Week 12 – Continuation of the paper prototype, discussing the card for our game, and more YuGiOh talk (Part2)

           This week has gone by fairly quickly as well, and for our paper prototype, we have decided to work on the cards for the game first, to get it over with. We are also in the middle of designing the board for our game, which has not been completed yet. I will also be talking briefly about the trading card game YuGiOh, continuing on from last week’s blog. 

For our paper prototype, there will be 45 cow cards that will represent all the cows in the game, and 45 chance cards, which can alter the outcome of the game. Our board is still in the making, so I will discuss about it next time, but for now, I will talk about our strategy in making the cards. Each cow (cow card) will have a certain weight in pounds on the upper right corner, and this represents our score system. Players are trying to race to collect the most pounds of beef for their team, before their opponents can do so. The cow cards will also have a name, picture, and a text box, which includes the number that the player who gets this cow card must roll in order to take that cow card. There are 3 types of cow cards, some are friendlier towards the good aliens, while others are friendlier towards the evil aliens, and there are even some who are neutral to both teams of aliens. We even decided to add an elite bovine cow card, which is fairly hard to capture, and last but not least, we have added in “The Cow King” card, which is the hardest cow to capture, but grants that player the most pounds of beef that any cow can offer. We have to create different chance cards that have the ability to alter the outcome of the turn, or even the game, and these effects can include moving a player backwards/forwards or moving the player back to their own base, gaining/losing cows to the opponent or the neutral barn, or moving the player in/out of the prison. Next week I will be talking more about our board, if it gets finished, as well as how our prototype of the board game works out, in the event that we finish our first prototype by then. 

YuGiOh has fascinated me ever since I first started over 1.5 years ago, and that has been due to how it is very addicting to play. YuGiOh, especially at high-level tournaments and other events, can be very intense and dramatic, as the game changes very quickly on the fly. There are several deadly cards in the game that can alter the outcome of the game as it is played, and although there is a ban/limited list to control these cards, people still find a way to use them to turn the tide of the game. An example of this would be 2 spell cards: Dark Hole and Heavy Storm. Heavy storm has been banned for quite some time several months ago, and now that it is back, players use it to wipe out all their opponent’s deadly traps and spells that they have set earlier in order to hinder/stop the player’s strategy. The card Dark Hole is also very interesting, since it has to ability of wipe out all the monster cards on the field, which can be very devastating to the opponent. Top level players will know exactly when to use these powerful cards, especially since you are only allowed to have one copy of each card. Next week I will try to talk more about other card strategies that players have utilized in order to win matches and tournaments, as well as how Konami has created and shaped YuGiOh into the great game that it is today. 

That’s all for this week, stay tuned for more game design talk next week!

Week 11 – Starting the Paper Prototype, and more Game Design Talk (YuGiOh) Part1

This week has been a wild one, as my GDW group and I had to come up with a paper prototype of our game for our GDW course. In this week’s blog, I will also be talking about the trading card game YuGiOh and how this game was designed very well and proves to be very successful and entertaining for players of all ages. 

For our paper prototype, the objectives were simple, and yet it was fairly complicated, since converting a real-time video game into a board/card game takes a lot of effort. Our group also spent a lot of time arguing over which aspects of the game will get converted over, and which aspects of our game will be changed. In the end, for our prototype, we decided to go with the “Monopoly” style board, along with cards that players can draw and use to change the outcome of the game, be it short term or long term. For next week’s blog, I will try to go more in-depth for our paper prototype, as it is still in the works for now.

For this week, I will also talk about the trading card game YuGiOh, which has proven to be very popular amongst many kids and young people. The basic gameplay mechanics include 3 different types of cards: monsters, spells, and traps. Trap cards are used to surprise your opponent, and can sometimes change the outcome of the game, just like an actual trap would in a war. These trap cards can be very powerful, but must first be set before they can be used on the next turn, which would be your opponent’s turn. There are also different categories for trap cards, and can include: normal, continuous, and counter traps. Then there are spell cards, these cards are split up into several categories, just like the trap cards, which can include: quick-play, normal, field, equip, ritual, and continuous spell cards. These spell cards can be played during your turn without setting them, but they can also be set as well, and used during your opponent’s turn (only if it is a quick-play spell card). The final category of cards would be the monster cards, which can include the following types: normal, effect, ritual, fusion, synchro, and xyz monster cards. All monsters will have a name, attribute, type, attack/defense, effect (all monster cards except normal monster cards), level (all monster cards except xyz monster cards), and a picture. Monster cards can be played in either attack mode (face-up) or defense mode (face-down), and any monster with a level of 5 or 6 stars requires 1 tribute, and any monster over 7 stars requires 2 tributes. That pretty much summarizes the basic gameplay of YuGiOh. For next week’s blog, I will be talking more about the gameplay of YuGiOh and how it was intrigued me into playing the card game. 

That’s all for this week, stay tuned for more game design next week!

