Game design
Reflection
week 2
1/16/17
Games Played: Munchkin Gloom and Dominion
The main focus for the games played this week focused on the different acts/stages that take place during the game. For the most part, every game is broken up into 3 acts (learning the rules/familiarizing oneself with the goal, 2. getting more comfortable with the rules of the game, and 3. (typically towards the end of the game) when everyone focuses on the goal and is completely comfortable). By playing these two games I was able to loosely pinpoint when these acts were taking place and changing.
Munchkin Gloom, simply put is Gloom under the art and humor of the Munchkin brand-which put a humorous twist on the game itself. This game is card based, and each player is assigned a set of character cards. The overall premises was to kill off all of your characters while lowering their self worth. The person with the lowest score of self worth of dead characters wins. In my limited game experience, this was the first time I’ve seen the concept of losing masked as winning. Although the goal was set in stone, I did appreciate how there can be different approaches to winning the game. In one round of playing alone my group went through tactics of blackmail, throwing each other under the bus, prioritizing negative self worth or prioritizing the killing of characters. Because of this aspect it is anything but a game where you can keep to yourself and bank on luck. It forces you to take notice of your teammates hand and strategize. The most enjoyable aspect of this game was clear to everyone, the transparency of the cards that allowed moves to be played on top of one another by either enhancing or negating a character. This mechanic was very original and intriguing- I’d love to be able to incorporate this type of ingenuity into my own game design in the future.
As far as the acts were concerned in Munchkin Gloom the first act of the initial understanding of the rules and concept was a little slow at first and definitely took the longest. The instructions on the cards were most helpful in this instance and made us communicate and talk out the game with the other players. After the first act transitioned into the second the pace picked up and we very quickly skipped our way to the last act.
Dominion took some getting used to personally. The overall concept was to collect money to buy cards that acted as tools which in turn yielded more money. Then with all that money you buy victory points. In order to win this game you must have the most victory points, however the game ends when certain stacks of cards are depleted. What I liked about dominion is that there are so many possibilities for different strategies and options of games to play, therefore it doesn’t have to be the exact same strategy and routine game after game. The acts during this game make me wonder if they are one continuous transition or if each player has their own variation. I struggled to latch onto a strategy for the majority of the game, therefore I feel that it is the latter. If given the opportunity to play more than once I definitely think I would gain a better sense of what to do and how to benefit but I think the different options and possibilities were slightly overwhelming at first which held me back in the beginning.