Game Design, a Neglected Art

A Thought on Why

2009-08-04T00:57:00.002-04:00

I have recently, in my designs, been thinking of WHY the mechanics are there. What makes them contribute to the feel of the game? This is something that has always been in the back of my mind and in my designs, but I have never really consciously thought about it. What in the Samurai RPG reflects the feel of being a sword wielding warrior?

If you have seen the movie 'Yojimbo' by Akira Kurosawa, you know that the fights last for merely seconds, if not faster. The good ones at least. I wanted to reflect that in the design of the Samurai RPG so speed was a key factor in combat. In fact, the entire game is created around the concept of impossibly quick combat.

As I look back on my few reviews on here, I see that I have missed the chance to reflect on how the mechanics support the concept. I shall attempt to redeem myself of this shortage in the future.

One Year Later...

2009-07-22T11:06:00.002-04:00

Well, this is rather embarrassing. How is it that I haven't updated this blog?

Here is the deal with my psyche. I have trouble focusing. A lot. My mind goes at a billion miles an hour. My fiance sometimes catches me replying to a question that had not been asked as I had already carried on a conversation in my head in the expanse of a minute. This problem carries over to my Game Designing:

The Samurai RPG. Forgotten.

The ABC Challenge. Forgotten.

I have gone all over the place design wise. I have created 1.90 playtestable games, minimum. I am currently attempting to recreate a Star Trek RPG that holds the feel of the action and politics of the show. I am also looking into writing for Dungeon/Dragon magazines. Waiting to here back from them. I can't talk about that particular project until I am either denied or published.

For now, check out this AWESOME link. It is basically CafePress for game designers.

Alphabet Games: "C" part 2

2008-12-25T10:50:00.004-05:00

Playtesting actually occurred and they liked it. As I predicted, they were asking for a random event type card. For example: You might have someone play a temporary event card on you claiming that the customer is impatient, giving you a minus to the roll. Or, you can draw a card stating that on your next turn such and such will happen.

Things have been slow as of late in the gaming world. The job that currently supports me is weighing me down. I might need to suck it up and go into Animation. Now if only I can remember how to draw.

A quick look at the Amazing Engine...

2008-12-06T21:15:00.001-05:00

I seem to have a knack of collecting non-digital games few people have heard of (or try to forget). This has brought me many gems and, so far, only one real flop.

My most recent acquisition is the Amazing Engine by David "Zeb" Cook and the Universe Book for the game called "For Faerie, Queen, and Country" published by TSR from '93 to '94. What drew me to it was the Universe Book. "For Faerie, Queen, and Country"? Seriously? AWESOME!

The system itself assumes that you will be jumping in between the different universes. Each player has a base set of stats. They carry this set to each universe and make changes from the minor stats depending on each character. This is interesting, but I am still iffy on this aspect of the game. Another thing I am still iffy on is that the formulas for creating the Health and Stamina stats change from universe to universe and are only printed in their respected Universe Book.

What I loved, however, was the way the Magic in "For Faerie, Queen, and Country" worked. Each spell is structured uniquely like a sentence. You name the Caster (which is most likely yourself unless you are creating a magic item) then the Action, the Target, the Effect, and any Conditions and/or Taboos. As an example: "I transform you into a pig until you drink from a cup of wine on the night of a full moon." Everything adds together to create the difficulty level of the spell.

Alphabet Games: "C"

2008-09-30T03:33:00.003-04:00

C stands for "Cashier".

I work at a local branch of a large corporate retail store as a cashier. Needless to say, I eventually caved into creating a cashier based game. It has yet to go into play testing but that is only because I am not done creating all the assets yet.

Cashier is a card game where each player takes the role of a cashier. They have to bag a certain number of items successfully in order to win. Each item comes with its own bagging speed score. You have to roll a six sided die to beat the score. Players can add modifiers to the rolls, be it theirs or someone else's, by playing Management cards on them in the forms of Promotions, which add to the roll, or Demotions, which subtract from the roll.

More to come once play testing is done.

Are you a hack game designer?

2008-09-30T03:29:00.002-04:00

I certainly hope not.

Alphabet Games: "B"

2008-09-23T02:57:00.003-04:00

Boycott

This is another board game in the Alphabet series. It is based on a group of people boycotting some kind of big bad organization. The players march around the company's headquarters building.

The players take turns in their march against the evil reign of this conglomerate. Along the way, they gather Rally Cry Cards and face Temptation Cards. I believe the Temptation to Rally Cry Card space ratio should be around 5 to 1.

