Dev.log

Game Developer Log: Sherrye Bracewell Game Design: DIG 4713 Fall 2020

[sherrborg]

Delve into space in this racing Sci-Fi adventure!!

Back of Box Summary:

 Interested? Want to learn how the game plays? Check out our handy dandy rules booklet placed neatly on slides for easier reading access!

Rules and How to Play! 

And just for those who love seeing hands on experience, below is our Paper Prototype of the game as well as an explanation as we play! 

And please click the link below to read our Game Design Document as well as the Artstyle guide!

GDD and Artstyle Guide!

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Gold

Option 2:

This week was a bit too quick for me, so I only got to play a new game today actually. Earlier my friend got her birthday present, a new Spider-Man PlayStation with a Spider-Man game included! So I got to play it!(Not the Miles Morales game) This Spider-Man game came out in 2018 and it got really good reviews, but I really couldn’t bring myself to spend money on it at the time. But I really love Spider-Man games for all the mechanics and open-world aspects. Being able to finally pick this game up even if it was only a couple hours was like heaven. 

The features in this game really set it apart from other city based games, such as taking selfies while web-slinging. This really helps make the player FEEL like THEY are Peter Parker, whom loves taking pictures! It’s, what I feel like, a small touch that adds to the overall feeling of it. Plus adding such a feature helps show how much thought developers could put into it. The selfie thing isn’t exactly necessary for story but for immersion it’s very important! 

Though besides that I do love fast traveling through New York City by web, its a great take on open-world games and I’ve always been amazed by the games themselves. Not just this one but previous ones too. I’ve always felt like Spider-Man games were truly ahead of their time. 

Option 3: 

What is the future of videogames? What do you think you will you be playing in 10 or 20 years? Describe, predict, guess, & reflect on games. Have fun

This is an incredible question because I love to think about how much games have changed over the years. And I believe, in order to see how the future will go, we must look at the consoles of the past. A big point is the Virtual Boy from Nintendo. This game system was so far ahead of it’s time it couldn’t even be replicated properly. Having this sort of virtual reality in such an old system actually paved the way to how games could and can be made. Such as, now we have Virtual Reality almost everywhere. Roller coasters are even using it! 

Right now, it’s interesting to watch how people react to each games. Such as the free-to-play Genshin Impact. It’s a huge open world game that will have frequent updates once every 6 weeks. Usually games would be done at their release, but then The Sims pretty much introduced DLC and now so many games have them, Genshin Impact’s updates are free but the point I’m making is we are going to get games that will involve the populace in it’s development. Imagine getting Super Mario Bros but only the first world, then every few weeks you get the next world! 

In the next few years I believe gaming will become more of a lifestyle. We interrogate gaming into our daily lives live we’ve never done so before. Virtual Reality but much like Roller Coasters, is also PART of reality. Virtual architecture both for easier sight seeing and for easier building. Virtual shopping, as if you are actually in the store picking out your food. There could be so many different and realistic style games that aren’t just games anymore. Open-world could simply and actually become A world.   

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Silver

Option 1:

This week I decided to start looking at Fairy Tales for the final project for my Game Design class. It was important to begin brainstorming as soon as possible for the best chance to create the coolest ideas. There are a lot of stories out there and there are a lot of twists one could put into them. A modern take on some? That’s usually the easiest to write. Maybe a different time setting, like future? Or even perhaps thinking out of the box, or out of this world. 

I have a huge fascination for space exploration and find games that teach others about such a subject to be pretty much the coolest. I’ve been trying to take some fairy tales and throwing them into a Sci-Fi esque setting which seems to change them quite a bit but certainly keeps the overall theme. Plus it makes it more interesting! I do need to think and process a lot more, and perhaps go even further but for now that’s how my process is going.

Option 2:

A new game I played is Assassin’s Creed Valhalla since it’d just come out a few days ago. I’ve played every other Assassin’s Creed game before this so watching the series grow and change depending on the player reviews is very important to a Game Designer I believe. Not only are they getting “play-testing” reviews from the finished product, but also they are learning what works and what doesn’t work the a story.

