Posts

Blog Post #8: Super Important Business Meeting With Very Important Businessmen (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Image
Introduction In this blog post, I will be designing a game concept for a first-person 3D game, based on a speaker’s session from the Communications and Life Skills Summit. I will then describe the player objective and the rules for the game. Game Prototype A prototype is the creation of a working model of an idea that allows the creator to test its feasibility and make improvements to it (Fullerton). These are usually very sketch-like and simple. This is because the purpose of the prototype is to allow the game designer to focus in on a small set of the game’s mechanics/features and see how they should function (Fullerton). Since there are so many elements in a typical game, if the designer tries to design the entire game at once, it will become confusing and overwhelming. I signed up for Marc Randolph’s lecture, The Power of the Proper Introduction. For my game prototype, I designed a level where the player is in a formal business dinner party. The gameplay will be focused mai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Post #7: Symmetrical Games Are My Favorite Kinds of Games (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Intro In this blog post, I will describe the difference between loopholes vs features in games, and explain an example of each. Then I will think of a way for a player to subvert the rules of my card game, and discuss whether or not this would take away from my game’s experience, or add to it. I will also compare and contrast a symmetrical vs asymmetrical game, and apply it to my card game. Loopholes vs Feature A loophole is a flaw in the system that users can exploit to gain and unfair or unintended advantage (Fullerton). It is different from gaining a simple “advantage” in a system; a true loophole gives a player agency for a type of play that ruins the experience for all players. If an unintended loophole exists in a game, it cannot be considered complete. An example of a loophole occurred for League of Legends, around a year ago. In LoL, there are 5 different roles, and each player had a single rank to showcase, no matter which role they mained. However, in Season 9 of Lo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Post #6: Playtesting OP, Please Nerf (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Image
Introduction In this blog post, I showcase our card game’s elements and QA questions for our in-class playtesting session. I also explain my hopes and expectations of the playtest. Card Game Elements Playtesting Questions Do you play any other card games? If so, which ones do you play? How difficult was the game to learn? Did the game feel fair? Was there anything that was unbalanced? What do you think about the game overall? If you could change 1 thing about the game, what would you change? What I Hope to Discover My board game group discovered many issues while playtesting Get Off My Island!, and it improved drastically after we tweaked the game mechanics over and over. None of it would have been possible if we didn’t playtest. I hope that we can do the same for our card game’s playtest sessions, as cleaning up the mechanics made the gameplay much more fun. To do this, we have to observe how the playtesters play with little to no explanation of the game. If we tell the players ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Post #5: What's A Pirate's Favorite Letter? (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

  Introduction     Hey all! In this very short blog post, I will just be showcasing my card game pitch, which I will be presenting in class.
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Post #4: TBH I Enjoy Any Kind of Game That Let's You Kill Your Friends (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Introduction It’s been a while! In this blog post, I describe three types of players that would enjoy playing my board game. I also discuss different formal elements AND dramatic elements for my game, and how it would effect those types of players. Types of Players There are many types of players, and each type has a different style of play and preference of game. They have different needs and agendas when playing (Fullerton). Looking at the list, I can see three types of players who would definitely enjoy my game: The Competitor : This type of player plays to best other players, regardless of the game (Fullerton). The main objective of our game is to be the “last man standing” which is mainly achieved by hurting and eventually killing the other players. This would be a great game for a competitive player. The Collector : The collector acquires items, trophies, or knowledge. They enjoy creating sets and organizing history (Fullerton). In our game, we have plenty of different types of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Post #3: Monopoly Is The Worst Board Game To Exist (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Introduction In this blog post, I took two formal elements and two elements of engagement from Heagney’s lists, and compared & contrasted my group game with an existing board game that I’ve played. Of course, I had to choose Settlers of Catan, my favorite board game. Then, I apply these four elements to two of my “Important Points of Game Design” from my last blog post. Formal Elements Formal elements are the elements that form the structure of a game. Without them, games cease to be games (Fullerton). The two formal elements I chose are ‘conflict’ and ‘resources’. Conflict emerges from the players trying to accomplish the goals of a game within the rules and boundaries (Fullerton). In both Catan and my board game, Get Off My Island!, the conflict comes from the other players in the game, as they act as your direct opponents. In both games, the overarching conflict is that opponents are constantly looking to starve you from resources while acquiring the resources for themselv...
Post a Comment
Read more

Blog Post #2: How Can I Make Part of My Life A Fun Game, When My Life is ResidentSleeper? (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Introduction In this blog post, I updated my personal list of “Points of Design Theory” to include 10 aspects. I also took one everyday occurrence in my life, and melded that with my Game Design points from my list. My Super Awesome and Thought Out List of “What Makes a Game?” 1. Evokes emotion I think games need to make the player feel something. This doesn’t necessarily mean games bring happiness/serotonin--in fact, I disagree with the statement that “games are supposed to be fun.” Games like  This War of Mine  (11 bit studios, 2014),  Emily is Away  (Seeley, 2015), and  Coming Out Simulator  (Case, 2014) aren’t intended to be “fun” or make the player smile; each game is meant to evoke emotion and make the player think deeply about its message. For example,  This War of Mine ’s intention is to make the player feel crushed and heartbroken because of its moral depths (Phillips, 2020);  Coming Out Simulator  shows the player the tough and...
Post a Comment
Read more