My Board Game - Board

My Board Game - Evaluation and Feedback

When we were first set this piece of coursework I was unsure which direction I wanted to take it in. I had a few basic ideas on themes that I would like to use but no specific ideas that I wanted to pursue. The main issue was that I couldn’t see how they would transfer into a board game, so I began looking further into board games such as Cluedo, Monopoly, Zombies!!! and Snakes and Ladders. The more I looked at these the more I liked the idea of a money and property management style game, and so I went with one of my original ideas of going with a cops and robbers theme to make this happen, thinking that it would be an interesting and unique addition to the genre. As a whole I feel this was a success, as the style and setting chosen for the game do feel natural and more interesting than other ideas that I had come up with previously.

The main idea of cops and robbers was something I had not really seen being implemented into board games in the past, and the idea of changing it further into US Marshals for their ability to repossess property through asset seizure I felt was an even better idea, and I was able to turn this into a property management mechanic that I thought personally would be more interesting for the player than a simple game of cat and mouse, effectively.

In terms of the actual mechanics of the game, I feel that they added a lot to a simple game mechanic by allowing players to repossess buildings and properties on the Marshals side, as well as robbing and protecting element that allowed characters to gain more money in the process. I feel that this played in well to the themes of the characters and made for a good way of allowing players to accrue money along the way. I also feel that the way players are able to recruit “additional forces” to their game by investing in crew pieces added to the theme and gave the game an additional level of complexity that it wouldn’t have had, and that without it it would have been a lot harder for players to make money along the way, meaning that it would have been harder to purchase property and therefore the game would have fallen apart.

Also I felt that the way players could initiate things such as robbing stores and also performing things such as turf wars, and the ways that dice rolling mini-games would lead to punishments for the lose such as going to prison or the starting square made the game more interesting for the player, and give the players more incentive to do the best they could so as to not worry about losing these things. This mechanic also came through well in the playtest as players did enjoy stealing property away from the competition.

While I feel that all of the mechanics in the game came together in a very solid way, I feel there could have been more added to make it slightly more interesting to the player, and possibly sped up the gameplay. If there were more ways for the player to gain money then game time could have been reduced. Not that playing a long board game is a problem, per say, but adding in another layer would have been better for the player to enhance the level of enjoyment in the game. Additionally, I would have liked to have pieces that were more tailored to the game but unfortunately it was not possible in this instance, and next time pieces such as the money and “crew pieces” would have been more unique and suitable.

While playtesting the game with friends they pointed out that the main issue with the game was that there were too many properties and some of the squares could have been used for interesting things for the player to land on, such as in Monopoly when players land on things such as ‘chance’ or ‘community chest’, where I could have implemented a card based system for quick bonuses. While I could indeed have added some unique squares, I feel that a card system would have been too similar to Monopoly, and not as close to my original plan as I feel the game currently is.

One issue that others seem to have had is that, while they make sense, the rules are written in a way that is perhaps a little long-winded, with friends of mine saying they would have preferred if they were simplified in some way, just so they were easier to read. In future I’ll look into writing rules in a bullet pointed way rather than the way they currently are, to try and accommodate the reader more.

I will also try to find a way to both clarify the rules, and make the terms of winning the game more specific, perhaps by giving players a set amount of buildings to own before they can be called the winner, as someone has pointed out that just playing the game until someone has enough buildings and money that other players can’t progress could lead the game to carry on for too long, leading players to get slightly tired of playing it. Therefore if there was a specific end game in sight they wouldn’t carry on for longer than they wanted to and this in turn would make for a more enjoyable game overall.

My Board Game - Design Document

HARLAN ROULETTE

Game Design Document

1.       GAME OVERVIEW

1.1. Hollywood One Sentence Pitch

1.2. Game Concept

2.       GAMEPLAY AND MECHANICS

2.1. Gameplay

2.2. Progression

2.3. Mechanics

3.       CHARACTERS

3.1. US Marshals

3.2. Criminals

4.       LOCATIONS

4.1. Kentucky

1.   GAME OVERVIEW

1.1.  Hollywood One Sentence Pitch

You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.

1.2. Game Concept

Harlan Roulette is a 2 to 4 player game that takes the basic concept of cops and robbers and incorporates it into the genre of board games, allowing players to take on either sides of the law and see if they have what it takes to surpass their opponents.

This game is intended to take players into the heart of Kentucky’s criminal underworld, where theft and violence run rife. As the player, you will have the opportunity to pick a side and work your way to the top, either as a low-down, thieving criminal, finding your place in the environment and building your crew to become the boss of the Kentucky underworld, or as a diligent US Marshal, working to take down this vicious crew and keep your county safe.