This game in particular is very keen on making the player FEEL like a viking. More so than the other Assassin’s Creed games. For example, in more of the other games you are focusing on your personal story and conquest, both as whatever time period you are from and as an assassin. However, in Valhalla there is a much larger focus on treating you like a viking. The famous “hidden blade” is ont he outside rather than hidden like usual. You are doing raids with your viking crew and the fighting style is absolutely brutal. I haven’t finished the game yet but so far that is the feeling I believe they are trying to accomplish. 

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Bronze

Option 1:

This week was actually a fun week for me. I enjoy analyzing games and this week we did analyzing for Game Design Project 3. My partner and I chose to analyze and write about Assassin’s Creed(strictly the first game). Making a paper prototype was actually the best for it too. We really loved the idea and making it that he could practically imagine the creators had done the same before implementing it. 

When I learned about the Bartle Player Types I immediately hopped into my friend group on Discord and started asking them questions to put them in each player type. Turns out almost everyone fit into the Achiever or the Killer. Though I also realized while testing my friends that even if most people fit in those two types, almost everyone leaned to another side as well. (I, for example, am mostly an Achiever but I also fit into the Explorer category in some aspects.) 

Option 2:  

This week I was able to play Pikmin 3 Deluxe with my roommate. I received the game as a gift and was absolutely ecstatic. I played the original Pikmin 1 and 2 prior to this one so I did know what to expect and what I was literally walking into. However, I absolutely love the feel of this game. It really takes a lot of traits from different games and mushes into one. Such as simulators. You raise little Pikmin and create more and more, but it also combines puzzling.

The feeling of the game itself however is rather anxiety inducing. It is timed everyday which would put natural fear in any player, since being timed always has consequences (such as getting your Pikmin eaten if you don’t return to the ship in time.) Not only that but failing puzzles also has dire consequences(such as Pikmin falling into the water and drowning.) But besides the feeling of anxiety it also has a weird balance of serenity and contemplation. When sending your Pikmin on little non-life threatening missions it can be nice to relax and watch. But also you get to choose who gets the food or who gets the honey or who’s going to carry what back. The game seems to send players on a good variety of emotions. 

[sherrborg]

Game Design 3: Physical Prototype of a Digital Game

For this project, my partner Emily Moritz and I decided to look at a game we both greatly enjoy: Assassin’s Creed (2008). Not only do we both really like this game, but we know quite a lot about it, and thought it would be both fun and interesting to dissect the game and work backwards from the beginning to imagine how the developers could have come up with some of the really interesting mechanics present in the final game.

First we took a look at the Bartle Player types and which of these types would find the most joy in Assassin’s Creed. We detailed and explained each type in a Google doc located [HERE].

After that, we began our work on our Game Design Document where we outlined and went in depth with the game, how it functions, and how it appeals to players with it’s gameplay and visuals, complete with an Art Style Guide as well. You can find the full Google doc with all the accompanying information [HERE].

Together, we brainstormed quite a lot about what to make for the paper prototype. What did we feel like the most important mechanic in the game was? Surely, in a game called Assassin’s Creed, the killing and fighting would be the most important, right? Well, maybe not so. We thought that the mechanic of climbing was one of if not the most important mechanic in the game. Not only is it a puzzle to get up any building you see, it also provides you great vantage points to follow people, assassinate people, and also to view your map and the city you are in. Below, we created a video for the paper prototype we created for this mechanic.

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Violet

Option 1: 

This week we learned about the importance of playtesting in gaming development. I had quite a bit of prior knowledge when it came to playtesting prior to this week since I am signed up for EAs playtesting. Thought the importance of playtesting was never exactly specified to me quite as much. Given that it is “the most important step” of game development. I originally thought that making the game appealing was the most important considering you have to pull people in to actually play it.

