Week 3

For our third class our group sorted through the core mechanics of the game we chose to create. I was the leader of the day. Our first major change was to add new cards to make the game more in-depth and create a fulfilling player experience, advice that Professor Parks gave us. Cindy came up with the idea to have specific car-based cars, like SUV’s, mini-vans, and sports cars. Sunny bounced off her idea and said that instead of using the car cards as our main supply of cars, they could be special identity cards. We decided to have 3 types of car cards, with two in each category. I thought this would let players compete with one another if they happen to have the same car identities, adding to the player experience. So far, they are minivans, sports cars, and sedans.

Another change we made involved a new game design where the goal is to get to your destination instead of discarding the cards from your hand. We were trying to move our game away from the concept of Uno. To reach your destination, you need to have four cards that are associated with your car identity. So far, we decided on grocery stores, business meetings, and schools as our destinations. I thought we could have a separate pile for using special cards to have an element of choice, but we handled it in a different way. Instead, the main choice a player makes will be collecting your own destination cards or preventing another player from reaching their goal.

During class we also talked about meeting up at least once a week to discuss and add to our game. We want to start making prototypes as soon as possible so that we can play the game between ourselves first and work out the kinks. We figured that spending time outside of class will give us the opportunity to make our game better. We like where our game is headed, and we didn't have any problems deciding anything. Our decisions were made by the group because we agreed on all the new ideas.

Last week our group seemed to kick-off with a great start. We had two new members that joined our group and 3 games to choose from. Christina, Ashley, and I had games to review but Sunny did not have a game due to him just joining our class he was not informed we needed a game idea already. Christina created a game called "Jungle" that initiated game-play much like Uno except everything was Jungle based. The object of the game was to get rid of all of your cards first to be called the winner. Ashley created a game called Stop and Go which had red, yellow, green, ez-pass, and AAA cards. Each card specifically had its own purpose and the mechanics of the game seemed to fit pretty well. The object of Stop and Go was to get rid of all of your cards before anyone else. My game was called Fitness Fanatic which required two teams to play against each other and by the roll of dice people would have to pick up a certain amount of cards and complete all the exercises on each card within the time of a 2 minute hourglass. We had a nice selection of games and we all agreed that Stop and Go seemed fairly easy to understand for everyone. So we settled on Stop and Go for the next few weeks. Our game seems to be pretty simplistic, however, I am not too sure how much we can add to it? 

Overall our team worked well, to be honest we did not argue get angry with one another. I believe it is because we as a group did not have terribly conflicting views.

 

Last week my groups members and I came to class prepared to share our original cards games. However, our one group member Sunny was new to the class, therefore he didn't have a card game to present to the rest of us. Sunny was the leader of our group for the week, which gave him the responsibility to choose what card game we will continue to work on and perfect for the next few weeks. Although Sunny was the group leader, we all gave our opinions and insights helping him choose what game we would adopt. Cindy and Christina both shared how they liked the theme and mechanics to my game Stop N Go. To my surprise my game was chosen. Walking into class I had no idea that mine would be chosen because I never thought I was creative enough to make a game that could successfully be played.
After the group had chosen my game, I decided to establish the parameters of the game that I wished to stay the same during our development progress. I concluded that the goal of discarding all the five cards must not be changed. I also decided that I wanted the general mechanics of each traffic color card to remain the same. Immediately after I set the parameters, my group and I began brainstorming on new changes to make to the game. We all agreed that another special card should be added to the deck. I came up with the idea of having a detour card which causes every player to pick up a card from the deck. Cindy also came up with the idea of increasing the amount of cards you pick up when the red card is discarded, however we haven't decided on the actual amount. In the upcoming weeks we will continue to brainstorm and communicate our ideas to successfully accomplish my original goal; create a strategic game that friends can play with just enough rules to enjoy themselves and have fun.