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English lessons by Ryan Abbott

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Social Network Iterations

Here is the Trace Race video demo

This site will entail the parts of my iterations done in the class Social Network Games.

Social Requests / Contracts / Mechanics

Even though our core gameplay mechanics are single player based, we will still have multiple ways in which players will be able to connect with one another. One of the first implemented features was a leaderboard system. Players will be able to see their friend’s high score after they have completed a round of their own. The platform we are working on really gives us a great way to implement this mechanic through Apple’s Game center and Google Play Games. This feature promotes competition and social interactivity amongst friends and rivals worldwide. The second mechanic we wish to implement in the final build (not the prototype) is a direct multiplayer battle mode. We want to allow our players to face their friends in a more intimate way than just through comparing scores on leaderboards. This mode will feature players racing against each other to see who can trace the most accurate design. The final way we want to connect players is through sharing custom drawings that each player can make. To further explain this mechanic I will write an example. Mike has created a custom drawing in our TraceEditor. He can then challenge all of his friends to try and get a high score on his very own custom drawing.

Quests

Quest 1: Complete the tutorial!

Task: The game will initially present you with a tutorial on how to play, consisting of 3 drawings for you to trace. If you are accurate enough on a drawing, you can progress to the next.

Completed state: Getting 50% accuracy or greater on all 3 tutorial drawings will signal the completion.

Reward: Access to the rest of the game!

Intrinsic Reward: Understanding and mastery of the core mechanics, and the self-satisfaction this provides

Extrinsic Reward: Acquisition of a high score

Quest 2: Complete a game of Arcade Mode without getting a strike!

Task: Arcade is one of two of the in-game modes in our final project. It tasks you with completing a randomly selected set of drawings while under the pressure of a rapidly depleting ink supply. The game will naturally end once your ink is out (at which point you can spend 99 cents for more). The goal is to get as high a score as possible by having a high accuracy level on all of the drawings combined, without ever dropping below 50%.

Completed state: Reaching the results screen without a single strike on the HUD.

Reward: Score multiplier for perfect performance, smug satisfaction/bragging rights

Intrinsic Reward: Mastery of an intricate and difficult task

Extrinsic Reward: The aforementioned score multiplier

Quest 3: Complete a game of SpeedRun Mode without getting a strike!

Task: SpeedRun is very similar to Arcade, except that you have unlimited ink. Instead, you have 2 minutes in which to complete as many drawings as possible, as quickly and as accurately as possible. The task is to get as high a score as you can, without ever dropping past 50%.

Completed state: Reaching the results screen without a single strike on the HUD.

Reward: Score multiplier for perfect performance, smug satisfaction/bragging rights

Intrinsic Reward: Mastery of an intricate and difficult task

Extrinsic Reward: The aforementioned score multiplier

Quest 4: Get a perfect score on a drawing!

Task: Get an accuracy rating of 100% on a single drawing. The harder the drawing difficulty, the harder this task naturally becomes.

Completed state: HUD indicates a 100% accuracy rating, a strike is removed (if any are present)

Reward: Exciting fanfare sequence with lots of particle effects!

Intrinsic Reward: Complete domination of a challenge

Extrinsic Reward: Loss of a strike, cool-looking flashy sequence

Quest 5: Unlock the secret background!

Task: Grind through 30 combined games of Arcade mode and SpeedRun mode.

Completed state: HUD overlay indicating an unlocked background, a new option available in the options menu

Reward: A pretty backdrop for you to play games on!

Intrinsic Reward: Self-improvement through grinding

Extrinsic Reward: Status symbol associated with the background

Pricing

In TraceRace’s arcade mode, players trace as many drawings as they can before running out of ink. We would create a consumable item in the store that can be bought in the store that will allow players to get more ink in their arcade mode run. This will allow players to go longer in the arcade mode but at a cost. With the pressure of doing better than friends from our leaderboards, players will be more inclined to purchase these consumables.

We think it would also be a good idea to implement an in game currency system. Playing through the arcade mode or speedrun will get you a small amount of currency (let’s call them coins for now). You can buy the consumable mentioned above for coins but it will cost a lot of coins. The purchase of coins through the store will get you a large amount of coins for a cheap purchase that will incline users to opt in for coin purchases instead of grinding for the coins through the modes. We also want to have aesthetic items.

Players love customization. By using our currency method mentioned above, we can have players purchase customizable skins for their ink bottles, pencils, and backgrounds. Some of the more detailed skins might be available only to directly purchase. This is similar to the monetization method from the game League of Legends. The only way to obtain aesthetic changes on characters is from direct purchases.