But after some reflecting I completely understand why playtesting is the most important. You make games in order for people to play, and if they can’t understand it or don’t enjoy it then the game isn’t going to be good. Games are made to be played and much like testing food for food safety, you need to test your game too. A developer will be unable to detect the mistakes they made usually because they know the ins and outs of the game. They understand everything about the game. But for playtesting you grab someone that knows nothing about the particular game and see if they can play it just fine. What do they think? What do they like about it? What do they hate about it? Much like customer feedback, it’s very important to get the unbiased response from your consumer. 

Option 2:

I got together(online) with a few friends and played Minecraft for the first time. A couple of my friends had never played it before either but we did have an expert on our team (expert Minecrafter that is). I never had the explicit interest in playing the game when I was younger but now that I tried I can absolutely understand the appeal of the game. Minecraft is an open-world sandbox type game, there are enemies and open-world hazards as well as collectables and just a bunch of stuff to do. The programming for Minecraft is also really cool but that’s not exactly what I’m reflecting on for this assignment. (Though it was fun to think about what they put into it considering I have a big interest in programming) 

I enjoyed the play of the game, running around pretty much aimlessly, or you could give yourself an aim. Want to find a village? Cool. Want to fight monsters? Also cool. Want to build yourself a castle in the sky? Totally dope. The game plays on a players imagination and creativity which I find absolutely perfect for the younger age group it is dedicated to. Many children don’t get chances to test out their imagination or even get to release their creativity. Minecraft allows so many different ways to create so many different things. I did some research after playing, watched some videos of people building all sorts of things and honestly I was in awe. 

( Source: https://www.minecraft.net/sv-se/article/big-city-life “MattuFin” )

Above is just one example of what people can do in this game. It’s beautiful and absolutely amazing. This game can help cultivate other future game developers.

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Indigo

Option 2 - 

This week was rather difficult for me to find a new game to play because I’d been away and then I got a little sick (Scary this year..). But a new game did come out on my birthday! Transformers: Battlegrounds! I only go to play a little bit of it since it’s been hard for me to stay away, but what I did play I found it relatively enjoyable. The game itself is a turn-based Tactical strategy game with a mostly bird’s eye view of each map. I enjoy these kinds of games quite a bit so gameplay wise I did have fun. However, this game did have a lot of does and don’ts.

Firstly, I do like the idea of the game giving the player a REASON why they are in a bird’s eye view instead of just giving you the view and letting your imagination figure it out. I also like the actual art style of the game, it’s simple with simple models and simple sprites for dialogue but it’s also fun and cute. I also like how despite being a human, the game gives you this sense of importance like most Tactical Strategy games, where every chose depends solely on how you approach it. 

My don’ts are how the game pushes you through the story, I’m not very far but if I knew nothing about Transformers before going into this I’d be completely lost. The tutorial level was quick but the more levels I played the more the entire game itself felt like a tutorial level. I believe this game is more set for children (Naturally), which might be why I’m not as excited playing it as I’d hoped. Transformers: Battlegrounds seems to limit it’s player base by focusing on their child fans rather than most of their fans as a whole. 

Option 3 - 

Go to this website https://wordcounter.net/random-word-generator (Links to an external site.) Pick one of the 5 words that are randomly generated. Add it to your card game! Remember to reflect on this exercise for your dev.log

This exercise was fun and reminded me a lot about what my grandmother did for me when I was homeschooled. Everyday she’s set up random prompts with random words and have me write a short story as fast as I could. Thought I wasn’t timed with this, I took the same approach. The words I got, I branched out and decided what they could BECOME instead of what they ARE. Such as, Apple. I started with Apple, went to fruit, then red and then trees. Making a mind map such as that helped me come up with all sorts of ideas!

Throwing it into a physical practical card game was a bit harder, I’m more used to making stories but that’s not a bad thing. I was able to mix the story relevance with that of a physical gameplay. 

[sherrborg]

Game Design 2: Modified Board Game

The board game we decided to create for this weeks project is a modification off the board game Sorry! 

