Day 13: Reflection

Today in Games in Community, we were able to play test the games that we have been designing all semester.  Overall, I think the class came up with some pretty cool games.  The game that Gabe and worked on ended up being really successful and fun.  Our game features a solar system in which players make an effort to conquer as many planets as they can.  The catch to our game, is that the rings that the planets are on rotate throughout the game, changing the shape of the board.  Gabe and I plan on possibly emailing one of the game designers that we spoke to during the semester to learn how to publish a game.  (Maybe that's a lofty goal, but hey, it could happen.)

Overall, I felt like I left the class with a much more positive view on game playing.  While I learned how to play a lot of new games, I think the true value of the course was learning the art of engaging with others and teaching new games to new people.  I was also fascinated by the some of the speakers and I enjoyed learning about the game-making process.

I certainly hope that this class will continue in future years.  It was definitely worth my time and I honestly feel like I left with valuable things (such as designing the next big game of our generation).

Day 12: Werewolf

Class on Friday was a little bit different than normal.  We began class with a Skype session with the designer of the game Fleet.  I think this game designer was my favorite speaker that we have had thus far in the class.  I think the insight he gave for future games was the most interesting and most relevant to the class.  I thought what he said about "the next great game mechanic" was interesting and intriguing.  Also, the points he made about randomness and luck in games was cool too.  He claimed that luck is good, as long as players can decide how to manage their role in the game as a result of the luck.  He prefers (as do I) games that require skill more than luck.

After the speaker, we all got to play Werewolf, a mafia variant.  The class was divided into two large groups to play the game.  In the first game, I was a villager.  I think a good strategy as a villager near the beginning of the game is to jump on board with a random accusation.  It is important to observe how the accused reacts and how other citizens react as well.  After a few rounds, we had eliminated a few villagers and two werewolves.  In the end, there were three villagers and one werewolf remaining.  I am proud to say that the villagers made the right choice and we won the game!

The second game did not go nearly as well for me.. I was killed immediately.

Day 11: King of Tokyo

Thursday, I taught a new game called King of Tokyo.  I hadn't heard of this game before last week, so I was glad to teach and play a new game.  King of Tokyo is a dice rolling game similar to Yahtzee.  Players roll dice to earn points and attack other players (the monsters).  The beauty of this game is that it could be played with players of all ages and there isn't much strategy involved.  And it can be fun even if you are losing (at least I thought so).

In other news, Gabe and I have finished our game (titled: Orbit) and are planning on making a test run of it this weekend.  We are both really happy with the production value of the game.  The pieces are all color coordinated and look somewhat professional (at least for a prototype).  Our game should be a fun one to play on Monday/Tuesday.

Day 10: Carcassonne

Wednesday, I played a fantastic new game (at least it is new to me) called Carcassonne.  The game mechanics are relatively simple for this game.  Players flip over tiles containing sections of roads and castles trying to extend roads and build castles for points.  The player with the most points after all of the tiles have been flipped wins.  This was an excellent game using spacial reasoning skills that I was good at.  Blokus is a game that appears to require great spacial reasoning skills, but I think success in Blokus is far more dependent on other players actions than one's own ability.  In Carcassonne however, I feel that a large part of the success is due to spacial reasoning and the ability to visualize future "boards."

The second new game Wednesday was a popular card game called Bohnanza.  The objective of this game is to to acquire points by harvesting beans.  The player with the most points after going through the deck of cards three times is the winner.  The unique aspect to this card game is that you have to play cards in the order that you pick them up.  After discussion, we think this was a rule that was added to avoid the game from becoming far too easy.

Both games Wednesday rank among my favorite games from the class.  Especially Carcassonne.  That game was awesome.

Day 9: Amazonas

Tuesday, I played a new game called Amazonas.  Amazonas is a game that is similar to ticket to ride.  Players work to build properties around the amazon river, collecting points along the way.  I liked the simplicity of the game as well as how fair it was to all players.  All players are at an equal playing field.  The downside to the game is that victory points are clearly visible to all players, with no element of surprise.  Thus, when the game nears its end, everyone knows who the winner is going to be.