We also would like to monetize in the form of DLC and map pack additions.  In our game we have over 300 built in drawings for users to trace. Eventually, through playing the game multiple times, players will start to see some of the same drawings they have already encountered. People crave variety and having multiple downloadable add-ons will be great to fill their appetite. We will implement themes for the packs like “nature” theme or “day at the beach” theme which will incorporate drawings that have to do with the theme like a beach ball, sunscreen, and a towel for the day at the beach theme. If the game takes off, it would be great to look to licensing some popular intellectual property in order to make themes like “Star Wars”  and “Sports Team” themes.

The final way to monetize the game would be through a way that allows the players to progress their game faster without taking penalties. In TraceRace players may come across a very difficult item to draw or one that takes up a lot of their ink. Though it may result in big points, it’s sometimes a tough decision to decide if you want to risk using up tons of ink. Our plan is to allow our players to skip any drawing they want but there is a catch. Players only start with three skips in total. Once they use them, they are gone for good. We plan to implement an in store purchase of skips so players can still skip the difficult drawings they encounter but at a price. To help reinforce why they should purchase a lot of skips, we will have two pricing options for our users. The first will be a pack of 5 skips for 99 cents. They don’t have to break the bank and we can lure in some minnows and dolphins this way. In order to hook the whales though, we will have a pack of 50 skips for $2.99. This allows them to get the most bang for their buck and they will feel as though they have made the best possible purchase.

My Contributions

Mike provided the base game of TraceRace which he altered throughout the year. Mike and I collabourated on all of the design choices and decisions – nothing was done without both of us agreeing on it. I wrote about our changes in the iteration documents. I also did the QA testing on all of the game, making sure there were no bugs or problems with TraceRace. Both Mike and I did equal work and there were no disagreements.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

Nax: The pages of Sorcery the Board Game

This is our final game board. The rules are quite long but they are in depth to avoid any confusion. I hope you all enjoy it

Nax the Pages of Sorcery: The Board Game

  Number of players: 2-4

  Pieces you will need:

Generic player tokens

Coins for level 1 (to determine if the security guard is looking or not)

Coins for level 2 (to determine what security key they will receive and what the elevator requires)

Small pouch/bag/cover for the green spaces in level 2

Some assembly required

    How to play:

Roll a die to see who goes first. Start the game on the start space of each level (blue space), starting with level one. Players take turns progressing through the level. A player can travel on any space but cannot move diagonally. If a player does not land on a coloured space they pick up a spell card. A maximum of 2 spell cards can be held at one time. If you wish to pick up another spell card you must exchange it for one in your hand. The one in your hand is put on the bottom of the deck. After each round (everyone moves once) the spell deck is shuffled. Spell cards can be used throughout the game in certain situations which will be explained later. Each square has its own traits depending on what level it is in. The coloured spaces will be explained later. The players want to reach the end of the level to make all players move onto the next level. The first person to get to the last square of a level is rewarded with 3 points and can draw a card from the spell cards. At the end of level 3 whoever has the most points wins the game. You also get a point depending on what level you are when the level is ended by either yourself or an opposing player. If you are level 1 you get 1 point, level 2, 2 points, etc. The maximum level someone can reach in the game is level 3. Becoming a higher level doesn’t only get you more points but it allows you to use higher level spells as listed on the spell cards. If you are level 1 you cannot use a level 2 spell or level 3 but if you are level 3 you can use a lower spell if you choose. This is the same for level 2. How to level up:

In order to level up, you must battle minions and opposing players. If you battle a minion, if you beat them you will gain a level. If you lose the battle you will lose your next turn. Battling an opposing player works differently. If you battle a player and win you will gain a level. If you lose however you will lose a level. To battle a minion you must land on a black space on the board. To battle a player you must land on the same space as them.

  How to battle:

When battling a minion roll a die for the minion. Add 1 to that score. The score cannot exceed 6. If you roll the same as or higher than the minion, you beat it, then you gain a level. If you land on the same square as an opponent you can choose to battle an opponent. The defender gets to use spell cards first. You can use as many spells you want in a battle but only one at a time. After spells are used the players roll. Whoever has the highest roll after calculating spell cards wins and gains a level. The loser of the battle loses a level. A player can never be lower than level 1 and never be higher than level 3.

  The spell cards:

Spell cards can be used in a variety of situations. A “ROLL” refers to someone rolling the die to determine their movement. An “ATTACK” refers to someone rolling a dice in battle. You can only pick one of the abilities to use listed on the card. You must be the same level or higher to use that ability. After a spell card is used it is put back to the bottom of the spell card deck. The list below shows the rules and constraints for each spell.

  Fireball spell:

Level 1 can be used before an opponent rolls for movement

Level 2 can be used at any time before an opponent’s turn

Level 3 can be used at any time (in battle, start of a turn, etc.)

