Readings Blog post

Two readings were required over spring break on prototyping, and this is my response to them…

First off, these articles explain that prototyping is testing a game before fully designing it. From what I understand, it is more a test of the game concept and the general idea of how the game play will work then an actual test of a finished game. I see it as similar to the art concept of  stepping back from your work in order to see it with a ‘fresh eye’ in order to spot flaws. Obviously, the earlier mistakes can be fixed, the easier it is to fix them. 

 

The importance of prototyping is simply to save time, energy, and resources that might otherwise be waisted on a game with a lot of problems. (I think one article even said it saves on unnecessary frustration…. ^_^). Having a team work a game into a finished product without any testing, only to have it be extremely messed up in the end would be kind of a…. mega bummer. As I mentioned just now, it’s easier to correct problems in earlier stages, especially since if one thing is wrong, it can mean a bunch of other aspects of the game need fixing in order for everything to work. Prototyping can catch these problems early on and help smooth out the development of games.

 

“How can you use paper prototypes for digital games?” Well, like the article about the iphone games discussed…. it just… can be done. I honestly don’t know how to answer that. Basically, the paper game is more of a representational prototype of how the digital game would end up. One thing the article mentioned to keep in mind, however, was that it isn’t always a smooth translation from real materials to digital….

 

“What can you do to improve your development process to make it more streamlined based on what these authors discuss?” Again… I’m really not sure how to answer that. In regards to digital games, paper prototyping will be a great way to test any initial concepts and ideas, as long as I keep in mind how to make the transition from paper to computer work.

Game Challenge: April fools

When coming up with an idea for this game, I moved from the idea to april fools, to just plain fooling people. I thought about the kind of things people would lie about to try and fool others into believing they have a better/more interesting life. I came up with a ridiculously long list and narrowed it down to the twelve ideas I used in the game. Eventually, I developed a card game that is like a mix between bullshit and poker… (Pictures of cards to be shown *hopefully* in a later post.) 

Here are the rules:

 

 

 

Title: Foolin’

 

Rules:

 

Fool and be fooled. Everyone starts out with six cards and ten tokens. The rest of the tokens are placed in the ‘pot’. Players take turns laying out multiples of cards (2, 3, or 4 of a kind) with ‘life achievements’ face down, calling their hand as they play it.

 

Calling fool: If fool is called on a player and they reveal to have the cards they claimed, then the person who called fool must pay them double the amount of token that the cards are worth. (I.E a pair of something means 4 tokens must be payed.)

If fool is called on a player and they, indeed, do not have those multiples, then they must pay the person who called it on them double the value of the cards played. 

 

Buying cards: If a player would like to buy cards from the deck they may, as many times in their turn as they like as long as have enough tokens to do so (one token is worth one card.) Once they put down their multiple, their turn is over and the game moves on.

 

Earning tokens: When a player plays cards they collect the value of their cards back from the pot. (I.E a pair of cards would be worth 2 tokens.)

If multiples of 3 or 4 are played, then the player gets double their value.

 

Losing the game: If a player runs out of to tokens and are called on a fake hand, they are out of the game.

 

Winning the game: The player who gets ride of all their cards first, wins. However, if they fake the last of their cards and are called on it, they must pay for six more cards and continue playing.

Illustration: Fighter for setcha

I told Setcha that I would color “the fighter” from my narrative game.

Thank you for your patience, I was really overwhelmed with the stuff I have to get done for my portfolio presentation and well… I got burnt out on art.

 

Well, better late than never, eh?

 

 

 

 

P.S – Sorry for the watermark, I’m just sick of people stealing my stuff off the internet.

I’ll send you an unwatermarked version to your email, if you’d like.

Massive follow up blog: Inspiration and game play responses…

 

 

 

Some games are long over due for a follow-up, so below is the list of my previous games. This blog will talk about my process for coming up with the game, and some typed notes on how people reacted to the game…

 

Game challenge: “I have a Dream”

Like I had previously mentioned, my main hope when creating this game was to make a card game. I liked the idea of needing a bunch of pieces of a dream collected together to make a whole dream. In the end, however, the game ended up becoming a lot like a souped up version of the game “go fish” (which didn’t really bother me.)

 

The players seemed to engage well with the game. It played off of inner competitiveness – especially coming from the only male playing it, Darko

 

The game play was a bit long, I marked almost two hours down, however when I asked the players if they thought it was too long, or dragged, they insisted that it wasn’t a problem. 

 

In the future it might be nice to game test it again. I’d definitely need to add more specialty cards. Players suggested a lot more ‘Karma cards’, and maybe a few more ’stroke of luck’ cards.

