GAME STUDIES - FINAL PROJECT
Week 1 - Week 14
Phoebe Ansel (0340165)
Game Studies
Final Project
For our project, we were asked to get in groups and develop a game in tabletop. We got in a group of threes and my teammates are Tabita and Yessika.
All our brainstorming was done in miro.
Idea 1: Alphabet Game
First, we brainstormed ideas for the game topics we wanted to develop. We thought of two ideas, the 'truth game' and the 'alphabet game'. After further discussion, we decided to develop the 'alphabet game'. The concept we were going for was to create a 'nostalgic game' where we would develop a traditional game and transform it into something modern and new.
GAMEPLAY
However, after trying to refine the game, we realized that we weren't really going anywhere with this idea.
Idea 2: Doomsday Scenario Game
So, we were advised to come up with a completely new idea. We had a meeting with Mr Charles where we discussed new ideas and concepts. After the meeting, we came up with 2 new game ideas. Both the games embodied a similar theme, which is a 'survival' theme.
Our first idea was a 'doomsday scenario' game inspired by 'the hunger games', where the goal of the game is to survive every doomsday scenario.
GAMEPLAY
- in the beginning, every player gets 3 life cards + 3 item cards
- players will then take turns taking one scenario card and the scenario written in the card will affect all the players.
- if that scenario card involves taking an action card as well, all players will take one action card.
- each player will then show an item card that can save them from the scenarios or may choose to use an action card to save them instead.
- if the player does not own any of the cards needed to survive the scenario, they will have to lose their life card.
- the last one to survive wins.
These are the different type of cards and the variation of their contents:
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scenario cards and its variations |
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action cards and its variations |
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item cards and its variations |
Idea 3: Virus Game
For our second idea, we came up with a 'virus game' inspired by the current pandemic.
GAMEPLAY
- All players receive one recipe card that will form a cure at the beginning of the game + 2 item cards.
- For each round, the players will take turns taking one action card to determine their next move.
- The first player to collect all the items mentioned in the list of their recipe card wins.
These are the different type of cards and the variation of their contents:
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recipe cards and its variations |
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action cards and its variations |
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item cards and its variations |
After presenting both the ideas to Mr Charles, he said that he preferred the second idea, which was the 'virus game'. So, we decided to start refining the game.
We also had several game sessions with Mr Charles on tabletop, where we realized our mistakes and changes that we had to make.
FEEDBACK
- Problem: The item cards are not interesting.
- Solution: Instead of having box, mask, gloves, etc as the items, we were advised to change it to more casual, weird, and fun items. So, we decided on going for a 'fantasy' and 'nonsensical' theme, with made-up viruses and recipes with ingredients that are random and weird.
- Problem: It took so long for players to win. The game started to feel too dragged and boring.
- Solution: Instead of having to collect 9 items in the recipe list, we shortened the recipe list to 5 items. We also made changes in the number of action cards for each variation to make it easier for players to gain new item cards.
This is the revised recipe and items:
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revised recipe |
After making these changes, we had another game session with Mr Charles. The session was considerably successful in comparison to the first few sessions however, Mr Charles gave us another idea to improve the gameplay.
After finalizing the gameplay, we had to create the game document and the design.
These are the final designs:
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item card design |
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action card design |
We also decided to make the recipe card design to look like a 'letter' to match our game story.
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recipe card design |
This is what it looks like on tabletop:
We then started with our game document, and we wanted a more detailed backstory so I decided to create a more detailed background story for the core gameplay and game story.
This is our final game document:
Reflection:
I genuinely enjoyed this module and learned a lot through this module. This was the first time I got to experience working in a group for a final project and I definitely learned a lot about teamwork throughout the semester. Typically, we would always have individual final projects so we never really had to work as a team. It was an interesting experience, and although it wasn't always a smooth journey, we managed to successfully complete this module. In the beginning, we went through difficulties as a group, we ran out of ideas and it was difficult to communicate with each other due to poor internet connection, had trouble with finding time where everyone was available, etc. However, we managed to communicate better, work together, and divide the workload so no one would feel too overwhelmed. We went through countless trials and errors and tested out various ideas as well. I'm incredibly grateful for my teammates for the constant enthusiasm they put into this project. I'm also immensely thankful to my Lecturer on this module, Mr. Charles, who was especially patient with us and continued to show us constant support whenever we reached dead ends, and was also very present and involved throughout the entire process. I don't think we would have done it without his constant motivation and guidance.
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