This simple premise leads to some entertaining gameplay, with players embodying the role of their character and feeling all the more that they need to win the game to either keep the threat of crime at bay, or to ‘stick it to the man’ and feel like king of the hill in their own little criminal empire. Because of the ambiguous nature of the pieces given in the game, there’s no strong design of what gender you’re playing, meaning you can use your imagination that the character is your own gender, or the opposite if the player feels that would be truer to the story they have created for the game, this in turn makes the game feel more their own and does not pander to stereotypical theories that cops and criminals have to be men.

At its core this is a game about property acquisition, where the player must work against their opposition to get the most amount of money and property before the other, and keep these resources away from their opponent for as long as possible. In doing so the opponent will gradually lose more money, as well as the ability to build their own empire, resulting in their eventual loss of the game.

The idea of Harland Roulette is taken from the television show ‘Justified’, where a criminal forces another into playing Russian Roulette, only to trick and kill him anyway. I used this title to symbolise the dangers of crime and how there is a chance that the criminal character in the game should be careful. Also because of this I chose the setting for Kentucky, of which Harlan is a part of, for the sake of poignancy.

I chose the US Marshals in this board game instead of the usual idea of cops and robbers because US Marshals are in charge of asset seizure, taking property that runs or has to do with criminal enterprises. They are also in charge of the hunting down of fugitives, which will in this game be the opposing team of criminals. This gives the opportunity to add elements of property acquisition and defence to the game, opening it up for more levels of strategy and adding more importance to the ability to build up money and gain property.

While conducting research on different board games I spent much time looking at the mechanics and economical side of the game Monopoly, at which point I decided this would be an interesting element that adds a more competitive way of playing in my mind than other games, and decided it would be interesting to include in my own work. As such, the property management portion of the game could be considered rather similar, but I feel I put my own spin on it sufficiently well to make it unique and interesting to the player, and not just a copy of the original.

2.   Gameplay and Mechanics

2.1.  Gameplay

The main goal of the game will be to move around the board, landing on squares with shops and businesses on and trying to get money through them any way you can. For the criminals, the easiest way to do so is simply to rob them. This gives them a small amount of money and allows you to build up your immediate funds. Following this action, the next step is to purchase ‘crew members’ and start offering ‘protection’ to businesses. Following this step, after players have acquired more money still they will be able to buy businesses outright, which will allow them to invest in future businesses and stop other players from purchasing or doing the same to said buildings, and therefore give them more of an opportunity to win.
At the same time, US Marshals can do similar in order to gain money by ‘protecting’ the property from criminals, as well as recruiting ‘additional forces’ and setting up ‘safe houses’, which will result in the same amount of money being accrued and the game overall being more fair for people playing on either side.

2.2. Progression

As players progress through the game they will have to acquire the most money in the game, either working as a criminal against other criminals and the US Marshals, or as a Marshal trying to keep it out of the hands of the criminals. They will progress in this way by purchasing property to withhold from the opponent. The final goal of the game will to have enough property that your opponent is unable to acquire more, leaving them without money to acquire more and therefore winning the game yourself.

2.3. Mechanics

As the player progresses throughout the game they will acquire more property and money, both of which they will have to aggressively protect from the other team.  Movement will be dictated via a dice roll, with the player moving that amount of squares per go.
Protection – This is when a player has three recruits. If they land on a neutral building they can declare ‘PROTECTION’, placing their three recruits on the building and gaining a sum of money for every five goes. This is applicable to both sides so players will have an equal opportunity to gain money.
Repossession – As the criminals, you will have to be wary of the US Marshal’s ‘repossession’ mechanic. If the Marshal lands on a square that is owned by the criminal player, they will have the option to announce “REPO” to the other players. At this time a mini dice-rolling game will be initiated, where by both players will have to roll a dice, with the winner decided by the highest roll. If the Marshals are successful the property will once again become a neutral, meaning that the criminals will lose control and be up for grabs for both sides once again.
 Turf War - If a Criminal has 3 'Crew Members' and lands on a location that is in the control of the US Marshals, either under protection or set up as a safe house, they have the option to start a Turf War. This will be initiated by the Criminal player announcing "TURF WAR". In this instance both players will roll a dice, with the highest roller winning. Similar to Repossession, if the Marshals are unsuccessful the location will be freed up, allowing players to once again compete for it, and the Marshal player will be sent to the "Marshals Office" square, but if Criminal player is unsuccessful, they will be transported to the 'Big Sandy', this time for 3 goes.
Big Sandy – Big Sandy will behave as the prison for the game, only being applicable to criminals. They will be sent there in the event of a failed dice roll in the dice rolling mini game, where they will have to stay for 1-3 goes. However they will have the ability to buy themselves out of there after spending one go here.
Marshal’s Office – This will serve as the prison for Marshal players, effectively. They will also be sent there in the event of a failed dice roll challenge.

