Expanded Bibliography

12/03/15

Brathwaite, B. and Schreiber, I. (2009). Challenges for game designers. Boston, Mass.: Charles River Media, a part of Course Technology.

scott jon siegel, (2007). How to write rules (without confusing people).. [online] Available at: http://numberless.net/blog/2007/04/09/how-to-write-rules-without-confusing-people/ [Accessed 16 Mar. 2015].

Short, E. (2015). Opinion: Why Time-Management Games Ought To Be Great At Story-telling (And Why They Mostly Aren't). [online] Gamasutra.com. Available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/18769/Opinion_Why_TimeManagement_Games_Ought_To_Be_Great_At_Storytelling_And_Why_They_Mostly_Arent.php [Accessed 16 Mar. 2015].

Trefry, G. (2010). Casual Game Design. Burlington: Elsevier.

Wabshall, M. (2015). ‘Come Out Come Out, Where Ever You Are’. Casual Connect Magazine, pp.36-38.

Design Document

05/03/15

I am making changes to the ancient game Senet for my design document, my game is called Sick Senet. The changes I have implemented are slight but I think have made the game into a war/race game. The game is diffidently more competitive and frustrating depending on the players chosen tactics and play style. 

The first change I have made is the Board Layout. This keeps the same amount of squares but
changes the layout. All the special squares are still on the same number squares (15, 26-­29). This should make the player feel like they are closer to the finish. It does this by making it clearer to see where the players are in relation to the finish. 

The second change I made is I implemented a Capture mechanic. Players can take their opponents counters and add them to their own, creating a stack or adding to it (see third rule ‘Stacking’). Stacks can only capture opponents counters/stacks if their own has a greater number of counters in it. This should create more competitiveness, frustration and further the tactics involved in playing the game.

  

The third change I made is a Stacking mechanic. This rule goes hand in hand with the Capture mechanic. Players can stack their counters to make them more powerful. If one player’s counter stack is greater than the other player’s stack, they over power them.

I also changed how pieces Entering The Board. This change involves all player’s pieces having to enter the board at square one instead of starting along the first two rows on the board at the start of the game. This rule was added after the ‘Capture’ and ‘Stacking’ rules were made, to prevent the layers from capturing each others pieces too early on in game play.  

The results from playing this version of the game showed that these changes force the players to play with more competitiveness. When playing Sick Senet, players became more interested and emotionally invested in the game because of the increased competitiveness in gameplay.

There are still a few slight changes that I think need to be made to iron out little problems but overall I think I have made a good game.

06/03/15

David Parlett visited the university this week and delivered a games workshop in which he concentrated on race games, we were asked to design non digital race games which did not use a dice. David Parlett has won many rewards including a game of the year award.

Games Britannia, Joystick Generation

19/02/15

In the last part of the three part series with Benjamin Wooley, Games Britannia looks at the latest consoles which have led the development of the games of today. He started in the 70s when consoles started to come about and through the 80s where people could actually buy them more easily for their own homes.

One game that was mentioned was Carmageddon, in this game you had to run over pedestrians to get points while racing against your opponents. The game received bad press because of the murdering of innocent people in the game, the developers changed this to zombies at a later date to avoid any further outrage. This reminded me a lot of the film Deathrace 2000, in which they do the exact same thing across America. If any member of public is on the streets on race day then they are at risk of being run down.

It also showed the progression of many games that we all enjoy today such as Grand Theft Auto. I can still remember the first release of the original GTA, it was top down view with little options of what to do and very simple artwork/graphics. Where as now the game is so involved and large that most people actually don't even play the planned missions and would rather just run around the in game world shooting at people.

It was a very interesting end to the series to see how far games have come over the years to today.

Persuasive Games, Killer

29/01/15

Today we watched a trailer for the film "La Decima Vittima", The 10th Victim. This is on originally Italian film released in the 1960s. The film is about a game of chase in which people hunt others down as their victims and try to kill them, but you could also be the hunted!? On your 10th kill you are rewarded with fame and wealth, if you ever get there.

Killer is a popular game which is based on this film. The aim is to use toys such as toy guns and alarms clocks as time bombs, to assassinate your target. It can take days and can continue into real life. After you have successfully assassinated your target you can be assigned a new one or take your victims target. The last player alive or with the most kills wins.

05/02/15

The following week we split up into groups/teams and went around in search of QR codes that are hidden about the UCS campus.

Tweaking Ancient Games, Senet

11/12/14

Earlier in my blog i wrote a short piece on the ancient game Senet. This is the game I choose to write an essay on for my first modules assignment in Critical Games Design. This consisted of a short history of the game and an iteration process to try and improve the game. I choose some changes that in my opinion would improve game play. 

Board Layout

The first change to be made is the game board. The proposed change keeps the same amount of squares but changes the layout. All the special squares are still on the same number squares (15, 26­29). This change in the board layout should make the player feel like they are closer to the finish. It does this by making it clearer to see where the players are in relation to the finish. 

Player feedback showed that when playing with this board, players felt they were closer to the end of the board. As the players turn round a corner onto a new row their thoughts are that there is only one more corner to pass before the home straight and being the winner of the game.   

Capture 

The second change to be made is a capture mechanic. Players will be able to take opponents counters and add them to their own, creating a stack or adding to it (see third rule ‘Stacking’). Stacks can only capture opponents counters/stacks if their own has a greater number of counters in it. This should create more competitiveness, frustration and further the tactics involved in playing the game.

Stacking  

The third change to be made is a stacking mechanic. This rule goes hand in hand with the capture mechanic. Players will be able to stack their counters to make them more powerful. If one player’s counter stack is greater than the other player’s stack, they over power them. This should create even more frustration and more competitiveness within the game. 

Entering The Board  

This change involves all player’s pieces having to enter the board at square one instead of starting along the first two rows on the board at the start of the game. This rule was added after the ‘Capture’ and ‘Stacking’ rules were implemented, to prevent the players from capturing each others pieces too early on in game play.  

The results from playing this version of the game showed that these changes force the players to play with more competitiveness. When playing this version of Senet, players became more interested and emotionally invested in the game because of the increased competitiveness in gameplay. The more pieces a player takes from their opponent the more invested in the game they become because they are getting closer the inevitable finish to the game and therefore closer to victory.

British Museum Trip

4/12/14

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the trip to the British Museum, which was very disappointing.
Although I know what that the group intended on meeting Irving Finkel and being shown the exhibits by him. Paying most attention to the ancient games collected at the museum.

Games Britannia, Monopolies & Mergers

27/11/14

Today we watched the second part to the Games Britannia three part series, Monopolies and Mergers. In this episode presenter and historian Benjamin Wooley, talks about the political and social impact that board games have had over the last 200 years in Britain. He investigates how the British developed the idea of board games being used as an instrument of moral instruction. 

One of these was the game Monopoly, this is one of the best selling games in history. It was based on a radical socialist game from Britain in 1913. Benjamin Wooley then showed us the progession and development of games such as Scrabble and Cluedo and how games have evolved into what we play today.