Overall, I enjoyed playing Amazonas.  Although, of all of the games that I have played, I think that Settlers might still be my favorite (even though I'm not too good at it).

Day 8: Cooperation Games

Today in class, we all played cooperative games in groups.  I signed up to play in the Pandemic group, which I have previously played.  Pandemic involves the players working as a team to cure the world of disease.  The game is relatively short, allowing us to play more than one game.  We only won the second game.  A flaw in Pandemic is that a large part of the success in the game is determined by the cards that are drawn.  The end of cooperative games can also feel anticlimactic, without a single winner.  I think I prefer team games or individual games rather than cooperative games.

Self Assessment on Teaching a Game:

Overall, I think I did a nice job teaching my group how to play Blokus.  What worked especially well, was letting the players figure out a lot of the game techniques themselves.  Blokus, however, is a fairly simple game that can be explained in a minute or two, so my job was pretty easy.

If I want to improve, I think I need to step back a little more from the game, and let the players figure out more on there own.  Otherwise they are at risk of cognitive overload.  I probably shared more strategy than was effective.  At some point, players need to discover strategy for themselves if they are truly to understand it.

My approach to gaming has not changed too much as a result of teaching the games.  Although, I do enjoy more games than I did before the class began.  I now enjoy games like Euchre and Settlers, games that I was not a huge fan of before the class.  I think I learned that I shouldn't rule out a game after a single attempt at playing.

Day 7: Cuarenta

Friday, we continued playing the card game that Curt taught us, Cuarenta.  My partner and I quickly lost the first game, eliminating us from the tournament.  In the end, I think that Cuarenta is not the card game for me.  While I feel like I understand a bit of strategy to the game, I think there is too much luck involved to be truly an excellent game.  I greatly prefer euchre.

The second half of class was interesting, featuring Curt's friend giving a presentation on gaming.  I learned a few new terms about games (i.e. perfect information games)  that I am glad to know.  While his presentation was interesting, I feel that it went a little too long near the end.  I was losing interest in him explaining parts of games that I had never heard of, thus had no frame of reference to think about the game.  I wish the presentation had ended a bit earlier.

Day 6: Pandemic

Today I learned how to play Pandemic for the first time.  It was one of the first games that I have played ever that involved the players working together to beat the cards.  We all soon learned the strategy of the game as well as how to work with one another.  I actually think that this game would function as a decent "get to know you" game.  I would definitely play again.

The second short game we played was a card game that Curt taught us.  At first, I was wildly confused by the rules, but after a few rounds, I understood the game and some of the strategy involved.  Usually, I dislike trick-taking games like Euchre, but this one wasn't so bad.  I could see myself playing this again sometime.

Day 5: Some New Games

On day 5, I learned two new games: King of Tokyo and Ticket to Ride.  The first game I played was King of Tokyo.  This was a relatively simple game that I could see players of all ages playing and enjoying.  Players attack each other and obtain victory points to try to win the game.  In the two games we played, there were two very different strategies involved.  The first game was a race to 20 victory points, with minimal attacking.  The second game was structured around attacking the other players in hopes of eliminating them.  Both games were fun and friendly.

The second game I learned was Ticket to Ride.  This game involves players trying to build trains across Europe, while earning points along the way.  I actually didn't care for this game as much as I thought that I would.  The game play is slower than it needs to be.  On a turn, a player can choose to build a train, draw new cards, or choose a new destination to build to, but they can only choose one option.  I think the game would be more fun if players could draw cards and then play them on the same turn.  There is a lot of waiting in the game, which doesn't make it terribly fun.