Websites used:

http://www.knology.net/~razzle1/ebay/Images/back.jpg 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuT6muCUwUPIXpVD4FBclrIIaJUpU2qsbWnCDm90Da4g5VLXCorUy58sWM5yCgpUy9C1AqPsPnKZjebSkSYXnSK7e0iBMDXPfqtXJmhku4AOeGwyJkUuJHGW3Sn9MrV_WbhRfe58ZNrHA/s1600/yugioh.jpg

Week 10 – Redesigning the classic games of Hopscotch and Solitaire

For this week, our homework for the week was to redesign the classic schoolyard game of hopscotch, as well as the card game solitaire.

My group and I had decided to create a board game, where players draw cards and take turns setting them, and then tossing a coin onto the board in order to determine if they’re allowed to keep their card set, or if they must take that set card back and draw an additional card. The rules of the game are simple, where player who goes first sets one of the cards in their hand. That player then tosses a coin onto a coloured circle that corresponds with the color of the card that the player had set. Should the player miss or the coin lands onto a circle with a different colour, then that player must draw an additional card and take back the card that they set. The goal of the game is to get rid of every card in your hand as quickly as possible, before your opponents can do the same thing. I have found this game to be very interesting, since it involves both luck and skill, similar to the schoolyard game of hopscotch. In hopscotch, players must throw a stone, and it is based on luck since the rock and the ground could be odd shaped, and results in the rock bouncing in a random direction. It also requires skill since the players must hop properly, as well as throw the rock accurately. Our game is very similar to this, since skill is needed to toss the coin, but at the same time luck is involved since the coin could bounce around randomly when it lands, as well as the colour of the cards that players draw in the beginning, which matters since the size of each circle is different for each colour. 

The other homework assignment that I had was to redesign the card game solitaire into a two player game, which I had easily done by letting each player take each half of one deck. One player takes all the red cards and the other player takes all the black cards. The players then play their cards, taking turns, and it is similar to the single player version, where cards must be placed on top of a card of the opposite colour, and also one number lower. The players can work together to help each other complete each pile, or they can ruin each other’s strategies since one player’s cards requires the other player’s cards to be there to be played on top of. I find that these alterations prove to be interesting, since players must use even more strategy in order to win. 

That’s all for this week, stay tuned for my blog next week!

Websites used:

http://www.palive365.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/coin_toss-7725441.jpg 

http://www.androidfreeware.net/img2/klondike_solitaire_android_3.gif 

Week 9 – No class this week, more game design talk..

This week I will be talking about some more game design, since we did not have class this week due to GDC. After playing some more of Dynasty Warriors on my PS Vita, I find it to be a great game after all, despite my initial reaction to it several weeks ago. I will also be writing about the game Little Deviants, which came bundled with the first edition PS Vita bundle.

            After playing Dynasty Warriors for several more hours over the weekend, I have found it to be very entertaining, despite what I had wrote earlier about it being very repetitive. Although you do run around slashing enemies that die very quickly, the game has its own value to it. This game lets you conquer China during the “Three Kingdoms” time period, and proves to be entertaining even after many people say it gets boring easily. For every territory you conquer, you can obtain weapons, items, and money, and this is what keeps playing the game. However, I must say, the duels in Dynasty Warriors are probably the dumbest aspect of the game. In this part of the game, you must defeat the enemy leader in a one on one battle, and there is no block function. Instead you must respond to the enemy’s actions, which can be aggravating, because once you get hit, the enemy keeps hitting you until you die, and then you have the option of retrying or quitting to the title screen. After roughly 10 losses in a row during my duel with the enemy leader, I finally gave up and went to play something else. It took me several more tries later on, and after 20 minutes of ‘Googling’ for strategies, I finally beat the enemy leader. This aspect of the game is very unique, but can be frustrating, as it involves the player spamming attacks until the enemy dies. Overall, I would recommend this game, but only to those who would enjoy this type of genre, otherwise other players can get bored easily. 

            Another game that I will be talking about is Little Deviants, which has been very fun for me so far. The game consists of many mini-games that involve a certain new feature or two of the PS Vita, which is an interesting first game to have on the system. Many of the games are very fun to play with, such as the shooting game which uses the camera and turns it in an AR game, in which whatever the camera sees becomes the background. Another interesting game was the ‘Rolling Pastures’ and ‘Shack Shower’ games, which involves the use of the rear touch pad, as well as the front touch screen. There are plenty of other games that involve the use of the different functions of PS Vita lets players immerse themselves in a world of fun. Overall, this game was very entertaining, despite the cover of the game (never judge a book by its cover), and uses many aspects of game design. 

           That's all for this week, stay tuned for more game design discussion next week..

Websites used:

http://cdn1.spong.com/screen-shot/d/y/dynastywar359906l/_-Dynasty-Warriors-Next-PSVita-_.jpg 

http://cdn4.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Little-Deviants-vita-review.jpg 

http://0.tqn.com/d/psp/1/0/8/c/-/-/little-deviants-01.jpg