Day 9

Nobody showed to anything for our game. We had everything ready to play test and everyone was going to meet at 12:30 Wednesday. I was not in school that day so I can't say exactly what happened and what didn't but apparently while I was waiting for a google hangout to open up so I could observe the testing everyone got confused or something and nothing got done. Everyone went home pissed that day it seemed. So today was all about cramming someone together to make it look pretty and not completely bomb this grade. We did alright I hope all Emil said was that it had good mechanics but needed polish. Considering we had to revert in a week and everyone wasn't on the same page I'd say we did damn well and I really hope our grade reflects that.

Day 8

The Horus Heresy has begun! We have changed our game back into what it was at the beginning of the process! We have one week to revert everything back into a playable game. There was a lot of arguing today and it seems like pretty much nobody wanted to do a educational kids game to begin with. But discussion aside everyone agreed to put in the effort to try to pump out an amazing game this last week before it's due. Gonna be a tough next week with the year coming to a close but I'm on board.

Day 7

So for whatever reason Garms was going to be unavailable until tomorrow and Dramane said he was going to be late but it turned out to just be myself, gary, and dowell. We played other peoples games all class because we had no supplies to play our own, much less enough team members. Overall pretty crappy class period that all of us felt we shouldn't have even shown up for. Some brainstorming happened but it was mostly about how none of us liked the game we were making. We all preferred the game we had at the beginning of class to this one but wanted a different game entirely since the beginning? Prepare the ensuing chaos.

Day 6

Just basic work done this week. Not much to say other than now that things are stabilizing and our game model isn't changing weekly the amount of work is winding down. I feel like this game is a 3 person job and we have 5 members. Hopefully things will pick up but I really hope I get something to do the last few weeks, otherwise I might not be worth having on the team.

Day 5

So today the team was going to do all the play testing and the working and the getting things done stuff. But play testing went anything but smoothly so another change is needed in the game.

It always seems like things are nicely set up and everything is going smoothly until out of no where some little bug comes and crashes the party. Doesn't matter how well you look over something or how much time you put into editing it. Until you actually test the thing you won't find the bugs.

Day 4

Lots of things happening and it seems like the team has worked against itself with this one. Some people are making a ton of progress and some people are trying to make progress but then have to be caught up on things. It looks like communication is to blame here as some of our team thought we were working of the game 2 builds ago. Everyone is using google plus for their stuff but not enough posts are being made or something I guess? Seems like a bad game of telephone to me.

Day 3

Progress is going. Not much to say about it other than I have been noticing there isn't much work to be done here, or at least there wouldn't be If the scheme of our game would stop changing. Something tells me that when the group is finally done working all this through there won't be much to do other than playtest. All this is seems able to be done within a week and we have over a month left......

Day 2

So instead of making an actually cool game the group is going to make a kids game because that's what's geared towards the teachers' tastes or some such nonsense. I though this class was supposed to be about learning a process not sucking up. But I suppose so long as the grade reflects this design decision I can work with it. But I don't think some of us are going to be happy about it.

Day 1

Now that the playing of these "foundation" games had been completed it is time to move on to the actual making of the games. Finally time to put what we've learned to the test! Our team gathered and decided everyone was to submit ideas for what kind of game it should be. I think it would be really cool to make a game similar to the Pokémon board game. Players travel across the map finding creatures/tokens/weapons/whatever and collecting them to use both against the bosses and each other. Alliances can be formed, trading can happen, and I hope it can be fun for all involved.

Smallworld

Smallworld is essentially settlers of catan with fantasy races. There are some other features added but essentially it's a board control games with resources etc to manage except this time each player has a fantasy race to control.

Although I was unable to play this game with the rest of my group I must say from simply reading the rules I am unimpressed. Perhaps the charm is in the competition?

Munchkin

Munchkin was actually an interesting game. Originally I thought that severely dumbing down your typical tabletop rpg would be a terrible idea. Perhaps this was just me thinking that rpg players were of a "higher standard" than regular players. But it actually turned out to be a fun, ever-changing game.

Now for the not so good parts. It's obvious that part of the reason there are so many expansion packs is that the original game is not entirely perfected. That and I'm sure the outrageous amounts of profit from the game may have played a part.

 

 

Magic

Magic: The Gathering is a game I have played long before the class period dedicated to the game. I have enjoyed it since the 90s and remember many aspects that are no longer/drastically changed since then. It's something I play in my own free time and enjoy casually as I believe at the end of the day it's just another pay to win game. I despise pay to win games. This is why I only play casually, although in any form I believe the amount of fun you have is decided not by the amount of money you pay but the quality of the people you play with.

Catan

Settlers of Catan is a new take on an old genre. It's simple PvP city building with resource management. The ability to build roads to cut off other players is an interesting aspect along with the "robber" and settlement "give me more resources" pieces made the game some new fun.

It wasn't the most intuitive or inventive of games. Heck, I found the gameplay a little stale at times due to the lack of excitement. This is in no part the game's fault I believe it's simply my own tastes and although the game was simple it did, admittedly, have some small amount of charm.

 

 

Gloom

Gloom was a simple game with a couple very interesting features. Firstly the fact that negative points were the goal for the player to get was an enjoyable take on your normal board game. Another fun point was the see-through card system for each player's characters. They all interacted with each other in various ways and really added something new to the gameplay.

 

In the end it was really the fact that killing your family (and others) was the goal that actually made the game enjoyable. I feel that that statement alone could cause some surprise though the game itself is in my humble opinion quite fun despite the morbid nature of it.