  Speed spell:

Level 1 can be used on yourself to reroll a movement roll, not an attack roll

Level 2 can be used to add +4 to your movement roll

Level 3 doubles your movement roll

  Attack spell:

Level 1 adds +1 to your attack roll (can be used against players and minions)

Level 2 adds +3 to your attack roll (can be used against players and minions)

Level 3 doubles your attack roll (can be used against players and minions)

  Defense spell:

These spells can be played when your opponents are battling. They can affect the outcome of battles you are not in

Level 1 decreases your opponents attack roll by 1

Level 2 can only be used in battle. No spells can be used by anyone for the rest of the turn. The turn ends when you end your turn

Level 3 can only be used in battle. You can use a spell after playing this card but your opponent cannot

  ? spell:

Level 1: Can be played at any time to make a player go back to the start

Level 2: Discard at any time (even during battles) 2 of your opponents cards

Level 3: Look at your opponents spells. Take one. If you already have 2 put one of the 3 you have on the bottom of the spell card deck and keep the other 2.

  The spaces:

In order for a player to land on a space they must roll the exact movement. A player can move back and forth between squares they don’t have to move in one direction. There are several different coloured spaces in the game. Below is a list of which colour does what. Green spaces change depending on what level you are in.

  Blue spaces: This is where all players start at the beginning of each level. No battles can take place on this square.

  Red spaces: This is where a level will end. If a player lands on this space the level is over and you calculate points.

  Black spaces: If you land on a black space you battle against a minion in an attempt to level up. If you win the battle you level up and stay on the square. If another player lands on the space while you are on that space, they will fight the minion instead of you.

  Green spaces: Green spaces do different things depending on what level you are in. Below is a list for what they do in each level.

Level 1: Place coins on the green spaces. These represent security guards. Flip each coin every round. A round is when every player has gone once. An example is, the game begins at round 1, player 1 goes, player 2 goes, and player 3 goes. All players have gone so it is player 1 turn again. Now it is round 2, before player 1 goes again. If the guards have tails, nothing happens that round. If the guards have heads, that means they are facing towards the players. If a player crosses a space that the guard is facing (the spaces adjacent to them) they will have to roll a die. If they roll a 1 or a 6 they go undetected and can move on. If they do not then they get caught and have to return to the start space.

  Level 2: Take your different coins and randomly select one of them to be the correct key for the elevator. In this level no one can get to the red square until they have the corresponding key. Once the key has been randomly selected, the remaining coins will be put into their bags. The bags are shuffled then randomly put on a green space. When players land on a green space they will get the coin out of the bag. If it is the same as the elevator then they can pass through it. If not they must search for the other keys. An example of how this works is, a nickel has been randomly selected. You put a nickel (the number you put in is determined by how many players are playing, 4 nickels if 4 players) into a bag. You then put the two other coins (penny and dime) in two separate bags.

  Level 3: Switches are pressed in this level to lift up the boxes on the map. A player must press the button themselves in order to traverse the level. The first switch lifts the first box the second one lifts the second etc.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

Healthy Game: Healthy Seasons

This is our final game for GDP1. Its a children's game which is why it is an extremely simple game. We focus on quick fun and education for this game. The objective of the game is to beat your opponents, but our main goal is to teach players about crops that can grow in each season.

How to play: Players start on any space they wish. Roll a die to determine who goes first. They then take turns rolling the die to determine which space they move to. Everyone moves clockwise regardless of where they start. If they land on a space they will have to answer a skill testing question relating to which space they are on. If you answer a question correctly you get a point. If you get the question wrong you don't receive any points. First person to 10 points wins The Spaces: Green Space = Nutrition based question Blue = Double Points, choose any category you want and answer the question correctly you receive 2 points. If wrong zero points are rewarded Red = Exercise based question Yellow = Season based question

[rabbottblogs-blog]

Do you Have it in you?

Game Name: Do You Have it in You?

Game type: Party game

Players: 4 and more; All ages

Play time: 20-30 minutes

  Introduction:

            Do you always go to a party where everyone just sits around, bored out of their mind? Well do we have a game for you to liven up the night! Team Cobalt introduces a new, fun, and engaging game for everyone to get up, get active, and have fun!

The Game:

            Do You Have it in You is a game witch sees its players get up and get active while throwing challenges their way. Players form teams of 2, and each team then faces off with another team in an epic battle to see witch team would be victorious!

How to play:

            Players must form groups of 2 to begin with. Once each team is formed, each team must come up with a team name that represents their team. When that has been accomplished, a player from each team must write down their team name on the sheet of paper that is provided. Now that each team is formed and named, players can actually begin playing the game.

