Changes?

I think I mentioned before that I was unsure as to the theme of my game-- mostly because the idea of trickster gods duking it out doesn't really have much to do with the game mechanics. I'm also in a big "Escape the room!" mode and I think I really need to get it out of my system.

So instead...the heads of major mythologies stick a bunch of "criminals" in a dungeon of sorts. Using the "prisoner's dilemma", they would have to cooperate or betray each other to get out.

Or maybe just take over

I FEEL LIKE I AM SHOOTING MYSELF IN THE FOOT but I need this here so I can remember what I thought of. Goodbye.

PnP - Theme

We're touching up on theme, motifs, and symbols--which is great because I'm a huge sucker for stories...and now I'm having a difficult time picking one as an example of a strong, unifying theme...

Let's go with

If you've never played 999, the easiest way to explain it is to say it's kind of a mix of the films Saw and Cube. This game's a visual novel using "choose your own adventure" styled mechanics with a point and click interface that has you solving puzzles and trying to unravel the plot.

PnP - Playtesting

Last class we got to playtest our PnP games.

Arduino - Blinking LED

This exercise started with turning an LED (Light Emitting Diode) on and off repeatedly to create a little blinking effect.

PnP - Theme???

I'm somewhat in between going for a hacker/virus theme instead of mythical generals battling it out...Time to compare some things...

LP - Dungeon Dice Monsters

Today I decided to revisit DDM (the GBA version in this case) and take notes on certain rules in game:

Turn Order

• Roll dice
• Summon / Make paths
• Movement
• Combat
• End turn

Summoning

• You need to roll at least 2 summon dice of the same level to summon a monster

Attack / Level 1 Summon / Level 1 Summon

Paths

• MUST be on an adjacent square to another path that you own
• The first one must always be next to the Dice Master
• Can be placed in whatever direction you like
• Cannot be placed over other paths-- not even your own. They must fit perfectly on the grid

Dice Master starting point

Incorrect monster placement

Correct monster/path placement

Monster after being placed on the board

Actions

• Defined by number of dice rolled with that given command, or "crests"
• Monsters can activate their special abilities so long as you have enough magic crests
• Any monster can kill the Dice Master
• Every attack takes away one heart
• Dice Masters have 3 life points

Brainstorming - PnP

PnP - Deconstruction

Labyrintus: is a 2-4 player game designed by Victoria Lamb. It's relatively fast-paced, with a playtime averaging in between 30-60 minutes depending on the number of players available.

GOAL:
The object of the game is to get your team, consisting of 4 figures, across the labyrinth first. Each player is assigned an entry point and an exit point (located across the entry point).

Print and Play

As an introduction to our new project, we've begun to look into Print and Play games...

Maze(?):

It consists of multiple pieces that make up the board, with some blocks that are "locked" and some that are "sliding blocks". It's a 4 player game that allows for variety of strategic choices based on which of the 9 characters you choose, as well as all the available actions and differing terrain.

Setting up took a while; the rules were rather wordy but basically each player gets 2 Action Points (AP per turn. They don't carry over. Most actions (moving, picking up treasure, sliding blocks, etc) cost one AP, but each character has a "free" action, giving you a total of 3 possible moves per turn. The only thing that costs 2 AP points is using a Spell.

The game was started out slow in terms of fun...a whole game can be played without the modify the map. In actuality, however, sliding the blocks around is what makes the game really interesting. Everyone can also control the Dragon piece to sabotage other players and even steal their treasures. The game ends one all treasure is picked up.

RoboDerby: Express

A simplified version of RoboRally. A 2-4 player game in which you play as a supercomputer programming robots out of boredom. We roll die in order to control the robots and get them through a maze made up of 4 board tiles.

Each player begins at a different marker and they have to race from an outside edge all around the board, with the requirement to touch each game tile in order. The direction in which this plays depends on your setup. Relatively easy to setup, since it deals with the board pieces and stickers. However, each player needs 6 die to play.

Alternatively, each player plays with 2 die, (one to represent the robot and one for actions) and you roll your action die for every row. We left markers on top of the "sticker" cards to keep track of our options (as though we were playing bingo). This was important in regards to the strategic part of the game due to the different "priority" of each action!

At any rate, each player has a programming card with various options:

Again due to our lack of die, we moved away our markers until we only had 4 moves and assigned the R values to a row. It was fun because it was a game of somewhat balanced luck and chaos due to your own strategy on robot movement-- plus sabotage from other players.

Some of the more interesting commands were the different Hacking methods (Comment "//" and Invert "!"), those can really mess people up at times. The Comment Hack cancels out an opponent's moves while the Invert Hack inverts another player's command (i.e. move back 3 spaces instead of forward)

Thoughts:

Both games were based on modular game tile set, which definitely added customization and variety to gameplay that I really enjoyed. The art for RoboDerby was really clean and stands out in comparison to Maze-- especially if you use the Tron-themed board tiles...

RoboDerby's 6 die per player requirement made it a little more difficult to play in terms of resources, but it made the game a lot of fun. I definitely liked the various options that these games had to offer in terms of available player actions and playing fields.

AlterNine

For our real world alteration, we did a small ARG of sorts. We planted some posters with clues around the school that would lead to different locations on campus and had players run around in search for them. 

Mechanical Donkey Kong

Martin Raynsford has created a mechanical (ie physical) version of the classic Donkey-Kong game. Jumpman can move left and right, and jump over the “barrels” thanks to the power of Arduino! Said arduino is patched on to the back of an NES PAD connector-- making it so that it's still fully functional product.

The motor's not really powerful enough to make him move much faster but this is still pretty neat. More about this on his blog.