Below is the rules for Sorry! so you can understand and recognize these rules before you see our modified version:

After learning and really thinking about the rules of Sorry! we decided to change it up quite a bit! Sorry! is a game of competition or “Sweet sweet revenge,” as it says on the box. Instead, we decided to make a game completely the opposite. 

More on the evaluation here: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1icUmyUdX9tkrEM3zGmFsVmg3Bi1-3R38dR0900t1izQ

Kingdoms is a team based 4-player game where you work completely together in order to win. There are no losers here.

It’s important to understand the rules that way you can learn how we were able to change up such a competitive game, here is the rules page: 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bOiXZcNwBrfu1oZfQSHDgwfeHyyE-opf0OJKjgHZ3NE/edit

We also decided to make a video so it was easier to visualize how exactly the rules play out:

Enjoy, the Transformers sure did! 

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Blue

Option 1:

This week I had to work on a board game, modify it and change its aesthetic. This project was a bit harder than the last because I am used to thinking up things from scratch rather than working in a more constrained environment. I feel this was really good practice and tried to pretend the board game I started with was more like a client. I also decided to make this a group project with another student in my class, which I found to be excellent practice. We had to agree on a concept and idea while also working in the constraints of the board. It was nice to have another head with another set of opinions to work with. 

Objectively, in order to change a game like Sorry! into a different aesthetic style was pretty difficult. In the end with both decided that “Fellowship.” would be a perfect 180 to the usual “Challenge” and “Competition” of Sorry! It also felt nice to think about the people who might actually play our new version of the game, and perhaps if we wanted to we could completely build the game up without Sorry! being part of the constraints. Regardless, I like the change in aesthetic we decided and I enjoy the new game. I like working with my fellow players rather than working against them.

Option 2: 

That being said, this week I also tried out a plethora of new board games too. But I’ve decided to focus on only one of the board games. “Clue” is murder mystery the board game and it’s a wonder why I’ve never gotten to play it before! Mystery is practically my favorite genre and trying to solve problems (specifically something as intense as murder) entertains me so greatly. I played a lot with my partner this week and I won each time. It was thrilling! It really made me think how intense board games really could get.

The feeling this game gives me is a mix of anxiety, rush and excitement. I want to catch the killer before anyone else but I need to be cautious because if I’m wrong I will lose. There is sort of a way to work with the other player but it’s more fun to play mind games with them. In the end, we never really got frustrated but intrigued. Each time the killer, where they did it and with what was different so it kept a level of excitement and re-playability that I believe is important for board games specifically. 

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Teal

Option 2:

Took a different approach this week and tried out a new free mobile app game called Genshin Impact. Though the game is a free to play mobile app it is also available on PC and PS4(Which is what I play it on). The game is a combination of a Gacha style and Open-world style RPG. A Gacha game is sort of like gambling, with a RNG(Random Number Generator) you hope to get the character or weapon you desire. The open-world aspect of this game is very rare for free-to-play games so I really had to try it out. Unfortunately, I did get addicted pretty quickly, open-world games have been pretty popular with players since games like Mario 64(Which I would sort of consider open world since you can do pretty much whatever you want). But combining the newer sensation of Gacha games really caught the attention of a lot of players. 

The game itself makes me feel great as I play it, I wonder the world, collect items, fight enemies and try my luck at the gacha(Though I’ve yet to get lucky...). Gacha games like to play on people’s addictions and desire for the best and to be the best. The game has gotten me in a similar way because I really want a certain character but I’m determined to keep it Free to play. There is a lot of chunk in this game too, there is a story and it’s not bad at all, but you can spend hours doing absolutely none of that. Which increases the potential play time exponentially. I would like to put this feature of so many side quests and so many things to do in a game I’m creating because then people won’t be playing it for a few hours and then put it down. 

