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.

Ancient Games, Tablut

20/11/14

Today we played and discussed Tablut and other tafl games. Tablut is a game played on a 9x9 square board. The white pieces in the center of the board surround the white King and serve to protect the King and to try prevent the King from being taken by the attacking black pieces. The sixteen black pieces on the edges of the board, surround the white pieces.

The goal is for the King to escape to the edge of the board or a corner square, depending on the sourced rules. The black pieces try to capture the white King by surrounding him on all four sides or two sides, depending on the sourced rules.

Pieces move the same way as a rook in chess. any amount of spaces in an orthogonal direction. Pieces can not jump other pieces, they may cross the center square but can not land on it. The King can not return to the center square after he has moved. Pieces may be captured when they are trapped from two opposite sides by the opponents pieces. However pieces can move between opposing pieces without being captured. The King can take part in captures, to capture the King he must be surrounded from all four (or two) sides.

Ancient Games, Duodecim Scripta and Tabula

13/11/14

Today we played and discussed Duodecim Scripta, the game of twelve lines or twelve marks. At the start of the game the board is empty, the players then put their pieces onto the board by rolls of three dice and move them across the board and remove them. The goal of the game is to remove all of your fifteen pieces from the board first. Players can choose to move their pieces by the roll of each individual dice roll with three separate pieces moved or move one piece with the combined dice rolls. The players rely on luck rather than skill to progress faster in the game, although some skill in the movement of the pieces would be an advantage. This however is made pointless due to the stacking mechanic in the game, in which a player can stack their pieces up. This gives the pieces stacked power over any stacks with lesser pieces than itself, making it more power and being able to walk over the opponent with ease.

When I played the game I simply aloud my opponent to get a few pieces off the board and then stacked my entire army of pieces and took all of his pieces before he could reach the end, it made it very easy to win the game. Perhaps a limit on the amount of pieces a player is able to stack would make the game more balanced and enjoyable, although it was fun dominating the game play.

We also played Tabula which is referred to as an improved Duodecim Scripta. It came about after Duodecim Scripta started to become less popular among the Romans. Tabula is considered the precursor to the modern day backgammon. The players goal is to remove all of their pieces from the board first. Pieces are placed on the board and move along it in a certain way. The rules were reconstructed by Louis Becq Fourquieres from an epigram described by a student in Asia named Agathias of Mygrine. Overtime Tabula became popular through out Europe and has been enjoyed since the middle ages.

Ancient Games, Royal Game of Ur

6/11/14

The Royal Game of Ur is played on a board made of twenty squares. The board is laid out in an unusual way, with four by three squares joined by a small bridge of two squares in the center and then two by three squares joined to it.

The rules of the game are not completely known, but there have been many reconstructed rule sets, based on a tablet dating from 177-76 BC. Like Senet, the Royal Game of Ur is a race game.

H, Murray suggests that pieces enter and leave the board on the same square. After a piece enters play it turns at the rosette travel along the middle of the game board, turns onto the smaller section over a rosette and travels around the edge to the opposite rosette, turning back down the middle of the board and making a return journey, bearing off at the start square.

R, Bell suggests that the pieces enter the board in the larger section of the board on a throw of five and bear off from the small section of the board. He also suggest that the rosettes have some significance in the game play and the middle of the board is the "Battle Ground" where pieces can be taken.

Learn.ucs.ac.uk, (2015). [online] Available at: https://learn.ucs.ac.uk/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_15269_1&content_id=_359811_1&mode=reset [Accessed 12 Mar. 2015].

British Museum. (). Royal Game of Ur. [Available online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Game_of_Ur. 

Ancient Games, Senet

6/11/14

Senet is a race game dating back to ancient egyptian times, and it is thought that it may be
the ancestor of modern day backgammon (Soubeyrand (1995)). We know of this game today
due to discoveries made through the excavation of ancient tombs.

The original rules of Senet (The Game of Passing) are unknown. There are no records of the rules ever having been discovered, however many have attempted to reconstruct the rules using knowledge gathered through excavations in which images have been found on ancient tomb walls, as well as
through Senet related artifacts. Two of the most well known versions of the games rules have
been created by T,Kendall and RC, Bell.

In this version of Senet the rules known as Kendall's rules will be used, which are the work of
Timothy Kendall (1978). The rules state that the game is played on a rectangular board with
with three rows of ten squares called "houses", as shown in Figure 1.

Fig 1.

At the beginning of the game the seven counters (per player) are placed next to each other, 

alternating along the first fourteen squares, as shown in Figure 1. The starting square is the 

fifteenth square on the board, starting from top left and following a backward ‘S’ shape, as 

shown in Figure 2.  

Fig 2. 

The players take turns moving the counters according to the throw of sticks, or one or two astragals. 

After the astragals/sticks are thrown the counters are moved a number of squares equal to 

the number of points ‘rolled’. Pieces move along the board in a backward ‘S’ shaped pattern. When a counter lands on a square already occupied by an opponents counter, they have to 

exchange positions. When two counters from the same player are on squares next to each 

other these counters serve as blockers. These stop the opposing player from passing and 

from exchanging places with these counters.  

There are five special squares that affect play,

Square Fifteen: The House of Rebirth. The starting square and return square if landing on  square twenty seven.

Square Twenty Six: The House of Happiness. All counters must land on this square. 

Square Twenty Seven: The House of Water. A square that can be landed on if a 

perfect throw/roll is not achieved when counters from squares twenty eight to thirty are trying 

to exit the board. If landing on this square, the player must move their counter back to square 

fifteen (Rebirth square) . 

Square Twenty Eight: The House of the Three Truths. A counter can only leave if a 

three is rolled/thrown. 

Square Twenty Nine: The House of Re­-Atoum. A counter can only leave if a two is 

rolled/thrown. 

A perfect throw is needed in order for a counter to exit the board. The winner of the game is 

the first player to move all of their pieces off the board.

  

(T,Kendall. (1978)).

Duggan, E. (2014). Ancient Board Games. 

Kendall Timothy. (1978). Passing Through the Netherworld : The Meaning and Play of Senet, 

an Ancient Egyptian Funerary Game, Belmont, The Kirk Game Company. 

Legacy.mos.org, (2014). Museum of Science : Ancient Egypt Science & Technology : At 

Home Activities. [online] Available at: http://legacy.mos.org/quest/activities.php [Accessed 18 

Dec. 2014]. 

Murry, H. (1952). A history of board­games other than chess. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 

Parlett, D. (1999). The Oxford history of board games. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

R.C.Bell. (1979). The Board Game Book, Marshall Cavendish Ltd, London. 

Soubeyrand,C. (1995). The Game of Senet. Available: 

http://www.gamecabinet.com/history/Senet.html. Last accessed 15 Dec 2014. 

Games Britannia "Dicing With Destiny"

30/10/14

During today's session we watched and discussed the first part of a three part series, Games Britannia. A documentary on ancient and medieval games.

Historian Benjamin Wooley investigates the instinct to play games and discovers that it is as universal as language itself. He takes us from the 1st century to the Victorian era. He also looks at how religion is used in games through the ages. As the late Middle Ages came the spiritual element of games was being lost to the increase in amount of gambling in games.

This was the same era which Britain established the world's first commercial games industry, with classics like chess, ludo and snakes and ladders. Snakes and ladders, once represented the Hindu journey to enlightenment and was transformed into the popular game we all know today. Wooley see this as a perfect analogy for how the sacred energy of games is being drained away by commercialization.