            Select a player from your team to play 1 round of Rock, Papers, and Scissors to determine the order of which team can go first. When the order of play is accomplished, the team the goes first now spins the spinner. This spinner consists of different challenges that push each team to their maximum capacity. If each team completes each challenge successfully, they receive a coloured token. When a team fails to complete the challenge, their turn ends, and the next team spins the spinner.

End result:

            The team that collects 4 of the 6 coloured tokens, in other words, completing 4 of the 6 challenges will be then declared the winner.

  The Challenges:

Yellow-

The Wall Sit

·         The wall sit challenge is one of endurance. Each team must find some open space against a wall. Once the challenge starts, everyone must place their backs against the wall, and slide down until their knees form a 90 degree angle, as though they are sitting on an invisible chair. This is tougher than it sounds. The first team to have both its members tire out loses.

Purple-

Ball Throw (Each Team must participate)

o    This challenge is geared towards speed and precision as each player is counting on their team mate to be both fast and precise in their throws in order to win.

·         Setup :

o    Each team gets a small ball and arrange themselves so that each member of the team is on a different side of the room and one of the team members gets a ball.

o    One team goes first, passes the ball around until it is dropped, then next team goes.

·         How to play:

o    Each team gets 2 minutes to throw the ball back and forth and count the number of successful cycles.

·         How to win: 

o    The winner is the team with the most successful cycle.

o    Compare the times of each team, the team with the most cycles win.

  Orange-

            Get a Grip!

·         In this challenge, you and your partner will have to stand face to face, and as close as possible. Putting your arms out in front of you, you must grab each other’s hands, you both should kneel down and squat. While squatting, you and your partner should pull away from each other, while holding each other’s hand for support. First team that falls, or breaks the chain loses. The team with the longest time wins!

Blue-

            That Sweet Tone:

·         In this challenge, players must sing along to a song of their choice, but both players must know the lyrics to at least 1 minute of the song. Failure to complete this challenge will result in a loss of turn.

Red-

            Copy Cat

·         In this Challenge, players must create a tableau of a scene of a recent movie. Opposing teams must try to figure out what movie the tableau is from within 2 minutes, and if they do, the team doing the challenge wins. Otherwise, the challenge is failed.

·         Failure to cooperate in this challenge by the opposing teams will result in an automatic win for the team doing the challenge.

Green-

            2 Faced

·         In this challenge, players must stand back to back with their arms interlocked, and must walk in a circle for a minute without tripping, letting go, or stopping. Must be continuous walking for one minute. Failure to complete this challenge will result in a loss of turn.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

Homework 7

Who are you? Born 1990-present What is your name? Gender? Race? Religion? Age?

My name is ZiZi. I’m an Asian female. I’m TOTALLY a scientologist tee hee. I am 22 years old.

Where were you born? What about your parents—where are they, and are they alive? When you were growing up, did you struggle, and if so, in what way?

I was born in China, my parents are still alive. Growing up was hard for me, going to a boarding school meant not seeing my parents. It was a struggle at first, but I think it helped me become the independent person I am today.

What year is it now?

It’s 2012, is that a trick question or something?   How would someone stereotype you at a glance?

At first look? I think people would most likely think I am extremely cute. Probably pretty innocent as well.

Do you have a romantic partner? If so, whom?

Well this is quite a personal question. To be honest though, there is someone. I don’t want to scare him away so I won't mention his name, but he will be mine shortly. Who is your best friend and what is he/she/it like? How would your friend describe you?

Oh Kai is definitely my best friend. He’s so awesome, he knows me way to well. I think he would tell you how open I am.

What is your economic situation? What have you done for work?

I’m doing fine financially. I’ve done anything from bartending to makeup artist, I’m quite flexible.

Would you steal? How do you feel about lying? Can you be trusted by your friends? Do you have any other vices?

Steal, never. Would I lie? Never? If someone lies no matter how small, even if it’s about something like age, I do not take it lightly. In order for me to forgive someone for lying I would have to allow myself to make some pretty bad decisions.

What makes you happy? What makes you sad?

Man, anything can make me happy but helping others and travelling the world is pretty enjoyable. Not much can really make me sad, only if you break through my shell will you be able to make me sad.

What is the one secret that no one must know about you?

Tee hee now why would I tell you that?

Are you afraid to die?

Nope. I’m pretty satisfied with my life so far.

Do you have any phobias?

Puppets…… they aren’t real, they shouldn’t be given life that’s just too weird.

Are you quick tempered or patient?

