Steering a Ship

I once heard a designer say "I'm steering this ship" as an explanation of his role on the project, and I have often thought of that analogy since then.  If the project is a ship, then the designer who is tasked with finding the creative direction would make sense to be the person steering (or at least the person navigating).  Steering the ship seems like an exciting job, you can see your destination ahead and all it takes is convincing the ship to go in the right direction.

So the ship is the project, and it is afloat on the great open sea of ideas, and you - the designer - are steering it.  Ahead is a beautiful island that you know to be your destination, it is near enough that you can just make it out, but far enough that you are not sure how long it will take to get there.  In the beginning the sailing is smooth enough, the only trouble is the wind and water keep changing direction, but nothing your trusty crew can't handle.  As you continue along you start to notice your ship is veering left and right, and it is hard to stay on course, but you are not discouraged, you can still see the beautiful destination island ahead, and you know it will all be worth the trouble.  Then you start to notice other problems: the rudder no longer works, parts of the ship are falling off, you didn't bring enough rope, half your crew has gotten sea sick...Still, that island is growing ever nearer...Or you think it is.  That's when you notice that there are actually 5 islands ahead, and your crew look to you to pick one.  At this distance they all look the same, but you know that only one is the right one, which one to pick?  You try to convince your crew that you should visit each island in turn to determine the best one, but it is futile, the ship can only make the journey to one island if you are lucky.  So you make your best educated guess, you point your ship toward an island you think is the best and you forge onward.  The wind has been steadily picking up, and at this point it blows into a full storm.  Morale is low as your crew clings to the ship and tries to hold it upright, wondering if they will survive this storm as they have survived the storms of the past.  The storms clears and the remains of your ship and crew wash up onto the shore of an island...is it the right island?  After all you've been through, you can't even remember, but your crew runs ashore cheering and dancing in the sand, and it's the right island now.

Nov 4 Playtest Match 3 Card Game

I playtested the match 3 card game with Antonio, a fellow designer, and received some great feedback:

 - To set it apart from digital games, it could use more card game elements such as a 'hand' of cards the opponent cannot see, and ways to counter the opponent
 - Would be interesting to have other rules or instructions on one side of the card
 - Needs more complexity, another variable beyond color and direction of movement
 - Could add a way to score points, maybe each card could have a number of points on it as a variable
 - Some cards should be able to affect other cards
 - Would be fun to set traps for the oponent

Potential ideas for changes based on this playtest:

 - Each player has a hand of cards, and can use them to swap out cards from the play area
 - Card in the hand can be used directly against the opponent (counter)
 - Have special instructions on certain cards
 - Might need a separate deck for cards dealt into the hand

Match 3 Card Game Update

After giving some thought to this card game and the feedback I've been receiving for it, I've decided to make some changes.  I've decided that having cards that can only move one direction makes the game progress a bit too slowly, so I think all cards should have 2, 3, or 4 options for direction.  Also my playtesters seemed overwhelmed by "remembering" what was on the card, and rather than having a game about memory my intention was to make it more about surprises.  I used a couple of wild cards in my playtests, but the 'wild' part was clearly displayed on the front, and the back just had direction arrows.  Now I think the wild part should be on the back, and no arrows (wild cards can either move anywhere or not move at all).

Here are examples of what some of the cards look like now:

I also want to change the functions of the wild cards.  The lightening bolt cannot move, but if it is put into a set of 3 the player can collect every card that is touching the lightening bolt.  The heart can be moved anywhere on the board.  And the 'anti-wild' cannot move but can be a part of any set (it represents any color). 

I have also had some random ideas about having cards that have a different color on the back, and once you turn them over they don't turn back.  I'm not sure yet how to use this in the game, but it seems interesting. 

Here is a picture from playing my game:

Waking Mars

So far this blog has been devoted to my ideas, my playtest documentation, and general ramblings about design.  Today I feel like trying something new - analyzing a game I am playing.  Yes, I've had to do this in the past for classes or for research, but this time I am doing it out of genuine interest in the design behind a game I am currently enjoying.