 

 

 

Business card Challenge 

 

Well, I already talked about my process with this game….

It’s a fairly simple game. I didn’t get a whole lot of feedback from people, other than things like “it was good”, but at least it seemed to be received well.

 

I’d like to expand on this idea, about collecting sets… I like the idea of people having to collect a whole set to play, especially if people are in a group and have to pull theirs together. ^_^

 

Oh, and since my instructor had made a note of what would be on the front, I hadn’t actually written anything. (I don’t know what I would put as my career title… Artists sounds snobbish, so maybe something more along the lines of Illustrator.

 

Eventually when I have more of life figured out… (or well, at least my website up) I’ll be able to fill out that information….

 

 

Narrative Game 

 

This was the toughest game for me so far. I had a hard time coming up with a game with a narrative, and the harder I struggled with an idea, the more frustrated I became, tapering off all creativity. (O_O)

Eventually I just started to draw characters and come up with back stories. I had hoped to somehow have them unravel during game play, but it didn’t really work out exactly as I had wanted. I just couldn’t execute my idea well enough, and how I ended up with the whole board idea is still a mystery to me… (a gift from the gods of desperation perhaps?)

 

I think I’d eventually like to come back to this game and well… I don’t know if I could salvage the idea I had originally had, but maybe do something with it… er… maybe. 

 

Perhaps part of my issue was that I just couldn’t figure out a good way to do a narrative through a board game…. I wonder if it would be easier in more of a computerized environment. (If I could ever figure out how to use a computer program for it….)

 

Anyway, my group seemed to think the game was fine. Most of the comments during play came from the difficulty in reading the game board. The playtime was a little longer than I had originally anticipated, but that didn’t seem to bother anyone. 

 

 

 

 

Altering board: Realm Hopping

I don’t really know where my inspiration came for this game. I just sort of pictured it in my head, and somehow it turned out….

 

Although, it was actually a lot more complicated a game. I was going to have characters “realm hop” and it just became more and more simplified until the final product was merely playing pieces and a fairly simple board.

 

The two members of my group that played it seemed to enjoy it a lot – maybe they were just being nice to me though, who knows D:

 

Mostly, the feedback I got for this game was a desire for pictures in the rules. (Diagrams on how it worked, explaining was a bit confusing.)

 

 

 

…..

 

 

Well that’s it for this massive post…. 

I’m never good at ending things…….

 

 

so……

 

 

done!

 

^_^

Theme and Message

 

I’m putting this up in my blog as a back up, since I couldn’t find it in Kaila’s blog….

 

Apocalypse/Society game: 

(I unofficially call it “Apocalypse Now?”)

 

 

Two Teams: The Civilized Society team, and the Apocalypse team. 

 

How to play:

 

Moving: Players take turns rolling a die and moving across the board. The teams thrive in one environment, and are slowed down by another; therefore depending on which is in play – A Stabilized Society or an Apocalypse – the team that thrives better in it will get to roll a D12, and the struggling team will roll a D6. (I.E If there is an Apocalypse, the apocalyptic team will get to roll the D12 and Vice Versa).

 

Gaining tokens: When a player lands on a token spot, they can only collect a token if it is a skill that goes with that team. 

 

When the team that doesn’t thrive in the current situation is collecting tokens (I.E If there is currently an Apocalypse, the Civilized Society team) they must collect them from the opposing team. If the opposing team does not have any, then collect from the token pile.)

 

When 5 tokens have been collected, depending on the team, they can either bring the Apocalypse or stabilize society. (Gaining the faster movement with the D12, and slowing the opposite team with the D6). The tokens must be put back in the token pile after words.

 

 

*Note: The Civilized Society team’s token is the Kitten side facing up, the Apocalypse team has the Zombie kitties.

 

Winning: The team that reaches the end of the board first wins. All players must reach the end for the team to win.

 

 

 

Tokens:

This is what they look like ^_^

 

 

Found Game

I found a game online that I thought was appealing:

 

http://armorgames.com/play/3303/music-catch-2

 

It’s a fairly simple game where you’re goal is to collect shapes as they appear in time with a classical/romantic piano music (although if you go through the whole thing at the end you can do it from an MP3 of your choosing – from a website).

 

What I find so attractive about this game is the ascetic and artistic quality is very nice. I like (what I guess is called) the interface of the game as well, I could almost even see it as an installation in an art gallery. Admittedly, it’s probably more geared towards a female audience because it lacks any real competitiveness and it’s well… pretty. But I think at the same time it’s a fairly relaxing game.