Option 3: 

Pick one of these activities: snowball fight; staring in a school play; working at a theme park;> Now, brainstorm a game that could create this experience. List the parts of your experience are essential. List the aspects of your experience can be dropped from the game. Describe a game or list the key features of a game that would create this experience. Remember to reflect on this exercise for your dev.log

So for this I actually chose to do a snowball fight. I’ve played games where I’m in a school and I’ve played roller coaster tycoon many times. But I haven’t really played many games where snowball fight is one of the features. In order to begin thinking about this I thought about many different ways to implement this. It could be the beginning of a long detailed story where you play snowball with your friends or family then something happens. Or the game itself is focused solely on the snowball fighting, much like a FPS but with snow! Kind of family friendly like Splatoon. Or even with Splatoon it could be a level where you fight with snow. But then I decided to leave the virtual space and try and do a snowball fight with a board game. 

Basically, including something simply like a snowball fight, working at a theme park or just setting up for a school play, these are all examples of something ordinary. It makes the game that you are playing more relatable, more human. (Even if some of us have never seen snow). The feeling of being ‘normal’ or doing something ‘normal’ may seem boring to an average player but also can the gaming experience more organic. At lot of games, such as Persona, have you living as a student while also doing wacky other adventures. Having a familiarity like school, even if you don’t like school, sets a sort of calming state. Like, yes I know what this is, I understand what this is. I think it can be important for games to have something like this, even if it’s small like eating something when your characters hungry. 

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Green

Option 2: 

This week I was able to visit my grandmother and it made me very happy since I hadn’t seen her in a long time. We did a lot of catching up and I asked her about some games she knows, which is how I learned how to play Cribbage! Cribbage is a card/board game typically played with 2 people but can be played with about 6. If there are 6 players, you can do teams, 2 people on each team making 3 teams in total. The game is a very mathematical oriented game, you need to count up points then move pegs on the game “board” until you reach the end. 

The game itself seems pretty complicated at first, and I had to play a few rounds open handed just to get all the rules. I really wouldn’t recommend it to younger audiences but teenagers all the way to seniors can enjoy this game thoroughly. Despite the pegs only moving a couple times a round, the design of the board makes you feel like you are running a race track. There is also a line near the center of the track called S, which my Grandmother calls the skunk line. If you win and your opponent doesn’t cross that line than you “skunked them.” Which basically means they stink! Adding that little bit to the board actually turns a normal sore winner into an even BIGGER sore winner! And vice versa to the sore losers. The game lasts for quite awhile and it does help you count math a lot faster since you need to almost immediately know which cards add up to 15 in order to make points. There are a lot of other ways to make points as well but I couldn’t list all the rules on this page and it still fit comfortably. ( https://cardgames.io/cribbage/ scroll down for the rules)

Overall, the game is incredibly competitive and it’s so common to cheat in the game that it’s called haulin’ timber. According to my Grandmother, the game was originally made for sailors so their pieces wouldn’t fall of the table when the boat rocked. 

Option 3:

Just after the 'invitation to play' occurs before a game, players must decide who will go first. In CandyLand, the first player has the advantage, so the rules require the youngest player to go first. Other games advantage (or disadvantage) the first player in different ways. Make a list of 10 different ways you can determine who will go first in a board game. Then reflect on this exercise for your devlog. What did you learn? Which method would you prefer as a player? Consider including your favorite from this list or another innovative method you think of later in your next Game Design Assignment.

1. Left of the Dealer goes first 2. Dealer goes first 3. Person with the highest card goes first 4. Roll a dice and person with the highest number goes first 5. Flip a coin (for 2 players)  6. Player votes (for more than 2 players) 7. In chess or checkers the “white pieces” go first 8. Spin a bottle 9. Pick a number 1 - 10  10. Rock Paper Scissors

After some thought these were the first 10 ways I could think of to determine who would go first in a game. After thinking about it though, there really are a lot of different ways and not all of them are that good. Who ever decided left of the dealer? And spinning the bottle sometimes it lands in the middle between two people. With pick a number, someone might cheat to get someone else to go before them. Most of these things would be human error which is very common in society. 

