This week we made some great progress on our game, "Shop Til' You Drop". In class we were able to build upon our expanding base of knowledge of game design. This week we learned core mechanics and the difference between formal and dramatic elements in games. After we discussed the aforementioned terms we had a group discussion and tried to implement new elements and expand upon our game.
The core mechanics of our game as of know are as follows;
1. Each player gets five cash cards to start.
2. 1 player draws a card to determine the spending budget prior to the game starting.
3. Each turn a player can draft a new cash card from a set of four or select a card at random from the pile of cash cards.
4. Each player can purchase one item if they have the exact amount of cash that the item costs in some combination of the bills in their hand.
The formal elements of the game are described in part by the core mechanics of the game. The dramatic elements of the game were a main topic of discussion amongst our group today. As a group we tried to decide what would be the best story for the players of our game to take part in. The ideas we came up with include;
1. A shopping spree in which the winner is the only player that gets to keep the items they purchase
2. Shopping for gifts for the holidays. There can be different people you need to buy gifts for. Each player could have to draw from another pile to find out who they have to buy gifts for and maybe even what items these people want as gifts.
3. The players are trying to buy stuff to furnish their college room or home.
The winner of our game is still the player who spends the exact amount their budget is before the other players.
Our group meeting also saw the creation of a facebook group for our group members to discuss the game, and added a receipt style score sheet that would allow each player to keep track of how much money they have spent during the game.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
9/12/12
The name of our card game is Shop Til' You Drop. The concept of the game is, as stated in the title, general shopping. Each player is “shopping” for a variety of items on a
mutual budget. The first player to achieve spending all of their budget money
is the winner of the game. There are three different piles of cards; cash cards, budget cards, and the item cards. The budget cards are what determine the budget for that game for every player. The items cards will be the items players are attempting to purchase in the game. The cash cards are cards with dollar values that players will be purchasing the items on the item cards with. Some cash cards will have "special offers and coupons" that will help players get ahead in the game.
We chose this game over the other games because we felt it had the most replay ability, very little downtime, and had the perfect amount of randomness and chaos to keep the game interesting, yet light and simple. Mike's card game about matching the country to it's correct continent was too simple and did not have much replay ability once the players caught on to where all the countries were located. Christian's game about trying to avoid sinking your boat had a great concept, but too chaotic to be a game you could relax and enjoy. Jeff's game about being a high school student trying to reach a particular goal had a great theme, but the mechanics would have required too much downtime. Therefore, we chose Shop Til' You Drop.
Today we discussed how we could change and improve on some aspects of the game. The parameters of the game are that a player can only win if he or she spends the EXACT budget; no more, no less. If a player has a five hundred dollar budget, and the player has "spent" four hundred and eighty dollars, the player cannot buy an item for twenty-five and must pass on buying that item. We have also decided to add more actions to the cash cards to improve on the variability and randomness of the game, such as percentage discounts (50% off) and money off ($10 off) on items. We also discussed adding actions that would hinder a player's performance in the game, such as trading items, or having to give your item cards to other players for holidays or birthdays. Hopefully we can evaluate and elaborate on these suggestions more next week!
We chose this game over the other games because we felt it had the most replay ability, very little downtime, and had the perfect amount of randomness and chaos to keep the game interesting, yet light and simple. Mike's card game about matching the country to it's correct continent was too simple and did not have much replay ability once the players caught on to where all the countries were located. Christian's game about trying to avoid sinking your boat had a great concept, but too chaotic to be a game you could relax and enjoy. Jeff's game about being a high school student trying to reach a particular goal had a great theme, but the mechanics would have required too much downtime. Therefore, we chose Shop Til' You Drop.
Today we discussed how we could change and improve on some aspects of the game. The parameters of the game are that a player can only win if he or she spends the EXACT budget; no more, no less. If a player has a five hundred dollar budget, and the player has "spent" four hundred and eighty dollars, the player cannot buy an item for twenty-five and must pass on buying that item. We have also decided to add more actions to the cash cards to improve on the variability and randomness of the game, such as percentage discounts (50% off) and money off ($10 off) on items. We also discussed adding actions that would hinder a player's performance in the game, such as trading items, or having to give your item cards to other players for holidays or birthdays. Hopefully we can evaluate and elaborate on these suggestions more next week!
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