Ava Matthews CAGD 170

  Play testers show-off their 45 second collaborative drawings from my group's Sketch Express! For this unit, I play-tested Group 5, Group 4, Group 12, Group 11 and Group 10's games.  Group 12's is a survival game pitting humans against zombies. The formal elements of this game really stood out to me. They are as follows: Challenge The difficulty in this game lies in placing your components.  If you're a human, do you hide in a few rooms and bar off zombies, or do you throw yourself out as bait?  If you're a zombie, do you arrange your fleets with the weakest or strongest at the front?  This lays the foundation for the rest of the game.  Play I found the use of a ruler to control the distance each component can travel really interesting.  It made the game feel like a war-simulation game without being nearly as strict or complicated. It was also the part of the game that required the most playtesting and tweaking, which also made it the most compelling ...

 Group 9's Sketch Express is a quick and easy game for creatives. Players take turns drawing a random prompt using the other player's scribble. To make things more interesting, the player only has 45 seconds to finish while the other player guesses the prompt for points.  The idea of this game came from an exercise I used to do in an old art class.  The time limit and point system were added to to gamify the exercise.  Distinguishing the roles of player one and two and making it clear they switched took some careful wording; Play-tester interpretations will be vital in perfecting it.  A key part of the initial playtest was determining how much time each player should receive to draw.  The initial rule sheet allotted one minute. We decided this was too long and made guessing too easy. We tested 45 seconds, 30 seconds, and even 15 seconds before settling on 45.  The point system took a lot of adjusting and was the most difficult aspect of the design pro...

  Group 1’s Marshmallow Mania Marshmallow Mania is a fighting game for young kids that utilizes dice rolls and a rock-paper-scissors mechanic. Each player has 5 characters they must lead to the opposing side by rolling. When they collide with their opponent, they must fight by throwing down one of three cards; whoever loses gets pushed back, halting their succession to victory. Whoever controls the entire opposite side of the board first wins.  The game is fast and easy to understand, making it perfect for kids in elementary and middle school. It is best suited for competitive types, as the core mechanic is overcoming an opponent.  There was some miscommunication with the layout of the board and the amount of cards/characters. It was quickly and easily resolved, however.  Tasks were generally completed without issue though we occasionally did not have as quick of a jump on assignments as I would have preferred.  We were able to overcome the miscommunication duri...

  Unit 2 Game Playtests -Racing/magic/elementary (Group 4) -Rhythm/fast food/30-40 (Group 5) -Simulation/artillery/20-30 (Group 6) -Advergame/marshmallows/15-20 (Group 8) -Sports/ants (Group 10) The Formal Elements of Group 6’s Simulation Artillery game  Players -2 players in the age group of 20-30   -Akin to chess and Risk to fit the age range Objectives -Outwit and overcome your opponent -Build your deck and army accordingly to navigate the board and gain ammunition. -Constructing the optimal army is key to winning. Procedures -Both players perform the same procedures: collecting your team and moving them  according to the given conventions  -Ex: generals can only move around the perimeter of the board -Players alternate each turn, nothing allows the players to skip or multiply turns. -Procedures are entirely placement of assets or attacking.  Rules & Resources -Only 4 turrets and 1 general are allowed per player. Troops and tanks are unlimi...

  MARSHMALLOW MANIA! A board game by Group 1 Marshmallows face head to head in this fast-paced fighting board game.  -We wanted to capture the exciting gameplay of fighting games without overcomplicating the board.      -The first step was conducting research on other games with a similar premise and expanding on ideas we liked or fixing ideas we didn't care for.  -Finding the sweet spot between making the game interesting but keeping it simple was our biggest hurdle.     -We added a card-building element instead of random draw to add interest.      -We removed a more complicated special character-card element because it made the game too confusing.  Players pick their favorite character, then build their deck.  Pictured here is the expanded deck, before we decided to cut down the number of cards from 10 of each type to 1 of each type (per deck). This allowed for faster gameplay.  Both players rolled a 3.  The Pu...

  Group 7: Solitaire Mod In this version of solitaire, the player is given 3 unique turns. For the first 2 turns, the player rolls two dice, multiplies their values, and plays for that many moves. The final turn is a 2-minute free-for-all.  This is a one player game best suited for achiever and challenger player types, as it requires quick wits and strategy to completely satisfy the requirements. It goes by quickly, but the player should feel compelled to play multiple times until they can win under the restraints.  Our biggest development hurdle was defining a “move”. Playtesters were consistently unclear on what counted as a move, and the rule sheet needed to be repeatedly tweaked accordingly.  Our group was on top of making these necessary changes. They were reliably ready to find solutions immediately.  We reworded and condensed the rule sheet according to the grievances expressed by the playtesters.  In the future, I would playtest earlier and more oft...