Castle Overthrow (Group 4)

Castle Overthrow

Group 4


Think you can outsmart the Overlord? What about your teammates? Play as 1 of 3 heroes (warrior, scout, and builder) where the objective is to overthrow the castle. Or play as the Overlord, trying their best to prevent their castle from being taken over!  It is encouraged that the heroes work together to reach their goal, however, in the end only one can win!  This competitive strategic based game is designed for players between the ages of 15 and 30. Nevertheless, anyone looking to diverge themselves in strategic battle for dominance will enjoy this game.  

The development process ran pretty smoothly.  Each of us finished our own tasks on time and at good quality.  The rules and procedures were figured out in class as well as an outline of how the board would look. I completed the finishing product of the board while my partner Kade, made the cards and game pieces.  Communication was key in clarifying due dates and assignments that needed to be completed.  However, we did run into a miscommunication when we both thought we turned in Game Treatment 4 ( which we had done before break ) but neither of us had.

Original Prototype

 In order to collect play-testing results, both of us observed and took note on the players’ reactions and attitudes to figure out where players were having trouble. We also asked the players afterward a couple of questions to get their personal feedback on what they liked and or disliked about our game, and also to see if they had any suggestions on how we could make the game better.

We had a total of 2 complete games and a few scattered game fragments. Because our game was not finished for the first play-test, we had players play it in sections and got feedback on that. All of our play-testers were CAGD 170 students between the ages of 18 to 22. During our first play-test session, the rules were not very clear because players were confused and had to ask a couple questions.  In the beginning, it seemed as though players struggled a little to grasp everything and figure out what they could and could not do. Therefore, we tried to clarify the rules a little more so that players would understand them better. Also, we noticed that our board looked a little bland, so we added some color to it, in order for players to distinguish the different obstacles and resources more easily.  Another change we made was adding a piece to help players keep track of their health.

There are a couple improvements that can be made to the game to make it better and more enjoyable.  Such as:

• Add pieces on the stone and wood spots so that players know how many resources they have as well as make the game more interactive.
• Make the pieces look more appealing, and possibly add more features to the board including 3d effects for scenery and walls.
• Officially made pieces with stat trackers and sliders on the sides.

In the end, Castle Overthrow was a success in setting a base for a game. There are many things that can be done to improve it, and overall it would translate very well to a digital game. With the amount of time that we had available, I would say that our group did well in creating our game for players.

CAGD 170 Blog Post #3

Hey, welcome back again. This time around I am in Group 19 with my partner Jessica Adachi, and we got together and created the card game Viral Intentions. The game is played by trying to infect other players with symptom cards while defending yourself with preventions and medicine. Players go through a deck and are shuffled random cards in order to keep much of the game up to chance and strategy. Players are given the silent option of working together to infect others with as many symptoms as possible. The game is a quick and fun comedic relief type of game. Viral Intentions was made with a large audience in mind, and has almost bo focus on age range.

We received a lot of positive feedback from our play-testers. They thought our game was very simple and enjoyable, and did a pretty good job reaching our target audience. The rules and procedures were straightforward. Another positive response we received is that the game was a “comedic relief”, in the sense that it allows players to team up with each other and go after another.  After the first play-test session we added more cards to the deck and lowered the amount of cards in hand.  We also established the 5 round rule.

We had a total of eight people play our game, and give us feedback.  All of our play-testers were college students taking CAGD 170, ranging from the ages of 18 to 22.  We had a mix of male and female play-testers in order to receive different opinions. In order to collected data we observed and asked questions after the game.

We both worked well together, getting our assignments done in a timely matter.  Communication was key and helped us be successful throughout the process. The hardest part for us was coming up with an idea. However, everything ran smoothly afterward. By having more play-testers in our targeted audience, we would have been better able to craft the game to their liking. Overall, players seemed to really enjoy our game and had fun playing it.

CAGD 170 Project #2

Welcome back to my blog. I am now in Group 20 with my partner Alex Garst, and together we created the board game Farmer's Market. The game is played on a monopoly-style board with a huge focus in farming. Players buy and plant crops in order to sell them and pay of their debt before the other players. The board is full of events that can hinder, or help, players. The game is centered on the risk and reward game-play experience. Farmer's Market was made with older male players in mind, and focuses on the age range of 30-40 years old. 

My partner Alex holding our game-board

    During the game-testing phase, my group realized that the beginning of our game got off to a very slow start. This made the players feel like the game was repetitive until they started planting more crops. In order to prevent too slow of a start, we implemented new rules that would speed up how crops were planted on the first time around the board. We also went back through our game rules and procedures and clarified on points that players had a difficult time understanding. These improvements made the game much more appealing in the second playtest, and added more entertainment overall.

A closer look

During the play-test this time around, we were given a lot more time. The players had time to actually get into the games, and the reactions to it were all completely positive. The players were understanding the rules pretty quickly, and had almost no interaction with my partner and I while playing. Many of the games that we tried were really fun and goofy. Each game was very different because of the assigned topic, and that led to a very varied classroom of boards. 

During development, our group seemed to do very well while brainstorming and did very well working together when our schedules allowed us to actually meet up for extended periods of time. Meeting up more often probably would have been beneficial, but I am pretty pleased with how the players took our game. We each did a good amount of the work, and nobody was left with an unbearable load. My partner still has ideas that he'd love to test out with the game, and I'm excited by the prospect of working more on it. I had a great time creating the game with my group partner, and look forward to working with him again sometime.

Group 6 Blog

    Hey there, welcome to my blog. I am in Group 6 with my partner Bryanna Melendez, and together we worked on the card game Battle-Plains. The game is a strategy based war game in which players try to outwit their opponents by using their card units to overpower the enemy. It consists of 5 basic classes which include swordsman, archers, cavalry, pike-men, and catapults, all of which have differing attributes and strengths. This game focuses more on the younger audience, around the ages 9-15 to get the full enjoyment of it.
    During the game-testing phase, our group realized that though we may have understood the rules well, it took too long to understand for other player. This lead to a decrease in enjoyment for the audience. The procedure were also listed in a way that made it hard to follow, so seeing others try out our game really helped to gain perspective. We realized that having a sheet for our units abilities and stats took too much reading and time, and decided we should redo the cards in order to add stats to the cards for easy access. This change would have sped up the game and added more entertainment overall.

    During the time we got to play test, we never actually got to get deep into a game. By the time that our group had finally understood the rules, we were already being told to move on. We did get to try out 1 game, but it was so unbalanced that only 1 person could actually win depending on what role you were assigned. Many of the games we tried had unlabeled elements, which led to confusion on my groups part as we were unsure of what to do with the items. The creators eventually had to stop the game and rearrange what we had in order to get us back on track. I think that seeing this made us realize just how hard it is to make simple and easy to follow rules and procedures.

    Using things that we had learned from both playing and trying to understand rules, and from feedback on our games, my partner and I decided on changing how we presented the rules and procedures. A few solutions that we came up with was adding a system to keep track of health on the cards using a corner hp method, and adding the special bonuses to the bottom of the cards. Adding these bonuses would also make the cards seem more efficient and powerful, as players would no longer have to look back and forth between health and damage dealt.

    During development, our group seemed to be on slightly differing pages, which lead to quite a bit of confusion in the development process. Something we could do to help that is to meet up and communicate more often and more clearly. These meeting actually really help in order to establish just what kind of game the other person is envisioning, and helps the game become more cohesive as it comes into a playable prototype. This would also help distribute the work load, because at times it seemed confusing as to who would do what parts. Overall though, I had a great time creating our game with my group partner, and look forward to working and learning with others too.