GAME STUDIES | ONLY EXERCISES, FINAL PROJECT & REFLECTIONS
GAME STUDIES | ONLY EXERCISES, FINAL PROJECT & REFLECTIONS
1.4.2023 - 7.7.2022 (Week 1 - Week 7)
Er Xin Ru (Melanie) | 0354939
Bachelor Of Design (Hons) In Creative Media | Taylor's University
Subject: GCD61504 - Games Studies
INSTRUCTIONS
Week 1 : Introduction to games studies (Exercise)
Exercise 1 Task: Personal Gaming History
Fig 7 : Individual Exercise
- Do you remember the first video game you played as a child?
- Go down that memory lane, and revisit the best memorable games you had played as you were growing up.
- Review the best parts of the games that makes you a fan, as well as the parts where you think the game could use some improvements.
- These childhood games and memories are most likely to inspire your potential game ideas.
- Present your findings as a video presentation and upload it into YouTube (set to Unlisted) for submission.
Game equation: Pick three references from variety of categories (childhood and traditional games, fictional settings, other video games, social media behaviours, hobbies) and build an equation and try to derive a game concept from that.
Playful experiences: What is the emotions that you want the players to experience? Express one strong emotion and create the possible connections to the game.
Link to everyday life: Another interesting scope you can consider, how your game can relate to the everyday life of your players? By including something familiar into the gameplay and setting, the more likely your players will find it intriguing.
Final Youtube : Week 1 Exercise 1 task: Personal Gaming History
Week 2 : Game principles, framework + playful experiences (Exercise)
Task:
Now that you had fun going down memory lane, choose one of your most favourite game. The one that made you a loyal fan, and play it again and again. Based on the Playful Iterative Design framework, review the game’s components - DESIGN, PLAY, and ANALYZE - as in how do they all come together to create playful experiences for this particular game. These findings are most likely to strengthen and improve your current ideas for your game. Present your findings as a video presentation and upload it into YouTube (set to Unlisted) for submission.
- Task this week: Share the progression of your initial ideas with Miss Anis and continue developing from there
- Identify the suitable game principles and reflect this to the framework + playful experiences
- Make plans with your group members for next week Gameplay Exploration during self-directed class
Final Proposal : Week 2 Exercise 2 task: What makes ‘this game’ playful?
Final Slides : Week 2 Exercise 2 task: What makes ‘this game’ playful?
Final Youtube : Week 2 Exercise 2 task: What makes ‘this game’ playful?
Week 4 Exercise 3 : Game principles, framework + playful experiences (Exercise)
Task:
Identify a non-digital game which has been converted into a digital version.
Discuss on:
Brief explanation of the gameplay
Differences and similarity of play dimension (real life vs on screen): Tip! Pick a game with either real-time or turn-based action; describe its core game mechanics and explain how the player experiences them temporally during both play dimensions.
Benefits and disadvantages of three-dimensional: Tip! Find a game that has appeared in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional versions; compare, and give grounds for whether three-dimensional is beneficial or not in games.
Present your findings as a video presentation and upload it into YouTube (set to Unlisted) for submission.
Final Proposal : Week 4 Exercise 3 task_ Re-mediating the non-digital? Proposal
Final Slides : Week 4 Exercise 3 task_ Re-mediating the non-digital? Proposal
Final Youtube : Week 4 Exercise 3 task_ Re-mediating the non-digital? Proposal
Week 6 Exercise 4 task: The world’s evolution in “this game”
Identify a video game series or franchise that revolves around the same world (i.e: The Sims, God of War, Civilization, Guild Wars, Super Mario Bros) and discuss how each game’s iteration affects the world’s evolution.
-Brief description of the chosen game
-Differences and similarity of the world building throughout the series/franchise
TIP! Pick a game that revolves around the same world and lore. From here you can easily track the evolution of the worlds as the game progresses throughout the series/franchise.
Present your findings as a video presentation and upload it into YouTube (set to Unlisted) for submission.
Identify a video game series or franchise that revolves around the same world (i.e: The Sims, God of War, Civilization, Guild Wars, Super Mario Bros) and discuss how each game’s iteration affects the world’s evolution.
-Brief description of the chosen game
-Differences and similarity of the world building throughout the series/franchise
TIP! Pick a game that revolves around the same world and lore. From here you can easily track the evolution of the worlds as the game progresses throughout the series/franchise.
Present your findings as a video presentation and upload it into YouTube (set to Unlisted) for submission.
Final Proposal : Week 6 Exercise 4 task: The world’s evolution in “Genshin Impact”
Final Slides : Week 6 Exercise 4 task: The world’s evolution in “Genshin Impact”
Final Youtube : Week 6 Exercise 4 task: The world’s evolution in “Genshin Impact”
FINAL GROUP PROJECT "CUPID"
From Starting to Ending that include our presentation Slides, Playtest and Pictures.