I am pretty patient actually. I will wait out anything if it’s for the right reasons.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

Homework 6

Tic-Tac-Toe Remix

For this homework assignment we are tasked to recreate the classic game of tic-tac-toe. The first thing I would do to add luck is to add two decks of cards. Each card will have a corresponding space on it. The player who goes first (determined by rock paper scissors) will draw a card. Whatever space is on that card the player must go to it. They then take another card from the questions deck and get their opponent to read it to them, if they answer correctly then they win that space. If a player draws a card with a space that is occupied by their opponent they have the opportunity to steal it from them. The players take turns answering questions until one of them gets it wrong. If the person who drew the first card can’t answer the question then he loses and the defending player doesn’t have to answer another. First person to get 3 in a row (X's or O's) is the winner.

Frogger Game Remix

I have decided to take my Frogger game, from a previous submission http://rabbottblogs.tumblr.com/post/33321742093/post-7, and change up the gameplay. I have decided to add more skill and luck to the game. You can view the old rules from the link above. The new rules are: 1. A player who doesn’t like their hand can take any of the cards in his hand put them back in the deck and draw the same amount of cards.

2. Once per game a player can choose to take back any card that was used from anyone that round and place it in their hand. First person to call it gets it

3. There are now cards that give the person doing the worst bonuses. After a round if someone is losing more than the others he can draw a card from another deck. This deck has cards that can move more spaces, I.e. jump and dodge on it, give the player an extra life, or take 2 lives off of opponents if they can’t dodge it.

All of these rules are added on top of the already existing rules.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

New Liar's Dice

Liar's dice is a dice game intended for two or more players. It is very easy to learn, requires little equipment, and can be played as a gambling or a drinking game. Playing this game well requires the ability to bluff successfully and to detect if an opponent is deceiving you. There are many variants of the rules of Liar's Dice but my group has made a new set of rules that makes the game more entertaining and involves much more risk. You can view the original rules here if you are not familiar with them. http://boardgames.about.com/od/liardice/a/rules.htm The first rule is that if you fold twice in a row you lose a dice. This makes it so there is much more participation and speeds up the game. The second rule is, if you want, you can join "hands" with another player you can but you must declare so before a bid is made. The winners of a group hand wins split the pot equally to the number of players in a joined group hand (which is 2). The maximum amount for a group is two people. If  the group loses they both have to each give up one die to the person they challenged. This adds a really original element to the game, teamwork. The third rule is if you call someone out on their bluff (calling them a liar) and it is incorrect, you give your dice to the person whom you challenged. This is to increase the risk in accusing someone. The fourth rule is if you have 2 or less dice you lose the game. This adds more risk to the game. This fear will make the game more entertaining The fifth rule is if you roll a 1 or a 2 they are counted as wild. this means that they can be any number if you so choose The sixth rule (the final rule) is that if you are caught lying twice in a row you automatically lose the game. We felt this balances the other rules in which if the opposition is risks their dice to see if someone is bluffing it will definitely pay off.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

On Disc DLC: Terrible Game Design

With the new release of Resident Evil 6 I thought about the element of adding DLC to games and how poor that choice of game design is. As a player this annoys me incredibly. Deciding on what version of the game to get really takes away from the experience of a game. Even though the content is already on the game, restricting me as a player from playing it gives me a tough choice to make on what I want to sacrifice. Do I want the upgraded gun for single player? Or extra maps to play with my friends in multiplayer? I simply can't have both without paying a greater fee later when the game has been released for a few months. Taking things out of your game is a bad choice for game design, if you have the content, allow the players who pay $70 for a new game to have the full game. Now I want to talk about it as an amateur game developer. Now, Downloadable Content has been around for many years, dating all the way back to when something as simple as horse armour was desired by gamers. It’s not the fact that a developers try to push gimmicky or vital things on a player after the games release it’s more specifically first day DLC. What happens is that developers are putting DLC already on the disc that you physically buy and later sell codes as “DLC” that unlocks this content for a price later on. Now, this also has been going on for some time now in games like Call of duty, and Batman Arkham City with having several DLC map pack already available day one on the disc. Though this has annoyed me in the past, developers are now taking this too far. Capcom  released their game Street FighterxTekken. Very early of the game's release, hackers discovered that on the disc is a total of 12 new characters along with alternate costumes for the whole cast. To me, this is unacceptable. From the other games, added maps is just an extended part of the game. By extended, I mean they aren’t part of the main game, just added bonuses if you get bored of the game. When it comes to fighting games in which there are professional players playing in tournaments for money all content that effects the whole game should be available on day one. It isn’t fair that consumers are paying 70-80$ for a new triple A title and they aren’t even getting the full game. If the game costs less, like 40$, and then you need to pay more to unlock additional content on the disc, that’s fine. The future of gaming is headed in a bad direction if companies can charge for a full game and purposely leave content on the disc for unsuspecting players to purchase not knowing the truth. If this continues we could see, call of duty franchises selling more overpowered guns to people willing to sell out the cash. This is very scary.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

Frogger: The Card Game

This week we decided to do a Card Game. Our card game is based off of the classic video game Frogger.

