Final Game Playtesting

A.      The play-testers sit down play the game from the starting screen. They play as many times as they want then after they answer the playtesting questions:

·         What did you like about the game?

·         What didn’t you like about the game?

·         Any suggestions for improvement?

·         Did the character move too quick/ slow/ just right?

·         Were there enough bombs being dropped at once?

·         Was the falling/ explosion rate of the bombs too fast/ slow/ just right?

B.      Observations: On the starting screen they pressed the “No” button multiple times so I removed it. They tended to press the WASD buttons once a time not holding it down. Seemed like they didn’t realize you could run under falling bombs.

Final Game Part 2

Background

Falling Bomb

Exploding Bomb

Player

Game Mock-Up

Exercise: Connect 4

Group Members: Nick Sundermeyer, Logan Clark, Andrew Nixon

Observations: There wasn’t much difference between connect 4 on the boards of varying size.

Game of Choice: The version that was connect 5 instead of connect 4.

Final Game Part 1

Trump’s Media Offensive

By Brad Tully and Peter Taggart

Concept

          The player is a journalist. To start the game, you are asked a simple question: Write a negative story about Trump? If the player hits no it closes the game. If you hit yes you anger Trump so much that you get sucked into his dream world that night where he tries to kill you by dropping bombs from the sky. Your goal as the player is simple, avoid the bombs for as long as possible. You gain points for each bomb survived.

Fear: Construction Paper/ Digital Art Exercise

Paper Design

Digital Recreation

Digital Redesigned

Chapter 8 Summary

                Digital prototypes are critical for making digital games. They shouldn’t be complete projects, should have minimal art, and incomplete gameplay. Prototypes are broken into four categories. One, mechanics: these are discrete features of the formal aspects of games. They can sometimes be tested with a physical prototype. Two aesthetics: the visual and dramatic elements. The right amount should be tested, not too much only important elements. Three kinesthetic: the “feel good” part of the game, the control scheme, the interface. Four technology: the software, it doesn’t have to be written in the final programming language or even directly useable.

                Control schemes are important for the feel of the game. They should be simple and accessible as well as work appropriately with the type of controller used. View point is how the player sees the character/ game. It has a large impact on the gameplay and system. There are multiple types of viewpoints; overhead, side, isometric, first person and third person.

                Things to keep in mind when making a game: form follows function. This means why are you making the game and how is it innovative. Metaphors: how are you going to make interfaces that represent parts of the game for example, health. Visualization: use natural mapping to make it feel normal. Grouping features: what goes together should be grouped together. Consistency: keep certain buttons in the same place. Feedback: visual/ aural elements when the player does something. When making games, you must choose the language and game engine. I found it interesting that you don’t have to make a prototype in the final game language/ engine and that it can be very bare bones. I don’t have any questions for this reading it is straightforward. 

Paper Game 3: Dog Pound

Nick Sundermeyer, Jake Krachman, Brad Tully, Peter Valasares, Logan Clark

Paper Game 3: “Dog Pound”

1) A photo of your game board, tokens, cards, etc as appropriate

2) Copy of rulesheet

Setup

1. One player, the dog catcher, starts on the end of the board on the premarked space
2. The other player places the eight dog pieces in the spaces around the edges of the board. There can be multiple people playing the dog side, and they simply divide the dogs evenly among them and take turns controlling their dog pieces
3. Shuffle and place the event/powerup cards in a draw pile next to the board

Turns and Movement

1. Each turn, the dog side rolls a single 6-sided die and each dog on the team may move the number of spaces on the die
2. Each turn, the the dog catcher rolls two 6-sided dice and may move the total number of spaces that they roll
3. The dog catcher moves first, and from then on players take turns clockwise
4. If the dog catcher lands on the space of one of the dogs, the dog in question rolls a 6-sided die. If they roll a 6, the dog escapes and continues to move on their next turn, otherwise the dog is caught and placed in the pound
5. If a dog is able to land on the dog catcher’s space during its turn, the dog attacks the dog catcher. Dog catcher rolls a 6-sided die, if they roll a 1 they are sent back to their starting space, otherwise play continues as normal

Special Spaces

1. Alleys - thin paths that move through buildings, only dogs may move through these, and it takes two movement spaces to move from one end of the alley to the other
2. Question marks - when the dog catcher lands on one of these spaces, they draw from the top of the events/powerups deck (dogs may not draw cards)
1. If the player draws a powerup card, they keep the card in their hand and do not show it to the other player until they play it at any time during one of their turns
2. If the player draws an event card, they play the card immediately and the effect on the card occurs
3. Traps - when the dog catcher uses a trap card, they leave a trap piece behind them on one of the board spaces. Any dog piece landing on the trap loses its next turn, and the trap is destroyed when it is tripped

The Pound

1. When dogs get caught by the dog catcher they are placed in the pound (paper box)
2. Once three dogs are in the pound, any additional dogs that are caught and placed in the pound die permanently due to overcrowding and are placed in the graveyard
3. If a free dog is able to move to the space adjacent to the pound, the dog may use its turn to free one of the dogs in the pound. When a dog is freed it starts at the space adjacent to the pound

Win Conditions

1. The dog team wins if at least half of the dogs escape to the safe areas
2. The dog catcher wins if half the dog are killed
3. Playtesting sheet from before class

Playtested by: Harold Murphy and Alex Simpson

What was not clear from the rules?

We were a little confused on where to place the dog’s after they were released from the pound.

How the players move the dog pieces.

What did you like about the game?

The concept and the balance of the dogs vs catcher, also how the dog could escape from the catcher or put them back to the start with a little luck!

What did you not like about the game?

The board size and sometimes the dogs feel a little under powered.

What changes would you suggest to make it more fun?

Increase the board size and add special spots!

The game is very bland with no interaction other than just moving on the board.

What did you learn from the game?

Dog pounds aren’t a glorious place and stray dogs may end up dying there if none of them get adopted in time.

Did playing of the game make you more aware of the issue? Did it change your thinking or reveal something about the issue that you had not really thought about before?

I never really thought about dog pounds before.

What suggestions do you have to improve the game or better deliver the message?

Make the board bigger, clarify some rules.

Changed as a result of playtest:

Made the board larger with mores spaces. Clarified some unclear rules with movement and placement of pieces.  Also added special spots on the board.

4) A paragraph explaining what you changed as a result of your outside-of-class-playtesting

Our outside-of-class playtesters liked the game, but our primary issue was unclear rules as well as a bit of a lack of interaction. We refined our rules a lot and made it much more clear how exactly the movement and different player roles worked. We also made the board a bit bigger to allow for more strategy. The playtesters also complained about bland interactions, so we added more of the powerup/event cards to give the dog catcher more options. I think the playtesters really helped us to refine our game a lot, because it definitely started out a bit too simple and also didn’t push our message about pounds being overcrowded well enough. We definitely added a lot more depth to the game and made it push the message more because of the playtesters.

5) A paragraph explaining what you learned from the in-class-playtesting and what you would change if you were to iterate on your game design.

During in-class testing, we learned a lot about the time it could take to play are game, the different strategies that could be used, and how players truly felt about our game. During the playtesting we learned of some parts of the rules that could be improved, specifically on how many moves each player can make in a multiple player situation. We also learned that players liked the game and enjoyed the message, but felt punished by the game when playing as the dogs. Since our intention was to teach a message through punishment, we would call the game a success. In the future we would change the rule to make movement and the way that the turns worked more clear.