Waking Mars, a game created by Tiger Style Games, I believe exhibits some truly unique features.  The core mechanics are nothing new, but cleanly execute - a 2D scroller that lets you walk on the ground or float up and down with a jet pack, and clicking to throw objects.  The movement control and physics simulation are comfortable and fluid, and not frustrating or cumbersome as I am accustom to in 2D games.  The story is interesting and not entirely over-used - an explorer discovering life on Mars.

The unique thing is the lack of violence...or perhaps the approach they take to removing violence.  There is violence towards me, the player, because the world is fairly hostile, however there is essentially nothing I can do to fight back against the world, I can only endure.  The world itself is fraught with danger - jagged rocks, crumpling caves, and steep drops if I forget to use my jet pack - but there is another danger: ferocious Martian lifeforms.  My defenses against these creatures is to distract them while I try to get past, quite a fascinating mechanic.  There is nothing I can do to harm the creatures or the world, however I can witness the creatures harming and killing each other, as I am a helpless observer of nature.

I have not beat this game yet, so I will likely post an update once I complete it, but I can already say that I highly recommend this game.  It is unique and innovative, and the art and sounds are compelling and the world is very immersive.

Texas Hold'em Word Game

New card game idea!

Essentially follows the structure of Texas Hold'em - each player is dealt 2 cards, then a round of betting, then 3 community cards turned face up in the middle, another round of betting, another community card, another round of betting, one final community card (for a total of 5) and a final round of betting before players show their hands.  The difference from Texas Hold'em is instead of trying to get the best poker hand the players are trying to get the highest scoring words.  Each letter would have a different score value (initially based on the score value of letters in Scrabble) and words of different length would be worth different points.

Ideally, after playtesting and iterations this game would diverge from Texas Hold'em in play style, and would digress from the Scramble scoring system, to eventually become its own unique game.

Match 3 Card Game Second Playtest

For this playtest I watched 2 of my classmates play the game while I took notes.  Here are my notes and their feedback and some potential changes:

•  Having the board wrap around for movement may be confusing since collecting a set does not wrap around the board
•  Players seemed interested/engaged when a card they could move caused a different set (that did not include the card they flipped)
•  Allowing players to choose not to move a card they flip can lead to stalemate situations, it may work better if a player MUST move the card they flip
•  Based on other match 3 games some players may want to make multiple moves to clear several sets at once (ex. Puzzles and Dragons)
•  The game feels like a digital game (as most match 3 games are)
• Players sometimes moved the same card back and forth to hinder their opponent
• Players would like to keep cards direction-side up once flipped so they don't need to remember
• Anti-wild card moves to easily

Match 3 Card Game Playtest

Solitaire (played by myself)

I printed out 8 of each of the 4 colored gems and 4 wild card (can be any color).  Each wild card has one direction it can move (right, left, up, down).  4 of each colored card can move one direction (left, right, up, down), and 4 of each color can move 2 direction (up/left, down/left, up/right, down/right).  I dealt the cards out into a 4x4 grid and began making moves following the rules explained in a previous post.

During this test I realized 2 issues - first, the order the cards are dealt makes a huge difference and since both sides of the card have the colored gem there is no way for it to be random.  Second, sometimes a set of 3 is dealt onto the board.

Solutions:
1. The deal order (for starting game and also for replacing cards) starts at the top left corner of the board and proceeds to the right, then down (like reading).  For example, when the board is dealt the first time the dealer should deal the top row first (left to right) then the second row (left to right) and so on.  This deal order should also be used for replacing cards that have been removed.
2. If a card is dealt that causes a set of 3 it should be shuffled back into the deck and a different card layed instead.  Near the end of the deck, if there is no way to avoid this situation then the entire board should be redealt.  The game ends when there are not enough cards left to deal a full board.