Presentation

Yesterday was the "big day" for this course. It was a tight fit but we made it work. The whole party was a successes, everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoy playing the different games that was there. Even though I had have much to little sleep I felt positive with what we had produced. The response was mostly positive and playing it myself and watching others try it out made it feel valid. Sure there are problems with the game but the group is aware of them and with more time those issues would be looked at. As for now though, we are happy with what we got and with the time restrain that we had on us.

The night before the "big day" most of he group was up all night trying to get the final touches done. The rules were defined clearly in words and some graphics was added to replace some of the placeholders that we had back then. This was not necessary for the functionality of the game itself but I think pushing for the little extra sure made the experience more fun and immersive.    

Week 43

We began this week by going over the feedback that we’d received from the two groups from last week. The feedback showed us that the movement system we had worked and was enjoyable to an extent. What we had was to thin, it had no depth and adding this depth was what took the most of my attention this week. Figuring out how to benefit the players to avoid each other but at the same time put something there to motivate them to confront on another was frustrating. Handling this depth took a great deal of effort and consulting within the group. “Keep it simple, stupid” was a motto to go by when dealing with the task to make this game more interesting.  The same as for last week, iteration was the key.

From play testing, we found out that the treasure hunting was an interesting feature and that it was a good reason to make the players move around the map. Much tweaking was needed for the cost of the cannons and what treasures there were.

We ended up with what we call “Voodoo cards” which is a way to give the players an opportunity to affect the environment. This made an otherwise a bit sterile movement system become alive and there where now more options thrown to the player.

I had done some thinking on my own during this week trying to come up with something that would interest the players. And all week I felt like I had it on the tip of my tongue but it was not quite there. I had one defined change though and that was to separate the winning condition from the currency. I felt that that was the snag.  This winning condition was decided by the group at the end of the week. Some thought was also spent on the map itself in regard of the hexagonally patterned platform that we use and to make these two works together.

I am happy with the result for this week, I feel like we came a long way as from where we were at the beginning of this week.

Developing Boardgames Assignment

I am half through the course "Advanced Gamedesign" and it is going well. I am growing as a designer and I am developing a bigger understanding of how the process of creating games works. Through this course we have so far been analyzing boardgames and picking them apart to define its different systems.

During the past week I and my group of four have begun creating our own board game. It is going well but not without its snags. We are so far keeping it simple and are focusing on its systems and making sure they are working well. We had at the end of the week a play-testing session with two other groups. These testings served as a way to see how well our systems worked and how well our aesthetics is readable through the gameplay.

I have my concerns, there is something that is not appealing enough, at least not for me. If this is only my personal taste that conflicts with what we have or if there is something missing remains unknown. I have a preference for simplicity and I think that is what is not working here. If the core is broken, adding more systems will not fix it.

Welcome

Hey,

My name is Gabriel and I study Gamedesign and Graphics at Uppsala University, Campus Gotland.
This is my schoolblog and it is a part of my program. I will use this blog as a tool to share my thoughts and ideas when it comes to game design and graphics. That's all for a starter.