Day 4: Teaching a Game

Today, I taught the game of Blokus.  Blokus is a simple game that involves laying tetris-like pieces on a grid.  Players work to get rid of as many pieces as they can, attempting to block the moves of their opponents.  After explaining the game to my group, I watches as they played, answering questions as they came along.  One group member had played the game previously, enough to show considerable experience in laying the Blokus pieces.  Her experience allowed her to visualize the board in a way that the new players were unable to see quite yet.

The second round of Blokus was a little more intense, as each player had now acquired a level of insight to some strategy in the game.  Overall, the teaching experience was fun.  The game is very basic to explain, but the strategy to master Blokus can be a little more complicated.

In the second half of class, I learned a new game called Fluxx.  Fluxx is a unique card game in which the rules are constantly changing.  There isn't really a strategy to win other than to hope that the cards go in your favor.  This would be a frustrating game to play if you were a competitive person, but I quite liked it.  It was carefree and surprisingly easy to follow and understand.

Day 3: Making Games

Today, we held a discussion with two game designers.  I felt like I learned a lot about the game making process that hadn't really occurred to me in the past.  I didn't realize how often game designers intentionally borrow ideas from other games.  I suppose that process is how a lot of popular games evolve from other games.  This also allows for "house rules" to evolve into a brand new game.

After the discussion, I enjoyed playing the game that one of the designers created.  The premise was simple enough.  The player gets to be the lava in a city.  After playing a few rounds, the strategy of the game became evident enough and the overall play got more fun and easy to understand.  I quite liked the uniqueness of the game, and also the similarities to many strategy-based games.

The highlight of class was coming up with a breakthrough in the game that my partner, Gabe Hoekstra, and I will be making.  Roughly speaking, the game will be similar to both Settlers of Catan and Risk.  The game will be centered around space exploration and conquest.  Today, we learned about the process of testing out a game and the importance it holds in game design.  I would write more, but I have more game designing to do.

Day Two: Lots and Lots of Settlers

Class on Friday was devoted to many games of Settlers of Catan.  On Thursday, we were instructed to rank our personal ability in regard to Settlers on a scale from freshman to senior.  My first mistake was over-estimating my Settlers ability.  I thought that junior seemed to be an appropriate level for me (I probably should have classified myself as a sophomore).  I was clearly the most inexperienced player among the people at my table (2 seniors, and 1 super-senior).  Even though I was lacking in ability, I felt like I learned a lot about the strategy of the game.

I would usually being my game by placing my settlements on spaces with desirable resources rather than building my settlements on high-frequency numbers.  However, I soon learned that it is more important to have a steady intake of resources rather than have a small intake of specific resources.  There is an art to trading that opens the door for many new opportunities in the game.  

Friday, we played a team-version of settlers.  The basic rules of the game were the same, with each team aiming to obtain 17 points.  One thing I learned was the art of predicting the strategies of other players.  My inexperience causes me to focus on my personal goals, rather than considering the objectives of other players.  Charlie (one of my group members) was clearly an expert in regard to predicting other players and their moves.  

I learned a lot from watching my group play and I look forward to playing more in the future.

One question I have for the game designer on Monday is:  How many version do you make of a game before you arrive on the final copy?

Day One

I have just finished my first day of my interim class, Games in Community.  I assumed that we would be spending a lot of time playing games, and so far I am right.  We played three different games today: apples to apples, telephone pictionary, and a fun dice game (I don't remember the name of the game.)  

While I am quite familiar with apples to apples and telephone pictionary, the game that I had the most fun playing was the dice game (Liar's Dice?)   I think apples to apples is a fun game with a smaller group size, and it is also more fun if the group knows one another a bit more.  It can be a little awkward playing with new people.  I felt like it was a similar situation to the telephone pictionary.  That is a game that I feel is more fun to play with close friends rather than new people.  The dice game, however, was a really good choice for a new group of people.  

I enjoyed playing the dice game with my group, especially after we finished our first game.  We decided to play a sudden death version of the game, with each player only starting with one die.  I felt like this was a game that I could see myself playing in the future with my friends.  

All in all, it was a good first day of class.