3.   Characters

3.1. US Marshals

This side will start the game with $1500, with their primary goal of stopping the criminal player from buying property through the ability to set up ‘protection’ on shops and properties, by paying for additional forces, and setting up ‘safe houses’ in place of stores. These safe houses can be raided by criminals if they have the resources (a certain amount of ‘crew’ pieces), and even taken over, which will depend on the results of a dice role from each player in the raid, criminals will again end up in prison, this will last for just two goes, or less if criminals are able to bail themselves out. Likewise the Marshals can repossess property, taking a cut of gang money to fund efforts to stop the criminal elements. The US Marshal side will also have the ability to perform repossessions on criminal owned buildings, the result of which will also be determined by a dice roll.

3.2. Criminals

This side also starts with the standard amount of $1500 and just themselves as players. Their goal will to be to move up the crime ladder and acquire money by robbing stores. Stores can only be robbed once by the player, and will only be successful if they roll a four or up, with the amount of money they receive depending on how high they roll on their go. If they are unsuccessful they have the opportunity to try again after three goes, but if they are unsuccessful they will also be sent directly to Big Sandy (prison). After they gain more money they can recruit “crew members” (essentially the equivalent of hotels) to place on shops to signify that they are “in their protection” and therefore cannot be robbed by other criminals, if there are any in the game. The crew with members on buildings will receive a small sum every five goes to accrue money, giving them the opportunity to buy the property. When property is bought they will gain double the money from the property and this will stop other criminals from purchasing or offering protection to these places, giving the player the advantage. While this protects them from other criminals in the game, it does not protect them from the wrath of the US Marshals, which will be a constant threat and point of antagonism for them.

4.   Location

4.1. Kentucky

The game itself takes place in Kentucky, with players on the criminals side starting off in Bulletville, found in Harlan county, and the US Marshal players starting in the Lexington Marshals office in Lexington. This area is separated by the Tate’s Creek Bridge. These locations are all found in Kentucky itself (albeit Bulletville is actually spelt Bullitsville). I added these locations to add some authenticity to the board as, although the shops aren’t authentically named, the setting is.

My Board Game - Rules

Harlan Roulette

Players: 2-4

Rules
US Marshals:
US Marshals have the ability to repossess property if it is controlled by the criminal player (this will automatically make the building neutral again, meaning that it is controlled by no one and therefore up for either player to take control of). To do this the Marshal player must land on a property that is controlled by the criminals, which will initiate a dice roll challenge between players. The player with the highest dice count will be the winner. For example, if the Marshal player rolls a 6 and the criminal player rolls a 4, the criminal will lose, and be sent to the 'Bulletville' square from a single go to 'recuperate' and lose control of the property. If the Marshals lose the dice roll they will be sent to Lexington Marshals office to 'file an incident report' for a single go. If both players roll the same number they re-roll until one wins the roll.
Marshals will be able to buy 'additional forces' which can be used for setting up protection over buildings (this will be signified by placing a red building on the property), and outright buy the property, at which point it will be converted into a "safe house".

Criminals:
Criminals have the ability to rob stores they land on. If they chose to do this the criminal player will have to roll a dice to find out the outcome. If they roll a 1-3 they will be unsuccessful, and be sent to the 'Big Sandy' square for a single go, but if they roll a 4-6 they will be successful and gain $100 from a roll of 4, $150 from a roll of 5, and $200 from a roll of 6.
Criminals can also recruit 'crew members' (each will cost $150). 'Crew members' are used to place on shops and businesses to signify that these properties are 'protected' by the criminals. If two teams of criminals are playing in the same game, this will mean that only the team with 'crew members' on the building will be able to accrue money from a property. After 5 goes the team with 'crew members' on a property will gain a bonus of $150, which this team can then save towards buying the property. After a property is purchased they will gain double the money every 5 goes, now going up to $300.

Setting Up The Game:
- Each player picks the class they want to play in, between Marshals and Criminals. If there are three people playing, two can be Criminals or Marshals, while the third player chooses the opposite team. Likewise if four people are playing two people must be on each side.
- Each player must put their character pieces on their respective starting square, with the Marshals starting at the 'Lexington US Marshal's Office' and the Criminals starting at 'Bulletville'.
- Each player will be given $1500 in playing money to use in game. No one specific player will have to be in charge of handing out the money, but if someone nominates themselves to do so this is allowed. This $1500 will be divided to each player as follows:
 2 $500's, 2 $100's, 2 $50's, 6 $20's, 5 $10's, 5 $5's and 5 $1's.
- For criminals, crew members will be represented by the green houses, they can be 'recruited' for $150.
- For Marshals, they can also 'deputise' additional forces for $150. These are represented by the red houses.