Each player starts with 5 points of Willpower and 5 points of Endurance. Temptation Cards test the protester's will to stay in the line. When a player is forced to encounter a temptation, the other players may play Rally Cry cards to temporarily boost his Willpower. If he passes the Temptation, he gains a reward specific to that temptation. If he fails, he is penalized. A player loses the game if he falls to 0 Willpower or 0 Endurance.

The goal is to outlast the Man. There will be a certain amount of rounds, which are yet to be determined, after which the Man will cave to the demands of the protesters. The game is therefore about teamwork.

Alphabet Games: "A"

2008-09-23T00:21:00.003-04:00

What do you mean I didn't start from the beginning? Yeah, well. You know how it is. Sometimes when you've found a good idea you just can't let it go.

A is for Aardvark Adventure.

The players are Aardvarks. They travel along the board collecting ants from the various spaces. Along the way, they also find cards that force them to move forward or move backward. Other cards allow for ants to be stolen from a player of their choice while yet others force them to lose some of their ants. The first player to the finish line collects an extra five ants. When the scores are totaled, the one with the highest amount of ants wins.

Its a simple idea. It would definitely be more suited for children.

Seriously...

2008-09-14T03:08:00.001-04:00

HARDEST GAME OF ALL TIME

Review #2: Clout Fantasy

2008-09-11T12:38:00.005-04:00

Overview: Clout Fantasy is described as a "collectible throwing game" by its creator Jesper Myrfors who has worked on other games like Magic: the Gathering and Rage in the Art or Graphic Design Departments. The game is played with chips that resemble poker chips. Each one belongs to a certain faction based on a fantasy race, be it Elves, Centaurs, Undead, or Mermaids. They also are divided into bases, troops, and actions. The chips are then thrown onto the playing field from a certain distance above and away from it. Depending on the distance that chip is from others on the table depends on what happens. If you ask me, this seems like it could be a very interesting concept. It relies a lot on both luck and skill; luck in that the surface of the table, along with other factors like wind resistance and gravity, can really mess with the throw. This was actually the selling point for me. Sometime within the past year I had found it randomly sitting in a comic book shop. They told me it was a discontinued game but very fun. I personally enjoy obscure yet fun games. So, I purchased it on the spot. I have yet to regret that purchase.

Physical Aspects: The chips are rather sturdy and much denser than your usual poker chip. They can take a beating. The creators of the game encourage creative uses of the chips during gameplay like bouncing them off walls. The chips' density allows it to take such a whallop without the owner having to worry about the status of his precious chips.

The strip used to measure the distance between the chips is a long strip of finely made cloth. With the two measuring options, this is a very useful tool for whatever occasion you are playing with.

The art is gorgeous. Seperate artists, including a few that have worked on Magic: the Gathering, contributed to the different images on the chips.

Mechanics: The mechanics are simple enough. Each player has a stack of 15 chips of the same faction equaling a certain amount of Clout Points which are labelled on the individual chips. The stack must have at least two bases as well as no more than two neutrally aligned chips.

Each chip has a range, a defense, and an ability or two. The abilities effect other chips within its range, usually the enemies. Some abilities replace the throwing phase of a turn. Players must be able to think strategically about where they want their chips to land.

The playing surface really adds a lot to the gameplay. If it is smooth your chips may slide. If it is too bouncy the chips may bounce off the playing field entirely. Choose your gaming space carefully.

Summary: Clout Fantasy is a fantastic game discontinued before its time. I really hope I get the chance to keep playing and collecting this game through the years.

Review #1: Heroscape Marvel: The Conflict Begins

2008-09-03T12:59:00.004-04:00

Overview: I randomly went on a trip to Wal-Mart one fine evening. It was very unplanned. I was safe in my room late at night when I suddenly wanted to go out into the dark, cold, scary, dangerous world and head to the Wally World. Upon arriving, I walked the usual aisle to see if anything new had appeared. There were no new Mighty Muggs of interest. There were no Transformers Animated figures I wanted. I then meandered to the game section of the Toy Department. Sadly, the game section has far too many “popular” titles. I like to find the obscure stuff.

My search gave unto me Heroscape Marvel: The Conflict Begins. It is based on Heroscape, a game designed by Craig Van Ness, Rob Daviau, and Stephen Baker of Hasbro Games. It is a miniatures board game that is so close to an Role Playing Game I can almost smell the sweat of that stereotypical fat guy who plays nothing but hot elf chicks (I’ve played with a type like that before and it was rather disturbing).

The set up was the most difficult, really. I was having trouble getting the pieces together at first. The breakaway section of a wall that the Marvel version comes with kept falling over on me. The more you play, the easier the setup is. But I still can’t get the breakaway section to stand on the first try.

