Wednesday 10/12

Today we were assigned to have a playable version of our game ready to be used for play-testing in class. Our game board was very physically attractive and seemingly more put-together than many of the other games, however we discovered some major flaws within our game. I (Jamie) stayed behind with the game to explain it to the two guys who came to our table to play Wormhole Collapse. They thought the directions were too boring so did not thoroughly read them, this leads me to believe we should try and be a bit more concise in our directions, and also include some descriptive pictures. The game-play went fairly well. There was a small issue with the boys not remembering to keep count of their energy use on the meter, however this is human error, and not a flaw in the game- but it is noteworthy nonetheless. The major issue we did find though, is that the game ended very quickly. We played through the entire game in roughly 15 minutes; far quicker than the other games being played in class. We also discovered that our game is somewhat similar to "Sorry" and that there is not enough interaction between players. The two boys who played our game really enjoyed the game, and thought it was a good overall product. However we received some criticism from the Professor that our game was too simple and "Sorry"-like, not enough "team" interaction between players, and that we should establish some common resource that players should be cognizant of, and conservative with. We have been trying to brainstorm ways we can accomplish this, and finalize our game to be turned in on Wednesday 10/19.

 We started off the day getting some more tips in a presentation that could help us pull the game together. We already have a prototype and a generalized outline of all the rules. We still need to polish all the rules and different ideas. We agreed to meet friday to accomplish all of these things and hope to put the finishing touches to our game. We are still working on the graphics of not only the game board but also the game cards. We are adjusting the time when you can play your cards to any point during the game. we are in the process of finishing all the game cards idea we have about 40. We are aiming for cards that you can use strategically rather then are all just luck. We are also finishing different rules and making them perfect so there is no confusion in the game. We have one more week untill other groups play our game    so we are feeling the pressure to make ends meet. We are pretty confident in the game but hope that it does not confuse who ever plays it. We are adding a token system to represent fuel in order to not only move forward in the game but it is also used as currency to use different cards. We are currently putting a cost  to some of the cards depending on how severe that cards consequences. We are coming really close to having a finished product and were working out the kinks.

Last Wednesday class began with another presentation by group three. The presentation was twitch skill, different player types, and the need for different balances of luck and skill. Michael brought in a printed version of our game board. It was a clear problem for the eye to see your section and which way you should move. we discussed different ways to fix this problem including take out the lines along the path, making the lines along the path thinner than others, or putting arrows down to show the way you move. Eric came back this week and we filled him in on what he missed last week and he shared with us his thoughts on our changes also his card ideas from last week. The main focus we had at the beginning of class was the overall design of the board: borders, spaces, pieces, and meteor spots. Our first play test in class we decided to play a different way by not starting with any initial cards. Cards are a great component of the game but it is a little confusing when we can play a card or how many, this is still a kink we need to work out. During the first play test Jamie was drifting with no fuel and i played a card on her to move her back two spaces. This ultimately took Jamie out of the game and it was very obvious from the moment it happened. This is something that we do not want in our game so it sparked a debate on changing some of the dynamics of our game such as; different spots for card and fuel spots, making cards free, taking fuel out of the game, and having different cards that are free to play. We ended up changing the amount of fuel and card spots from every 7 to every 5 spaces and we also changed the start fuel amount from 15 to 10. Also, we decided that once you land on a meteor spot it will be removed so this takes away the chance to skip a turn and harvest more fuel.