Beginning The Game:
- Each player rolls a dice to decide who starts their go first. The player with the highest roll will go first. If there is a tie on the dice roll, roll again until there is a definite winner.
- To move your character, first roll the dice. Move this amount of spaces on the board in a clockwise motion.
- Each player will take their turn to roll the dice and move around the board.

Shops and Businesses:
- When a Criminal player lands on a shop or business, they will have the option to rob it. To do so, they must announce "ROB" to other players, and then roll the dice again. If the dice lands on a 1, 2 or 3 they will be taken to the 'Big Sandy' square, where they must stay for one go, missing their roll. After that they will be allowed to continue playing. If the player is successful in their robbery they will gain a certain amount of money from their roll ($100 for 4, $150 for 5, $200 for 6).
- If Criminals have 'recruited' a high enough amount of 'Crew Members' (3) they will be able to offer 'protection' to shops and business. This is done by placing the three 'Crew Members' on the building after landing on it and declaring "PROTECTION". After every 5 goes the Criminal with 'Crew Members' on the property will receive $150, which can be saved towards buying property.
- Each property will cost $1500 to purchase.
- Once the criminal has a high enough amount of money, they will be able to buy the property by declaring "PURCHASE". For owning a property, the criminal will now receive $300 every 5 goes, which they can invest towards other properties.
- As a US Marshal, you will be able to repossess property owned by a criminal player. To do this you must land on a property owned by the criminal and announce "REPO" to the other players. When this happens, you will initiate a dice rolling mini-game between the challenging US Marshal and the property owner. If the Marshal rolls the higher number on the dice, he will make the property neutral to players, offering criminals the opportunity to buy it again when they land on it again, or offering the US Marshals the possibility to convert it into a safe-house (by purchasing for the amount on the space). If the US Marshal is successful in this challenge, they will also be given $500 from the losing criminal, and the losing criminal will be placed into the 'Bulletville' square for a single go. If the Marshal is unsuccessful however, they will be be moved straight to the Lexington Marshals Office for a single go, and the criminals will keep their property.
- If The Marshals set up protection from the criminals with 3 'deputies' by declaring "PROTECTION" on a building they land on, they will also gain $150 every 5 goes, and if they convert the location to a safe house by declaring "SAFE HOUSE", they will also gain $300 for every five goes.

Turf War:
-If a Criminal has 3 'Crew Members' and lands on a location that is in the control of the US Marshals, either under protection or set up as a safe house, they have the option to start a Turf War. This will be initiated by the Criminal player announcing "TURF WAR". In this instance both players will roll a dice, with the highest roller winning. Similar to Repossession, if the Marshals are unsuccessful the location will be freed up, allowing players to once again compete for it, and the Marshal player will be sent to the "Marshals Office" square, but if Criminal player is unsuccessful, they will be transported to the 'Big Sandy', this time for 3 goes. In this instance the criminal player has the option to pay a $50 fine to get out of "Big Sandy" sooner, and the property will stay in the hands of the Marshal.

Winning:
- The winner of the game will be the player with the most money, and most property safely kept. If a player runs out of money completely, they will lose the game and the other player will be victorious.

My Board Game - Decided Game With Goals

Harlan Roulette

Reason for picking the US Marshals over the Police: US Marshals are in charge of asset seizure, taking property that runs or has to do with criminal enterprises. They are also in charge of the hunting down of fugitives, which will in this game be the opposing team of criminals. This gives the opportunity to add elements of property acquisition and defence to the game, opening it up for more levels of strategy and adding more importance to the ability to build up money and gain property.

The name Harlan Roulette is taken from the television show Justified, where a criminal forces another into playing Russian Roulette, only to trick and kill him anyway. I used this title to symbolise the dangers of crime and how there is a chance that the criminal character in the game should be careful. Also because of this I chose the setting for Kentucky, of which Harlan is a part of, for the sake of poignancy.

The goals of this game will be elimination and acquisition, and property buying. These goals must be suitable and make sense for players playing on different sides of the law, with one player playing as a US Marshal while the other plays as an up and coming criminal. If a criminal lands on a place such as a property they can chose to rob it for instant money, give protection for money if they have enough crew members, or buy and run the property for a cash bonus per go. On the other hand US Marshals can perform busts, confiscating criminal gains, repossession properties or thin out recruits by choosing to 'arrest' crew members. This will be difficult to make balanced but is possible.