There are two landscape builds that you can choose from in The Conflict Begins, each with several scenarios that you can play. Players choose which side of the scenario they want to play. The choices are primarily good guys versus bad guys, but some scenarios change it up like the one where it is Hulk versus everyone else. The scenarios my roommate and I played were the Team Good versus Team Bad ones for both landscape options. I chose the good guys and he opted for the bad.

Now either I REALLY suck at this type of game play, or the baddies are extremely over powered. Two of them (Dr. Doom and Red Skull) have the ability to take over and manipulate an enemy on their turn. My roommate loved taking over the Hulk with Red Skull. These powers have restrictions, of course, but it is still a bit on the heavy side with someone like the Hulk on the other team. Also, Thanos has the ability to return from defeat if the player rolls a certain number on his turn.

The individual powers offered by each character are very specific to the comics, which makes this game intriguing. For example, if the Hulk is injured he can add the amount of damage he has taken to his attack roll. This reflects Hulks ability to grow stronger when angered. Spider-Man has his patented Spider Sense that allows him to dodge attacks if he rolls above a certain number.

Mechanics: Mechanics are rather simple to understand and practice. Each character has a Movement score, a Range score that is used to calculate how many squares away an enemy can be for them to use their Attack score, and a Defense score.

When you make an attack, you roll an amount of dice equal to your Attack score. The amount of skulls that appear count as your attack. The defending character then rolls an amount of dice equal to their Defense score. The amount of shields that appear count as the character’s defense. The two numbers are compared and if the attack is higher, then the difference is subtracted from the defending character’s health. If the defense is higher, nothing happens.

Of course, the different powers of the characters as mentioned before throw in an X-factor into the mix. Red Skull has low stats but his ability to control the mind of anyone he can see once per turn makes up for more than that. Captain America can boost the morale of allies around him by adding +1 to their Attack and Defense. A useful power is Iron Man’s ability to attack twice in a round.

Movement over elevation is easy as well and reflects moving up and down rather effectively. You count a move upward as a movement and then that elevation space as another movement. Going down costs only one movement. Good ol’gravity.

Physical Aspects: You need a large flat surface for this game. Be it on a table, a large coffee table, or even the floor, these landscape builds take up quite a bit of room. We used the floor ourselves, but since I am old and busted (read: 22) my back was killing me and I could never get used to sitting “Indian Style”. [Short rant: Did you know that our PC world is telling kids to call that style of sitting Criss-Cross or something to that effect? Maybe the Indians invented that kind of sitting? Ever thought of that? Wouldn’t calling it that be paying tribute to a great sitting nation of people? (After much research ala Wikipedia, they did not invent it as it is apparent in multiple cultures, but I doubt the ones that set up this PC crap knew it)]

The landscape pieces are sturdy enough but I can see myself breaking them rather easily at some point as I try to piece them together or take them back apart. The breakaway wall section that comes with this set was also quite a pain to set into place, as I stated earlier. The wall itself sits neatly on the board, but the breakaway section doesn’t fit perfectly in the hole that it is supposed to reside causing some technical difficulties. The wall adds time to the setup I would rather use for playing the game. Luckily, most of the scenarios did not require the wall.

The wall, however, does add that extra element to the playing field. It has two spaces in a higher elevation that characters can use to their advantage, creates a good defense position, and can add that extra element of comic book hero excitement if someone punches out the breakaway section.

The figures are very well designed and painted. The Hulk looks rather fearsome himself. You also get a good sense of scale when you see the Hulk and Abomination towering over the other characters. There are a few paint issues but it only really deals with how small the figures are. There is no real way around that for mass produced games such as this.

Summary: As stated before, I find this type of mainstream board game to be something of an gateway drug into Role Playing. I am not complaining at all. Role Playing is a largely misunderstood and ignored portion of non-digital gaming. Overall, this is a very fun game with well designed physical aspects and easy to learn mechanics. Lovers of both Heroscape and the Marvel Universe will definitely fall in love with this game.

Alphabet Games: "F"

2008-08-31T23:44:00.002-04:00

During my self inflicted challenge to create 26 different games based on the different letters of the alphabet, I created Feet. Today, it was play-tested.

Feet starts with 64 cards. These cards represent the different aspects of the foot and seperates them into colors and sides. Essentially, you'll end up with cards like Blue Left Heel or Green Right Big Toes. The objective is to build two feet with each of the elements being of a single color.

The play-test went well. Problems from the start: I didn't have enough index cards on me to create all 64 cards. So, I settled for one set of feet for each color instead of two for the play-test. The play-test being what it is, it wasn't too much of a problem. We noticed right away that we needed that extra half of the deck, but we pushed through.