Personally, my favorite way to determine who goes first is to determine the game itself. I think it’s very smart of games to include who goes first in a game, not let the humans themselves determine. Like in chess or checkers, you pick a piece randomly and that will determine who goes first. It’s very hard to cheat that way. When I make a board game I think I will include how to choose a starting player instead of a potential Flip the Coin situation. 

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Yellow

Option 1:

This week we worked on our Game Design 1 project, the Card Game! Honestly, for me this was a little harder to accomplish than I’d like it to be. I originally had an idea where I wouldn’t use the cards in their traditional sense and make a physical card building tower game since I used to do that a lot as a kid. But I unfortunately couldn’t figure out a way to be competitive and win so I did the next best thing! 

Mathematics was always my boon, it always came so easy for me and I think that’s partly because I didn’t learn basic math with numbers but with food like M&Ms. Though cards do have numbers, they also have colors and little symbols you can physically count in case you don’t know the number off the top of your head. I also thought it’d be good to add a way to subtract points from your score, subtraction is just addition but backwards though I know a lot of people struggle with it. Hopefully having to subtract ones and fives will help people relax a little more when it comes to subtraction, get used to thinking WITH subtractions instead of against.

I also found this game to be fun for those that do know basic math pretty easily, it becomes a fun counting game and you could potentially “screw” over your opponent by them accidentally picking the Joker card from your deck. Overall, I tried to think of an easy game that could teach kids and stimulate them while still entertaining the competitive streak of adults. 

Option 2:

I finally FINALLY got Among Us this week (even though it’s only 5 dollars, I just have social anxiety). i absolutely adore the game, it reminds me a lot of Werewolf/Mafia/Witch-hunt or whatever other version of finding the “Impostor” among us is. I do love those kinds games and it really gets the brain working! It makes any player feel like their own brand of detective solving murder cases where everyone is ready to lie to you. Or alternatively if you happen to get the “Impostor” role, you can sabotage or kill your other crewmates. 

Basically, the goal of the game tends to be outsmarting your fellow player, whether it be doing some great detective work or great ...murder work? Even though a lot of people tend to think finding out who’s lying is the best way to play, I’ve find that who is telling the truth to be the easiest way to go about it. If you know who’s telling the truth you will never have to worry about them lying for that round. Besides that though, this game really does make you anxious, testing how well you work under pressure and how well you can work with others. A great run is now ejecting any of your fellow crewmates but you can still win by doing so. Luckily, a crewmate who’s died can still play and help complete tasks so i think a lot of team work is required to make the game really fun. But considering it’s an online only game it is sometimes hard to get decent players. 

[sherrborg]

Game Design 1 - Card Game

Rules Page can be found here:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XIBOK2Dr9lsmKus_4dObKGmaaZ-4GHpr3XucU2Q58fM/

Stack 200 is a simple mathematics card game made for all ages. The game consists of only 2 players and can have an undetermined amount of rounds. The goal of the game is to meet the score of 200 or more. If one wishes for the game to continue on even longer you could do a higher score or if you wish for it to be shorter it can be 100 points. The game itself is flexible.

 In order to properly play the game you will need 52 cards plus 2 Joker cards. The Joker cards are required to make the game a little more difficult. There will also be a scoring sheet so you can keep track of how many points you have. 

Above is a set up of how the game looks(Though each hand will be hidden instead of shown like above). The top face down deck is the “Discard pile,” the bottom face down deck is the “Pick-up pile.” After each round you will discard your hands into the Discard pile and at the start of each round the dealer will deal 5 cards each from the Pick-up pile. The left hand is my hand and the right hand is my friend Jazzy’s hand. In my hand I have a total score of 34. This is because there is a 10, 2 face cards, a 5 and an Ace. (Face cards = 10 and Aces = -1) So I would add 34 to my score. 

Jazzy here has a score of 36 because of 1 face card, 2 eights, a seven and a three. Jazzy would then add 36 to her score as shown below. 