The Criminals:
This side starts with the standard amount of money ($1500) and just themselves as players. Their goal will to be to move up the crime ladder and acquire money by robbing stores. Stores can only be robbed once by the player, and will only be successful if they roll a four or up, with the amount of money they receive depending on how high they roll on their go. If they are unsuccessful they have the opportunity to try again after three goes, but if they are unsuccessful they will also be sent directly to Big Sandy (prison). After they gain more money they can recruit “crew members” (essentially the equivalent of hotels) to place on shops to signify that they are “in their protection” and therefore cannot be robbed by other criminals, if there are any in the game. The crew with members on buildings will receive a small sum every five goes to accrue money, giving them the opportunity to buy the property. When property is bought they will gain double the money from the property and this will stop other criminals from purchasing or offering protection to these places, giving the player the advantage.

The Marshals:
This side will start the same amount of money, but their goal will be to stop the criminals from buying property through the ability to set up protection, by paying for additional forces, and setting up safe houses in place of stores. These safe houses can be raided by criminals if they have the resources (a certain amount of “crew” pieces), and even taken over, which will depend on the results of a dice role from each player in the raid, criminals will again end up in prison, this will last for just two goes, or less if criminals are able to bail themselves out. Likewise the Marshals can repossess property, taking a cut of gang money to fund efforts to stop the criminal elements.

The winner will be determined by who can hold out the longest. If the Marshals are able to hold and keep property safe for long enough, and take enough of the criminal money that they cannot rebuild, then they win. Likewise if they criminals are able to hold all of the properties, be it just one, or two criminals dividing the area between them, then crime will win the game.

My Board Game - Planning

Themes

·         Cops and robbers – why? Because it would provide variety depending on what side you were playing, making the game more interesting and exciting.

·         Bikers – why? Interesting world around biker gangs, could provide interesting goals to achieve

·         Zombies – why? To bring the terror of a zombie apocalypse into a board game, although too close to the board game of the same name possibly, not enough originality.

·         Race, getting to the other end of the board, suitable for zombies, getting to the safe zone, one player humans and others zombies possibly, more of a chase than a race, stopping the human from getting to the end of the game? Possibly boring as chase human around the entire time.

·         Tower defense, not interested, could be humans defending barracks from zombies, making supply runs possibly

Decided Game

Harlan Roulette.
Locations
Harlan
Lexington
Marshalls office – us marshall start
Bulletville – criminal start
Tates creek road (road between Harlan and Lexington)
big sandy federal penitentiary – get sent in the same way as monopoly
bar
trailer park
Brothel
post office
bank

2 – 4 players, at least one on each side.
dice roll to decide who goes first
move number of squares unless card says otherwise
move clockwise around board

Pieces, 2 cops 2 crims

My Board Game - Research

Board Games To Influence My Own

There are many different board games out there with different goals. To decide what type of game I wanted to make, I looked at some of my favourites, to see what about them in particular is appealing and what I wanted to bring to my own games.

Zombies!!!
I have been a fan of the Zombies!!! board game for some time now, the main reason for this is I enjoy the idea of being given the option between going on the offensive and attempting to get rid of zombies on the board, or sitting back and allowing other players to do it for me. I enjoy the fact that it's a more mature board game that gives you the chance to use strategy instead of more mundane games that have rather simple goals and motivations. I also like the inclusion of event cards, which allow you to hinder the progress of the people you're playing against, which add to that idea of using strategy.

Monopoly
Monopoly has, like with a lot of families, always been considered something I play with my parents. I enjoy the fact that you have to manage property, and the ever important goal of getting the purple property and sabotaging your opponents with houses and hotels has always been fun. Because the game takes a lot of time it can be somewhat tiring, but more often than not myself and the people I've been playing with have spent hours enjoying it.
The idea of building currency and property, and the feeling of rising and building an empire are of strong importance to the game, as well as the threat of bankruptcy, and this tension and thrill factor is something that I would like to include into my own game.

Cluedo
The main appeal of Cluedo is the sense of mystery, as well as trying to use deductive reasoning to find the true identity of the killer that round. Cluedo is unique to other games that use more strategy and there's more of a direct air of competitiveness as opposed to the idea of using intellect to try and beat your opponent. I would like to find a way to incorporate this element into my own game without directly taking it from Cluedo, but I'm not sure how this would be possible without seeming too close to it.

Squares
While Squares has a very good basic idea, and sticks to the idea of more simplistic, competitive gameplay, I don't feel it's something I want to pursue as a design element in my own game. I say this because I want to use a specific theme (as of yet undecided) and go with that, build upon it and see the game come together from that. As such I feel I should look at more complex games to get my inspiration from.

Snakes and Ladders 
As with Squares, I feel that Snakes and Ladders, while having a good concept, would be too hard to use as inspiration due to the very specific nature of the game. While I want to come up with my own game with my own ideas, I need to look at a style of game to get inspiration from, and while Snakes and Ladders is a very popular and well-made game, I don't feel inspired from it. With that and my experience with making Dynaminers with the group, I feel that my focus should be more towards other games.

