act 3-
Me and Amber duked it out as we were the last two left. I thought I was clearly gonna win but then she just came out of nowhere and came back and beat me.
Questions / Game ideas
- My 5 Game ideas:
- 1. Sample Scrabble: Everyone must use the given samples (at random) to create their own songs from scratch
- 2. Edit if you said it: A game which consists of each player coming up with a 30 second long story to tell about anything they want. The next goal is to give every other player try and recreate the story through editing images in a video like format.over top of the audio clip of the story that was told. At the end there is a vote for who made the best edit, and then they are gifted with the ability to tell the next story.
- 3. Draw or die: A player must draw how they got out of a random dangerous situation which is given to them through a set of cards. everyone else then must guess what sparked this drawing, whether he/she got his/her limbs chopped off, or he/she got into a pool full of sharks, etc. but they get to guess before the player is done drawing. Every 15 seconds players get a guess. The first player gets a full minute to draw the image before they win or not. The goal is to guess right. Both the drawer and the guesser win a point if this is done correctly.
- 4. Sculptor’s Sherrades: Each player is given a chunck of clay, and a card out of the deck. Each player must take 2 minutes or less to sculpt what their card is, such as a dog or a sword, or a set of headphones, etc. Whoever guesses or makes the right thing first wins a point.
- 5: Build it: A game that consists of giving every player a random set of legos, all shoken up beforehand and poured evenly into a cup. Each player then must build something based on the universal prompt given each round. After the 5 minute timer goes off, there will be a third party judge who decides who earns the point. Whoever has the best depiction or metaphor for what the prompt was gets a point, and is then the next round’s judge.
- What Mechanics would you like to use for a game with a theme that revolves around being the size of a nanometer?
- For this game, I would love to possibly do a twist on a realm similar to the universe created in the animated film, Fantastic Planet, where the humans are the size of insects, and the aliens, or Drakes, are huge. This could possibly be a game that would consist of a player viewing a open world realm, only through the viewpoint of a tiny dude. Or I could do a physical game similar to the concept of Magic School bus, where you learn about different parts of the body on the cards you read as one ventures through the human anatomy shaped board with lil school bus pieces.
- Who are you making games for?
- The first game idea would definitely be for people who geek out about obscure films like fantastic planet, whereas the other one would be a fun game for kids.
- Who will be your play testers outside of class?
- My friends and family
- Question Set 2
- Can you think of a game you were able to play without referring to the rules?
- Jenga is an easy one for this question. This game is just fun to play, especially when its huge. But it’s never complicating and doesn’t need a whole lot of instructions.
- How do you define what a game is?
- You define what a game is by being able to have some sense of playability, as well as mechanics.
- What features can make your games more intuitive?
- Possibly I could find ways to make the process go by faster, as with all my games, time is a big factor, and could be seen as a constraint if one doesn’t have enough of it and wishes to play one of my games.
- Question Set 3
- What was your gateway game? What do you play to introduce others to gaming?
- To be honest, my Gateway Game was probably Ice Age the meltdown, where you mainly played as Scrat, and you explored the world of Ice Age and solved puzzles in an open world like realm.
- What features do gateway games share?
- Nostalgia for sure.
- What are the 10 beautiful mechanics and what should you aim for with your own?
- Dexterity mechanics: I will keep in mind that the objects must be pleasing to touch, that the game pieces arent rigid or rusted.
- Core Mechanics: I will make sure all my games involve a rulebook to come with each game.
- Movement controls: I will be involving a lot of hands on and creative work from each player into my games
- Combat systems: I will have a point system to cause more eagerness to win
- Resource management: I will fund or find funds for all my games
- Puzzle-solving mechanics: I will give every game an aspect of an issue that must be fixed.
- Player objectives and rewards: I will want every player to wish to win
- Character interactions: I want all the players to enjoy their time with each other, and regardless of how anything turns out, still be respectful and admirative of other’s work.
- Level design: I will make sure the set up of the physical atributes of the game looks sleek.
- How does luck and strategy factor in to game play?
- It all depends on the cards you’re dealt, as well as how one chooses to use his cards.
- 5: Build it: A game that consists of giving every player a random set of legos, all shoken up beforehand and poured evenly into a cup. Each player then must build something based on the universal prompt given each round. After the 5 minute timer goes off, there will be a third party judge who decides who earns the point. Whoever has the best depiction or metaphor for what the prompt was gets a point, and is then the next round’s judge.
Flux Questions
Was it fun? Yes. More fun this time around than any. I think as I understand the game more I start to slightly enjoy it more. What were the interactions between players? Friendly and all seemed to have a similar view on the game. How long did it take to learn? Many classes lol. And would you play it again? Yeah sure why not.
Game Questions
- In my opinion, every game should include a satisfying or unsatisfying outcome. The reason why I enjoy the gams that I do, is because there is typically a sense of winning or loosing involved with it.
- BO2, Fancy Pants, Minecraft, Skyrim, Tetris, Paper Mario
- Skyrim does a good job at the three act structure by setting up the world very well in the intro, throwing in a conflict that will have to be faced later on in the story, and then the resolution is to go up from the bottom where you start.
- I typically first think of an idea that could be described as metaphor, as I think of things I can create that aren’t the physical aspects of the game. Then I move on to mechanics; how the idea is used, how the idea can be interpreted or experienced by the viewer, etc.
- I would like to collab with Guidian because he’s cool, or Dylan because I’ve known him longest.