2-6 Players can play this game

Rules: 1. Everyone starts off with 3, 5, or 7 lives. 2. Shuffle the deck of 60 cards. 3. Each player draws 10 cards. 4. Roll or choose who goes first then go clockwise. 5. Every turn a player can play an obstacle card which causes every other player to lose a certain amount of lives or use their movement card(s) depending on if they draw any. 6. Some obstacles require more than 1 movement card. 7. Movement cards allow the player to jump, dodge, or move around obstacles to avoid losing lives. 8. Last player with 1 life or more left wins, if every player left loses all their lives at the same time the game is a draw, or if all the cards in every players hand are played the game is a draw between the players that are left. Our game relates to the masterpiece that is Frogger in many ways. Having obstacle cards relates directly to the fast paced action you get when playing the classic arcade game. Adding a "live" mechanic is also staying true to the games roots. Will this Frogger game top my previous Frogger game I made in class this year http://rabbottblogs.tumblr.com/post/31994213455/post-3? We will see from the feedback from today's tutorial.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

The Collection Board Game

Tonight is the unveiling of our new board game. It really hurt last week to see our peers give us such low scores with no feedback whatsoever. I think where we went wrong was in the complication of our board game. Walking around looking at scores we noticed the more simpler and fast paced games were more highly praised. So we went to the drawing board and tried to create a game really fast paced and simple.

Game rules

The game board is a rectangle 6x8 grid. There are a deck of 48 cards that are shuffled before each game and are placed face down on each tile of the game board. each player starts at a corner of the board. Before a player can move they pick up the card that is situated on their starting square, there are seven types of cards that are in the deck and have been placed on the game board and are as follows:

Diamond

Null card (cannot pick up)

Emerald

Ruby

Sapphire

Mine (seven in game, if you land on it you lose a turn)

mine sweeper(you retain the card and you can use it next time you land on a mine to diffuse it)

Golden shovel(you gain an extra turn, you can use it whenever you want, as long as you present the card)

Every turn each player may move one square in any direction except diagonally. Whenever the player moves into a new square he/she picks up the card that is placed face down on that square, depending on which of the following cards that it the player acts accordingly. if a player lands on a gem that he/she already owns the player cannot pick the card up and must place the card back down on the square without revealing that card to the other players. if two players land in the same square the players each roll a dice and whoever rolls the highest gets to take a card from the other players deck, be it a gem, mine sweeper, or golden shovel card. if the player cannot take any of the cards (the other player only has gem duplicates) then the game goes on without any loss of cards. then the game goes on until one player has collected one of all four different gems. Right now we are testing balancing issues for how many of each card should be in the game. Hopefully we can take some information we gather from the peer play testing to help balance the games cards.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

Emma: The Jane Austen Board Game

Tomorrow is the day we unveil our new game board Walk the Plank, inspired by the book Emma, from the author Jane Austen.

Description:

                Walk the Plank, is a fast paced card game that involves you and a friend to face off against two others in en epic card game to see who can match their players up with their corresponding character traits. Simple enough? But dare not! This game will have you eager to beat your opponents in a race to conquer all pirates in the 7 seas.

How to play:

                Walk the Plank is a 4 player game that involves its players to be in teams of 2. The objective of the game is simple, beat your opponent. Question here is how? To begin playing Walk the Plank. Each player must sit across each other. Each player then selects a pirate player as their player in the game. As each player notices, there are 4 different character traits that are set to that specific pirate. Once everyone has gotten their players, someone must pick up the “traits” card deck and hand out 4 trait cards to each player, including him/herself. Once they have done that that person must place the rest of the deck in the centre of everyone on the ground and draw 4 cards from the top of the deck and place those cards face down on the ground. Everyone counts down from 3, and on the count of “1”, everyone flips a card around. When this is done, all players can choose to “swap” a card they have in their hand for a card on the floor. Players are not allowed more than 4 cards in their hand (not including player card). When everyone is ok that there’s no more swapping to be made. Those cards on the ground are then put aside, and another 4 cards are drawn from the deck and placed face down. This is basically a repetition, until one team wins.

How to Win:

To win this game, one team has to collect the CORRECT character trait cards that correspond with their pirate. Once both of the players in each team have all 4 trait cards correct. They both have to place their hands on top of the trait deck and yell out “A Pirates life for me”. Players, who incorrectly collect the trait cards, will count as a loss, and the other team will automatically win. As you can see, our game took the book and added a pirate theme to it. I "piratized" the characters which you can read below. Some of them are quite humourous if you are familiar with the book.