Possible Style of My Game:

·         Elimination – EG Monopoly, this is appealing due to the idea of the game lasting for a fairly long time, and if players put thought and planning into it the win can be very rewarding.

·         Race – EG Snakes and Ladders, this idea would be suitable more to a quick game, that allows players that don't have a lot of time to be able to play it if they only have a short amount of time. However there is only a small amount that can be changed with this style of game, and as I already have tried to make a Snakes and Ladders style game with Dynaminers I feel I would prefer to go outside of my comfort zone and experiment with something I haven't tried before.

·         Tower Defence - While there are a lot of different and varied tower defence games out there, I don't feel that this is particularly the style I want to pursue, as I'm not a huge fan of the tower defence genre and wouldn't feel any real sense of personal enjoyment or enthusiasm towards trying to make my own game in the genre.

Gender

The word GENDER underlines the social or cultural quality of distinction based on sex
- Barbie to Mortal Kombat and Computer Games: Justin Cassell, Henry Jenkins

Individually look at 3 games and 2 movies where stereotypes are negatively re-enforced
Individually write 200 word short design document where all stereo types are positively enforced (the idea of a strong woman, men being represented normally instead of muscle bound idiots, how genders are shown to be people). Research aspects of the generic. Include drawings in this doc. [MAKE UP, JUST A SHORT PIECE, NOT BASED ON AN EXISTING GAME]
Examine the game you are working on and objectively explore gender aspects they’re in.

Things to look at:
Evolution of Evony video games ads.
Woman writing Tomb Raider (2012)

3 games where stereotypes are negatively re-enforced:

Duke Nukem
Duke comes across in the computer games a dumb, musclebound idiot in his title. To characterise, Ian Dransford in isue 206 of Play magazine said "Duke is an 18-rated game made for 13 year olds". While Duke Nukem started his career as a tongue-in-cheek character with a penchant for innuendos, in more recent titles, specifically Duke Nukem Forever, this was turned into just an embarrassing string of juvenile toilet humour and sexist comments. As time progressed, Duke Nukem went from a comic character with some charm to a humiliating jock.

Dead or Alive
Dead or Alive's biggest problem is that it over sexualises women to the point of just being embarrassing to play. Every female character in the game has her breasts on display constantly, with story and character being put to one side for the sake of simple titilation for the player.

Ico
Princess Yorda suffers from the classic damsel in distress, Princess Peach syndrome. She's weak, can't climb tall barriers or jump far distance, and constantly needs saving and protecting from danger. As well as Princess Peach, a good example of her behaviour could be seen in Resident Evil 4's Ashley Graham, kidnap victim and permanently terrified stereotypical blonde girl.

2 films where stereotypes are negatively re-enforced:

Sucker Punch
While the film does go a long way to show the female characters as strong and empowered, Zack Snyder also can't help but put them in revealing clothing in almost every scene for no discernible reason.

World War Z
This film goes some way to support equal rights between gender, by giving a female soldier a main role in the plot. However that role is to get her arm cut off to avoid turning into a zombie and generally just screaming or supporting Brad Pitt. Likewise Mireille Enos plays a similar role, by supporting Brad Pitt and looking after their kids, while being given little else to do at the same time.

Short design document:

JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE

Just Another Day at the Office is a tale of two rival media specialists, Jacob Gallows and Ramona Dirne, at a busy advertising agency in downtown Los Angeles. One day, as our two protagonists are vying for a new client, car mogul Michael Phillips, Los Angeles is struck by an unknown and life-threatening natural disaster, causing half of the building they’re working in to become destroyed, trapping them inside. Together, our two protagonists must use their instincts, imaginations and skills to try and escape from their forced imprisonment, and find out what is happening to the world around them.

In this game, a split-screen multiplayer adventure puzzle game, players must work together to traverse their decimated former place of work, putting their respective skills together and learning to work together, bringing these once former rivals to forge a friendship in the face of adversity.

Ramona Dirne is a strong, career oriented woman with the ferocious tenacity to chase any goal she has in her sights, specialising in music and televisual advertising, while Jacob Gallows is a more solitary, lone wolf character that works in the print media and has goals of one day opening his own advertising agency. While these characters start by clashing about everything from which media is more important in their field, they gradually learn to put their differences aside to save their lives.