Uh oh, Jazzy is winning with a 70 and I’m 10 points behind! After we discard our hands to the Discard pile. Jazzy shuffles and deals this next hand so that means I can pick up a card from the Pick-up pile and decide to keep it or not. But I picked up a two...Which isn’t all that great. So I decide to discard my two to the Discard pile. Now that’s done we both look at our hands. Before we show each hand off we each choose a random card from each other’s hand to add to our own. 

Here’s our hands

Oh ... The card I got was a Joker. The Joker card is the worst! Even though I could have points the Joker card takes all my points and even takes 5 points away from my overall score. Meanwhile Jazzy’s hand gets a total of 27 points added to her score.

Maaaybe I could turn it around. but perhaps you should try it out, see if you can get to 200 first and win! 

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Orange

Option 2: 

I’m a huge Transformers fan but I have never been able to get my hands on the Transformers: Fall of Cybertron by High Moon Studios. It’s probably the most highly rated Transformers game ever made so it really wasn’t easy to find. The game is a third-person based shooter with very cool added mechanics to fit the Transformers universe (Like you can transform pretty much whenever you want I love it). Even if you aren’t interested in Transformers, this game sets you in a beautifully crafted Cybertron like I’ve never seen. The beginning of course has a tutorial mode like any other game in the world, but it’s unique and fun. Instead of simply telling you how to execute moves, the Autobot Medic Ratchet is testing you since you’d just blown up.

The game itself makes me feel like I really stepped into the environment it was attempting to create. Many games put the player in a world but few really craft every detail to make you feel like you are really there. Plus, each transition to the different chapters flows by seamlessly, I didn’t even realize I was in a different chapter until I was in chapter 4. Being able to make a game with the environmental feel as this game is a real must for me. That doesn’t mean amazing graphics though, it means exceptional story telling and dialogue that doesn’t really break the fourth wall(though that CAN be fun sometimes). 

Option 3:

I don’t like the phrasing of “what is an antiracist game?” because it sort of implies that antiracism is some political movement. In reality being antiracist is just being a decent human being. Racism runs rampant in every country and every person who is racist is genuinely a prick 100%. Back to the question though, an “antiracist” game I believe would be best made by a person of color. I would consider developers that take a step back, allow POC to take the reigns on a topic they personally are affected by every single day of their lives. The best way for someone to understand another person’s POV is to be in that person’s shoes. I don’t believe I could accurate make a game representing a black character without having a black person helping me or just making it themselves.

An idea I could use for an “antiracist” game would be the housing market. I’ve grown up poor and I’ve seen how black people are treated in these neighborhoods as well as richer neighborhoods. But there is also a society issue with housing and POC people. After the Civil War racism did not just disappear and it didn’t even become more hidden. When white people were given homes and neighborhoods they could choose their neighbors and many did not choose black people. Plus, those white people got to have nice schools in their towns which increased the value of homes and market blew up. While places that black people had did the exact opposite, because racism still controlled(and still does control) our society. A game based on this would be an “unfair” game but an accurate one. If you started in the poor neighborhood and you wanted to get to the nicer neighborhood well... too bad. If people were to experience such unfairness in a little game they would hopefully open their eyes to the reality of the game. That this is and is still happening to people all over. 

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Red

Option 1: 

This week really sat with me in a different way than the week before. Yeah we as Game Designers work hard and create products for people to consume. But It’s not just that, being a Game Designer has responsibility. It’s not just, here’s a game enjoy! It’s, here’s a game and much like art in a museum it has a meaning it has a purpose. Sure the meaning and purpose may be interpreted differently per person, but it’s up to us, the creators, to make sure that the meaning is overall positive. Game Designers have the power to shape the world and the world’s view. 

Much like “Gaming for Understand,” and the suggested article “Using Board Games to Help Fight and Understand Bias,” we as Game Designers can educate people in ways they WANT to be educated. The article says that people don’t like to be forced to learn but when entertained they learn better/willing to learn. I think this is very important, because instead of making the next AAA FPS game I could make a game that could HELP the world. I really never thought about a Game Designer as someone who could make such a huge difference but really thinking back on it much like Brenda Romero’s child, I also learned better when it came to games. My grandmother used to teach me difficult concepts with M&Ms actually! 