Play goes as such:
Everyone has 5 cards.
The turn consists of three phases: Draw, Trade, and Place.
It is yet to be seen if the Trade phase is optional or not. We played it as optional.
Basically, you can choose a card from your hand and trade it with a random one of your choice with that of an opponent.
When you place a card down for your foot, you need a right and a left.If you don't place a card in front of you, discard one. If you want to replace a card from a slot, discard the old one and replace it with the new one.

It's simple, easy, fun. It still needs some calibrating but its a success so far.

Blog Plans

2008-08-28T07:53:00.004-04:00

Once I have recovered from my Summer Quarter finals, I will try to set up a schedule for these posts.

I would like to add reviews of non-digital, as well as digital, games. I include digital because they need to be designed like everything else. Plus they're fun too. I don't play non-digital games exclusively. This seems like a Monday post topic. Or maybe Thursday. If for some reason someone reads this thing and reads the review when it comes up, that'd give them plenty of time to make weekend plans to find and play the game if they are interested in it.

I think I will also be adding what game designs that I come up with here that I don't actually want to pursue as a fully realized product. For example, I have created a fully functioning Role Playing Game that uses playing cards as a randomizer. Has this been done before, maybe. But what do I care? I'll have that up here at some point in the future. I'm debating whether or not to post anything about that Samurai RPG that I mentioned earlier. It's coming along nicely, btw.

The random thoughts and theories on games and game design will more than likely stay random. I don't control them as easily as I can control a review. I will still try to post my theories as often, though.

So as I sit here bored out of my skull while my 3D animation is rendering, I need to think these blogging type things through.

Some Exposition...

2008-08-26T13:20:00.005-04:00

I guess now would be a good time to explain myself. I should have done this first.

I am an Animation undergraduate at the Savannah College of Art and Design. I am officially graduating in a few days. Strange that someone such as I would take such an interest in starting a game design blog, yes?

Here is the deal. I am not the same person I was four years ago. I was far less mature and far more naive. I didn't really see what it was that I truly wanted for myself. I couldn't see it directly in front of my face. Ever since I was in elementary school, I have been designing games. Most of them were blatant rip offs of certain things, like Yugioh or Mortal Kombat. But a kid has to start somewhere.

My most successful project would be one of my RPGs. I created an entire fantasy setting based RPG with simplistic rules that won't hurt your brain when you play it, unlike with the D20 or RIFTS systems that have destroyed many a brain. It has been playtested only once but I received many positive reviews from my players, each of them wanting to play it again at some point in the future.

I have recently challenged myself to create 26 different non-digital games based on the different letters of the alphabet. I have only scratched the surface but with classes ending soon my free time will grow immensely.

I was encouraged by Professor Brenda Brathwaite to start a game design blog and to keep up with others. And thusly, here I am.

Where to find the Inspiration

2008-08-24T19:29:00.000-04:00

The question that plagues many artists across the world is: "Where do you get your inspiration?" The same can be asked of Game Designers. We need to get our ideas from somewhere, right?

Here's some help if you are looking for inspiration:

Other Games- I cannot tell you how fun it is to create modules for Dungeons and Dragons. And frankly, I love creating the universe in any RPG that I have had the pleasure to GM, but that isn't necessarily where I am going with this. Consider your favorite video game. Now, try to represent it as a board game or card game. I'm currently trying to create a Worms board game as well as a Phoenix Wright card game. Its a fun challenge trying to bring the feel of a video game into the realm of the non-digital. Or maybe you can try to do it vice versa. Many non-digital games have been translated to the digital world, though if it was successful or not is up to you.
Television- While "Friends: the Board Game" sounds like it could be fun, maybe it could be something else entirely. I strongly suggest that you do not do trivia games. Those already exist for the show you are thinking of. Trust me.
Movies- This is kind of on the same path as Television.
Books- Imagine a board game based on the tale of Huckleberry Finn. Classic, and could be an very interesting challenge.
Dreams- I wouldn't recommend that you that you copy everything in your dreams into a game, unless the game were about dreaming, but take an element of a dream and work from there.
Everything!- The world is full of interesting peoples, places, things, ideas, concepts, myths, legends, animals...you name it! Flip through an encyclopedia and stop at a random page. Make a game about something on that page. Use StumbleUpon on the internet to find a random site. Make a game based on the concepts represented on that site. You could make a game based on an Encyclopedia or StumbleUpon! The choices are limitless!

Inspiration!

2008-08-24T09:30:00.001-04:00

I was suddenly struck by inspiration last night. A Samurai RPG with a super fast combat system so that battles are over in seemingly seconds like in the movie Yojimbo.

More to come...

This is only a test...

2008-08-24T03:50:00.001-04:00

...and only a test. If this were an actual post, you would find my thoughts and current activities in the area of game design within this post.

This was only a test.