Group Board Game

Dynaminers

Rules:
I. 1-4 players only. II. Begin with the game pieces (miners), next to the number 1 space. III. Have the first player roll the die. That person then moves his/her game miner the number of rolls on the die (Highest roll goes first, then highest –lowest roll, play in this order). IV. Have the 2nd player roll the die he/she moves his/her miner piece the number that they have rolled on the die. For example roll a 4, move four spaces. V. Continue this pattern until the game is over. VI. Dynamite counters can be used after the first game play roll. The dynamite counters must be placed directly behind the players miner counter. These can be used anywhere on the board provided the players miner is also there. They are single use only! VII. If a player lands on a placed dynamite counter they miss a turn. VIII. The player must move around the board in number order. Move from space 1 to 2 to 3 and so on until you reach space 100. IX. If the player lands at the base of a mine lift, move the miner up the lift and exit on the next roll. X. If the player lands on subsidence move the miner to the bottom and continue towards 100 square on the next throw. XI. Continue rolls until one player reaches 100, if the player rolls to many to reach 100 they must back track! Only an exact roll wins the game. For example: If you need a 3 on the die to get to 100 and you throw a 5, you must move 3 to the 100 square and then move back 2 spaces!

My job was, along with Connor, to design the board for the game. I took the theme of mining and made the background, while Connor added tunnels and numbering to the board to make it complete.

My background:

Final product with Connor's additions:

I feel we worked very well together to make a board that not only fitted the style we were looking for, but also that was visually appealing.

Games Test 2

In this session we once again had the opportunity to playtest board games that others in the class had made. This time we were tasked with looking at elements from platforming video games and incorporating these into our products. This resulted in the groups having very interesting results in their games, and here are the notes made while playtesting:

Game 1 - Sky Jumper

• This game was a 3D game that allowed players to stick onto the board with velcro, however there was only one piece of velcro per square, meaning it was very awkward for more than one player to land on the same square.
• Also the pieces were very flimsy, but this is forgiveable as it was only a prototype.
• The rules were very complex, one of which being that the player had to write down a number at the beginning, however this mechanic never came back into play and seemed rather pointless.
• The directional arrows make the game slow and difficult to progress.
• It has a clever 3D concept, with the player being able to move the board around to their advantage.
• Rotation - gravity roles slow down the game a lot, meaning you need a long play time to appreciate the game properly.

Game 2 - Dungeoneering 101

• It was very difficult to read the rules due to the font being used, and the board was incredibly small due to time issues.
• It was a little unclear on movement directions.
• If the player is on a chain, can you flip a coin again on the next go or do you have to roll instead?
• The game has a good design and is very enjoyable. If the board was metal with magnetic pieces the size would have worked very well.

Game 3 - Call of Barrellfield 2 - It's All In The Dice

• This game has a very good concept, with a simple but effective design.
• It lasted for a reasonable amount of time, while not being too long.
• Rules were messy, but with refinement in typing will be fine.
• A more applicable name is needed.

Game 4 - No Name Game

• The rules were very complex in this game.
• It was a turn-based platforming multiplayer, feeling the truest to the challenge set.
• Traps were not a direct threat, the player had too many lives, and there was no real sense of risk.
• The board has a good layout, but needs more colour.

All in all whilst the No Name Game felt truest to what we were trying to capture in our group projects, CoB2 was my favourite, I really liked the design and enjoyed playing it.

Games Test 1

In this session we had the opportunity to playtest some board games from our fellow coursemates, here are the notes on what we found:

Game 1 - The Goal

• The rules were rather confusing, and they could do with some clarification on the gameplay and scoring system.
• Visually, the game was very interesting.
• Pieces on the game were very flimsy though. Because of this you have to be careful not to sneeze around the board and knock everything off it.
• The scoring system is very confusing.
• We needed to do some improvising on the rules to play the game.
• Good design but rules need clarity.
• There's a lack of a competition aspect to keep players interested.
• The detail in the pieces was very impressive.

Game 2 - Square Evolution

• The rules were rather unusual, but at the same time they worked.
• Taking points away from other players was a cool addition to the game, and adds to the competitive aspect of the game.
• After making your shapes do you select more?
• Sabotaging players hinders gameplay, as you could spend more time doing this than actually winning yourself.
• Can you make diagonal shapes? This is alluded to but not specifically stated.

Game 3 - No Name

• This game was incredibly similar to Snake.
• The rules were slightly confusing.
• The point system was rather redundant as you would always have the same amount of points.
• The card system was unnecessary and didn't make a lot of sense in the game.

While all of the games we tested were very good, and they all had very unique designs, overall the Square Evolution game was my favourite. Even though it could do with some refining, and limit the player to an extend in terms of sabotaging, it was very enjoyable and simple enough to be easy to play.

Two Words

“THREE LAUGH”

How long can you last?