But creating games with such a deep meaning, with a chance the change someone’s view or even expand someone’s view, means a lot to me. My race is white, I could never fully understand the difficulties of other minorities but due to my Jewish heritage I could somewhat empathize. I was raised a certain way that would hide my heritage but at home I could be proud of it. Though when I went to school(In the deep South mind you) we were taught a few things but very little did it ever delve into exactly what minorities faced in America and around the world. In fact most teachers glossed over it like it meant nothing at all. But since I was taught personally about slavery and the Holocaust growing up, I knew this was wrong, I knew it was wrong that so many students would never understand the full extent of what had really happened. But If I could create a game, make the experience of learning interactive perhaps people would be much more interested in learning about it all. I even have a personalized story of my Great Grandmother escaping the Holocaust as a poor pregnant Jewish woman on her own with 3 kids. Perhaps being in her shoes would help open other people’s minds. 

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Option 2: 

For the game I tried out this week I stepped out of my comfort zone with virtual gaming and took a dive into physical games, specifically a card game called Magic The Gathering. My roommate is a huge fan and plays with a lot of different people every week(Due to COVID I avoid going to those sorts of things). This week he taught me how to play the game and even played a few rounds against me (non-open handed). Luckily, I quickly caught on to the rules and mechanics of the game since I use to play a lot of the Yu-gi-oh card game as a kid. Though due to my reading disability my roommate did have to walk me through a lot of the meanings for descriptions.

Once I got the hang of it though, the game turned out to be a lot more fun than I had originally anticipated! Why was that though? I believe it’s because of the competitive streak card games build in a person. I desired to win despite not even understanding how to yet. And as my points got lower in the battle, I got more desperate, took chances and risks to try and get that underdog win. Maybe it’s a survival instinct humans have, but I think it’s important to understand that. Sure I enjoy non-competitive games as much as the next person but even in non-competitive games I still find a way to make myself seem better. For example, Animal Crossing New Horizons(I played last week) I was determined to have the best looking Island. For what? No reason other than just to be the best! I believe most card games tend to be like that, and in that moment of desperation against my roommate yes I did win the game on my first try! 

[sherrborg]

dev.log entry Magenta

Option 1:

You need to be a hard worker, dedicated to your craft and the creation of it. I personally falter in reading aspects, a lot of times I need help on that front, but as a Game Designer it’s important I understand the concepts. Though the aesthetics of a game are important, the player experience is the main focus of a Game Designer. The way a player can interact with your game, that’s what sets it different from a drawing, a painting, a sculpture or a website.

It’s been hard for me to consider Game Design simply as an art form. Though I do understand that the aesthetics of Game Design would be considered art. Art is still such a broad term so I do understand why it would be called an art, but Game Design has so many twists and turns, so many different factors in it. It’s like a combination of science, mathematics, poetry, interaction and design. 

Option 2: 

I tend to buy a lot of games, I go through games very fast, it’s my passion as well as most of my families passion. However, I never got a chance to play the new Animal Crossing New Horizons game until recently. The last Animal Crossing game I ever played was the original GameCube one but New Horizons has an entirely new feel to it. If you were to play both games separately you wouldn’t even believe they were from the same game series. 

In New Horizons you own your own island and build, design and pretty much create what you want. It’s incredible what you can put in the game and it really helps get those inspiration juices flowing! I really love the customization that New Horizons can offer, I’ve seen other players spend 100s of hours working on their island only to decide they want to do something else and completely start over. 

Even though on the outside that sounds convoluted and complicated, I strive to have a game that has THAT much replay value. That much creativity and customization in a game might be too much for what I would want to make, but I would like to take some small bits and do a much smaller amount of customization. After finally playing the game myself I truly feel why it’s become so popular, the game is addicting!!