Emma “Lil’Princess” Woodhouse, the protagonist of the story, is the most beautiful, high-spirited, intelligent, and richest young pirate in all of the seven seas. Her mother died when she was very young, so she has been the captain of her ship for a long time. Although intelligent, she lacks the necessary discipline to stay committed to learning her studies. Though she is such a wealthy scaly wag, she still has a lot of compassion for the poor but knows her social status is at the top. Though she is only 20, she is in many ways mature for her age but Emma makes some serious mistakes, mainly due to her lack of experience pillaging on the sea. Although she has vowed she will never ever marry any swashbuckler, she enjoys making other matches for the other pirates. In the end, out of jealousy, she realizes she’s in love with Cap’n black beard Knightley.

Frank “Quick Step” Churchill is a sociable young buccaneer, who manages to be liked by every plunderer besides Cap’n black beard Knightley, who considers him quite immature. After his mother's death, he was raised by his wealthy freebooting aunt and uncle, whose last name he took. Frank enjoys dancing to shanty tunes and living the pirate life to the fullest.

Harriet "moppin decks" smith is Emma’s deck swabbing mate. She’s quite pretty but lacks the brains of her captain so she is easily led. The illegitimate daughter of initially unknown parents, she is revealed to be the daughter of a fairly rich and decent raider. Emma takes Harriet under her wing and she becomes the subject of some of Emma's misguided matchmaking attempts. She develops a passion for Cap’n black beard Knightley, which makes Emma realize her feelings for the cap’n.

Mr. “silver Pocket” Weston is a recently wealthy sea rover who is the father to Frank Churchill, who was adopted and raised by his late wife's brother and sister-in-law. Mr. Weston is a sanguine, optimistic man, who enjoys socialising. Mr. Weston is often blind to the faults of his son, Frank, and because of his eye patch.

Augusta "Jolly Molly" Elton formerly Miss Hawkins, is Mr. Elton's wife. She has many doubloons and possesses moderately good manners, at best. She is a boasting, domineering, pretentious sea wench who likes to be the centre of attention and is generally disliked by Emma and her pirate crew. She displays many of the faults that Cap’n black beard Knightley apprehends Emma for, however on a much larger scale. Ironically much of Emma's dislikes of Augusta arise from these faults.

These are the backs of the trait cards we made. I hope everyone enjoys our game tomorrow as it took a lot of time and effort. Can't wait to see everyone else's!

[rabbottblogs-blog]

Gangland

I'm excited to show off our new board game Gangland. Here is a picture of the prototype we made. It turned out really well.

Below is a list of the rules, and how to play our game.

Rules for gangland

1.       Every player starts in a square at one corner of the board that is marked with a number 1-4.

2.       The game is split up into four “neighbourhoods” they can be distinguished by the common number that appears in the squares. Each neighbourhood is made out of four “territories”

3.       In the game each player has a gangster (marked by a piece denoted by a G), the gangster acts as a sort of hero to the team, and the gangster leads a certain amount of thugs as units. These units are divided into three tiers (1, 2, and 3).

4.       In order to successfully capture a territory there must be at least one thug on the territory, and in order to capture a neighbourhood there must be at least one thug on all four territories of the neighbourhood.

5.       Every turn the player can move the gangster the units he has under his command and/or a group of units greater than 2. If the territory you move into is unoccupied you can proceed and move into the territory as long as you leave a minimum of one unit in the territory you moved in from. If the territory you move in is occupied by another player then you must engage them.

6.       Killing a gangster results in the gangster re-spawning at the players starting point with one unit, each gangster is only allowed 2 respawns.

7.       The way that combat works in the game is very similar to that of risk, if you are attacking with a gangster you get an extra die. The amount of dice the attacker rolls is dependent of the amount of thugs there are (amount of units-1 =amount of dice). The attacker can roll a maximum of three dice (only possible with gangster and a minimum of three units). The amount of dice that the defendant can roll= amount of units (max 2 dice) so if there are two or more the defender always rolls two dice no matter what. Again the maximum dice you can roll as a defender is three since a dice is added if a gangster is present.

8.       The dice system works identically to that of risk; each player's highest die is compared, as is their second-highest die (if both players roll more than one). In each comparison, the highest number wins. The defender wins in the event of a tie. With each dice comparison, the loser removes one army from his territory from the game board. Any extra dice are disregarded and do not affect the results.

9.       Fortifying: a player can chose to fortify at the end of their turn, this entails one move in which units are moved from one territory to the other, when a player goes to fortify a territory they must always make sure that the territory they are moving from has at least one unit left in it.