Test your reflexes and observation skills as mysterious characters off-screen tickles you as others wave pictures of memes in your face, farts and other noises start appearing in the background. If you miss a combination the character laughs, if you miss it three times the character will pass out from laughing too hard. The longer the game goes on for, the redder your characters face gets, eyes start watering, starts biting lip.

“SPRING SPATULA”

He’s no Spring chicken.

2D side-scroller where you play as a spatula that has gained sentience and attached himself to a spring in order to escape the government, who attempt to stop him with water-based weapons in an attempt to slow him down enough to capture and research. You can jump on agents’ heads to defeat them as well as implementing the spatula to perform a slide-tackle move that takes out enemies. You collect oil cans to help combat the rust (health), and dive into oil barrels to checkpoint the level, also you can find pieces of bacon that give extra lives. Special stages are used to collect unique power ups that help aid your escape, such as a boot on the end of the spring that allows you to take out more than one enemy at a time, and a “squeaky clean” bonus that allows you to jump further and move faster to evade capture.

The game will incorporate platforming elements, using the jumping to get to higher areas to avoid enemies.
Each level will be timed, with the player having to reach the goal before the time runs out.
The player will have the standard three lives, and once those lives run out you will have to start from the beginning, but obviously will be able to collect health in the form of oil cans.
The player will be able to save their state in the level by the use of checkpoints in case they die.

Dynamics

What Are Dynamics?

Incentives to play the game – such as progression or influence and status.
The implicit outcome of explicit games mechanics. This includes player behaviour, game behaviour, AI etc. Strategies that players come up with to play the game according to its mechanics.

An extension or reaction to a mechanic, for example a double jump or jump off a wall.

Dynamics give incentives to play the game, help aid progression, and influence the status.
Effectively dynamics are extensions of mechanics.

Dynamics, Mechanics and Rules in Platforming Games.
Samurai Sam

Mechanics:
Jumping
Blocking
Swinging Swords/Attacking
Moving Left and Right
Using Levers
Check Points
Health/Score
Climb Vines and Ropes
Lives

Dangers:
Enemy Samurai x3
Spiky Plants - Thorns

Rules:
Player can move left and right, health will decrease when attacked.

Dynamics:
Double Jump
Forward Rolling

Flood Runner 2

Mechanics:
Rewards
Jump
Springs
Life-Saving Surfboard

Dangers:
Flood
Lava
Oil

Dynamics:
Glide
Double Jump

Dyna Boy

Mechanics:
Gems - Different Values
Knock Things Over
Blow Things Up
Left and Right Movement
Collect Keys and Items
Jumping
Open Doors With Keys

Dynamics:
Jump-Throw Dynamite
Move Boxes

Game Mechanics

“the guts of a design document” – Richard Rouse (2005)

“They describe what the players are able to do in the game-world, how they do it, and how that leads to a compelling game experience.”

“game mechanics are rule based system/simulations that facilitate and encourage a user to explore and learn the properties of their possibility space through the use of feedback mechanisms” – Cook (2005)

“a particular set of rules available to the player in the form of prescribed causal relations between game elements and their consequence to particular game states” – Jarvinen (2008)

Game mechanics are constructs of rules intended to produce a game or gameplay.  Interaction of various game mechanics in a game determines the complexity and level of player interaction in the game.
Examples of game mechanics:
Turns – dice role, goes in chess etc
Action points  - control what the players may do on their turns
Auction or bidding – In some games the auction determines a unique player who gains a privilege, in other the auction orders all players into a sequence
Cards – monopoly for example
Capture/ eliminate – taking pieces in chess/draughts etc
Catch-up – mechanic that makes the game harder the closer you are to victory
Dice – randomiser, same as cards more or less
Movement – what way a player can move pieces in board game is governed by movement mechanics
etc
Victory condition mechanics include reaching goals, eliminating pieces, territory control or gaining the most points in a game.

Squares - Getting the Rules Right

Trying to Write the Rules

• Purchase grid paper from specialist stationary store
• With a pen or pencil draw dots on the corners of the page from the grid paper
• Acquire yourself a coin and flip to decide who goes first
• The person that goes first then draws the first line from one dot to another, second player must draw a line adjacent to this
• Take turns to do this action until a square is formed
• Identify whose square is whose by writing the initials of your name in the square
• Repeat this until your grid is full
• Whoever has claimed the most squares wins

Agreed Version of the Rules

• Min 2 max 4 players
• You need a piece of paper and a pen
• Draw dotted grid symetrical
• Rock paper scissors to determine who goes first
• Draw a line horizontal or vertical to adjacent dot
• Player two follows rule 5 placing anywhere on board
• If player completes 1x1 square repeat 5 and gain 1 point
• 1x1 square winner signs captured box
• Continue turn based action until grid is full
• Winner is determined by player with most points