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 According to my Grandmother, the game was originally made for sailors so their pieces wouldn’t fall of the table when the boat rocked.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.