Well I think I’ve rambled enough about it now… anyway, check it out if you like.

 

-Desirae

Altering board

Latest game: Realm Hopping

 

Rules:

Start with the bored set up with the white side showing. High roller goes first. Players must roll a die to determine each turn. The first player to capture all their opponent’s pieces wins. 

 

Rolls:

If an even number is rolled, the player can move one piece in any direction to the same colored realm. 

 

If an odd number is rolled, the player can chose to either flip a piece of the board that is either free or occupied by their own piece. (I.E a square that has an opponents piece on it cannot be flipped.)

 

Capturing: 

The first capture must take place in the black realm. The piece of the board in which the capture takes place is flipped and the next capture must take place in the white realm. (I.E capture alternates black –> white –> black and so on.)

Narrative Game

Phew, finally I’m putting in all the write ups on this game. I apologize to the people in my class who had to comment, and thank them for their patience with me.  

 

 

Story with a narrative:

The original set up of this game was going to be a King in a castle who’s set traps all around. The first person to reach it would gain a gold prize (or something), but it was such an interchangeable plot I never really felt the need to stick too closely to it or develop it more…. Anyway, here’s the board I eventually came up with.

 

 

 

Rules:

Players role the dice and move, high roller goes first. The players will either land on a “card” space – where they will draw a card – or a trap space – where they will draw a trap. If the player lands on a trap and has the corresponding skill , they are safe and get to roll again. If they do not, they lose a turn.

On their initial turn, players can chose their own path. At cross roads, players can also switch paths if they desire.

 

How to learn skills: At the beginning of the game, each character you chose has an inherent skill and you gain their back story automatically. There are a few ways to learn other player’s skills through cards.

 

The detailed breakup of the cards is as follows:

 

Glimpse in time:

Collect three of these to gain the back story of any desired character.

 

Mark:

Use this to mark an opponent. If they use a skill while you have them marked, then that skill is learned by you

 

Ambush:

Use this when passing another player to learn one of their acquired skills.

 

Flee:

Use this to get out of a trap if the corresponding skill is not known. No turn is lost, continue on the path

 

 

Channeling:

Use this card to learn any back story instantaneously.

 

Characters and their back story: 

 

There are eight characters (which means there are 8 skills, and eight traps).

 

 

 

Because of time constraints, I was limited to putting up my sketches instead of more finalized images.

Business card Challenge

 

Business card challenge:

Create a game that can be played on or with business cards.

 

My process:

It started with many failed attempts to recreate games that can be played on small surfaces. (Although one of my personal goals is trying to push myself to be as original as I can – weather that works every time or not.)

 

Eventually I decided to scrap the idea of using only the back of one business card and moved on to use four cards with images on them.

 

 

How to play:

Rotate the four cards to find the 4 shapes within.

 

Here are image sets of the two I came up with, although one shape is unsolvable in the second set because of a stupid minor mistake I had made in photoshop and need to fix.

 

 

 

They are labeled on the other side 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 2a etc to keep track of the sets.

Game challenge: “I have a Dream”

 

 

This game was based off the in-class prompt of “I have a dream”

In addition to the regualar challenge of making a game, I decided since I had yet to do anything other than board games for the class, I would challenge myself to do something different – thus I decided on a card game. This is what I came up with:

 

Dream crusher:

 

Goal: Crush your opponents dreams while keeping yours alive. To win the game, you must collect all 10 kinds of the Dream Maker cards:

experience

motivation

networking

money

confidence

vision

strength

knowledge

support

passion

 

How to play the game:  Each player starts out with 10 cards. Players take turns playing one card at a time. Collect a complete set of Dream Maker cards while taking other player’s using Reality Check Cards. Each Dream card has a corresponding Reality Check, and only the specific match can successfully take the Dream card away.

If a player successfully takes another’s Dream Maker card with their Reality Check, then the Reality card goes back into the discard pile. If the attempt fails, they can hold onto it and draw a new card.

If on a player’s turn they do not have a Reality check card, they can draw until they get one to play.

 

Other Cards:

 

Friend Cards - Can be sacrificed to counter any Reality Check card – give that card in place of a Dream Maker card. If a sacrifice is made, all Karma cards in hand must also be handed over. The Reality Check card in play is still placed in the discarded card pile.

* Note: Three friends cards can stand in for one Dream Maker card of the player’s choosing.

 

Karma Cards- Can be traded with any card the player wants from the discarded card pile.

 

Stroke of Luck Cards- Can be used to counter any reality check card. The card goes into the discard pile when used, and the asker gets to draw another card.