10.   Winning conditions: in order to win the game you can either conquer all 4 neighbourhoods or you can be the last gangster alive.

11.   Reinforcements: every turn the player gets reinforcements the player can place reinforcements on any territory they own except for the middle circle, the only way to fortify that circle is to moves units in it from the outside. The amount of reinforcements a player gets per turn are as follows:

-          +1 unit for each territory owned

-          +3 units per neighbourhood owned

-          +2 for middle circle

Here are few pictures of the pieces we made. Each player uses a different colour G character to determine their most important gangster.

Below are the units each player uses to determine how many thugs they have. I hope everyone enjoys playing our game!

[rabbottblogs-blog]

In Class Game: Frogger

In class a group of students and I started to design a cool rendition of the 80's game Frogger. We turned this arcade classic into our own board game.

Here's a picture of a digital representation I made that I think represents how our board game would look if it were made.

It can be played with 2-6 players in which the players race against each other to reach the finish. The players take turns moving one square in whichever direction they want. After each player has moved, the cars move. A card is drawn to determine if a car comes through that lane, which could knock a player back to the start. Each player has 5 cards in their hand which say one of the following: Up, Down, Left, or Right. If a player notices a car will hit him, he must react quickly, similar to how the game really plays. If a player puts down a card the moves him out of harms way before another player can say "you have been hit" then they get away safely. After each round, the players will get all 5 of their cards back. It's a race to the finish game that tries to stay true the games roots by sticking to a reaction type of board game.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

Race for the Coins

Object of the game:

The object of the game is to collect as many coins as you can to progress to the ending of the board. First person to reach the end and pass through all the locked doors wins.

How to play:

 Players take turns rolling the dice. Person to roll highest goes first then play goes clockwise. After a player rolls the dice he must go in the forward direction. After everyone has rolled once for that round a mini game occurs. Draw a mini game card to determine which game you will play. See the list below for game rules. Whoever wins the game will receive 3 coins. In order for players to progress the board they will need to get a certain amount of coins from squares and mini games to get through the locked doors. A player may not pass or stand on a locked door until they have the required amount of coins. If they come to a door without the same amount of coins or more then they must go backwards. If a player gets to a fork in the road they can choose which direction they want to go. Each space has a specific rule to it which you can see below. Game tiles:

-          Start = the beginning of the board game, all players start on here

-          +2 = the player gains 2 coins

-          +1 = the player gains 1 coin

-          -2 = the player loses 2 coins

-          Swap = the player who lands on this space chooses  a player to switch coins with

-          Luck = the player rolls a dice and get as many coins that he gets on the dice

-          Attack = the player who lands on this space chooses someone to battle. Each player rolls a die. The winner is whoever rolls the highest. The loser subtracts his score from the winners and then owes that person that many coins

-          End = the end of the board, whoever reaches here 1st wins

Minigame Card Rules:

  Each player plays rock, paper, scissors, at the same time. If there are three players playing and one person beats the other but everyone wins at least once then its declared a tie and you play again.

  Each player plays each other best two out of three in tic tac toe. Whoever has the most wins after everyone plays each other will be declared the winner. Play until one player has more wins than all the others.

  Each player builds a paper airplane. Whoever throws it the furthest, wins.

  Each player flips a coin. If someone gets tails they are eliminated. In the event that all players flip tails then it is declared a tie and they flip till someone doesn’t get tails.

  A coin is placed at the end of a table. Players take turns throwing a single coin towards that coin. Whoever gets it closest to that coin wins.

[rabbottblogs-blog]

Twister in Class

Name of game: Twister # of players: 4 Time spent: Game only took about 7 minutes a round before everyone was out

Things I like: 1. The way the game is played is really enjoyable, contorting your body is a very unique concept for a game. The game is very original 2. It's fully interactive making you use your whole body 3. The amount of players is perfect, not too many that you cant move but just enough to make it challenging to place your next body part 4. The game is very competitive for how simplistic it is 5. It became very aggressive when two people were in uncomfortable positions, both ready to fall at any second

Things I disliked: 1. Solely based on physical fitness, no skill or strategy 2. Some people were in extremely easy positions where others were in complex and difficult positions. 3. A lot of people cheated by placing their butts on the ground to rest and no one noticed 4. The game is too short 5. No replay value, after you have played it once or twice you don't want to play again

What would I have designed differently: 1. More rows of colours for more players 2. Maybe change the name of the game so it isn't just geared for kids 3. Make it a rule that the spinner is also the judge to eliminate cheating 4. The spinner could be updated because the graphics were old and colours not vibrant 5. Max players could be increased so no one is left out.