Our Proposal - Slides | Game Name is CUPID
[First Proposal, Presentation Slides]
Overall, me and my teammates we do our best for our Presentation. We do prepare a proposal before adding the details and information to the Slides. Everyone was responsible for their own parts as we do divide parts to each of the members. The Ideas and Gameplay is nice and interesting to play for us as we did lots of Gameplay of boardgames and research to came out with the best gameplay we wanted to create that attract the players.
[Second Proposal, Presentation Slides - Consultation on the Design]
Ms.Anis feedback was to change the graphic of the cards and boardgames design through this consultation after that we do change the final design (Below graphics)
Front Card
Cupid Card
- Upon collecting 3 cards and playing them, can be played as a Chance card or When played singularly, heals player for 1HP per card.
See the Future Card
- Upon playing, it allows the player to privately view top 5 cards in the deck.
Guess Card
- Players blindly pick and steal 1 card from any other player’s hand
Chance Card
- When played, counters ONE death card OR negates damage from all accident cards in that turn.
Reverse Card
- Upon playing, reverses player turn order. (clockwise/ anti-clockwise)
Say No Card
- Upon playing, it denies any effect of the action/ ability card played by another player. (Attack, Draw 3, See the future, Guess, Skip, Reverse)
Accident Card
- Upon drawing this card, the player has to deduct a certain number of HP based on the card drawn.
Attack Card
- When played, it forces the next player to draw 2 cards
Conceal card
- Allows players to hide a death card within their hand without losing 50% HP. If this card is stolen (via Guess card) player will be considered to have drawn a Death card.
- *If a Death card is stolen the other player is considered to have drawn a Death card
Death Card
- Upon drawing this card, player -50% current HP(rounded down eg: 5->2) unless a Chance card is played or 3 Cupid cards are played.
Draw Card
- Upon playing, the player can choose to draw 3 cards or force the next player to draw 3 cards.
Skip Card
- Upon playing, the next player still draws at the start of their turn, but cannot play any cards.
Board Game Design
[Final Proposal, Presentation Slides]
About our game "Cupid"
Introduction of our game "Cupid"
"CUPID" is a card-based game that involves players taking turns to play and draw cards that can affect their health points (hp). Each player must carefully manage their hp throughout the game, as once it reaches zero, they lose. However, players must also be wary of the death card, as it causes players to lose half of their remaining health points.Objectives
The game aims to use strategy and tactical thinking:
- Maintain HP
- Decrease Opponent's' HP
The game's cards are designed to provide entertainment and add a lighthearted element to the gameplay.
The Gamerule
Welcome to the instructional play video for the game "CUPID"! In this video, we will guide you through the rules and gameplay of this exciting card game. Let's get started!
[Introduction]
"CUPID" is a card-based game designed for 3 to 5 players. The objective of the game is to be the last player standing, strategically managing your health points (HP) and using various cards to attack and defend against opponents. Now, let's dive into the gameplay!
[Explanation of major card types]
Before starting our game, let’s take a closer look at the major card types that can affect your HP. There are four important cards you need to know:
- Death: When you draw this card, you deduct 50% of your current HP. If you end up with a decimal number, round down to the smaller whole number
- Accident: When you draw this card, you deduct a certain number of HP based on the card drawn.
- * What can you do when you draw both an Accident card and a Death card? Always deduct the points for the Accident card first, and then deduct the points for the Death card.
- Chance: When played, the Chance card counters one Death card or negates damage from all Accident cards in that turn.
- Cupid: When you collect and play three Cupid cards, you can use them as a Chance card. Alternatively, when played individually, each Cupid card heals you for 1 HP.
[Setup]
- Remove Accident, Chance, and Death cards from the deck.
- Each player receives 1 Chance card and 6 random cards from the deck. Depending amount of player
- Put the remaining cards back into the deck and reshuffle.
- All players start on tile 12.
- Choose one player to go first, and the game continues Anti-clockwise.
- Each player starts with 12 HP.
- During their turn, players must draw 1-3 cards and play at least 1 card.
- Throughout the game, players can use power cards such as Attack, Draw 3, See the Future, Guess, Conceal, Skip, Reverse, and Say No to protect themselves or attack other players.
- It's important to note that players cannot backtrack after passing over tile 4 and tile 8, even if they use Cupid cards to increase their HP.
- If the draw pile runs out, reshuffle the play pile and add it back to the draw pile.
- Finally, players are not allowed to have more than 10 cards in hand. If they exceed this limit, they must deduct their HP according to the number of excess cards and play those cards in the next round.
- Attack: When played, it forces the next player to draw 2 cards.
- Draw 3: Upon playing, the player can choose to draw 3 cards or force the next player to draw 3 cards.
- See the Future: Upon playing, it allows the player to privately view the top 5 cards in the deck. Players can choose to change the card order or take the card on the top.
- Guess: Players blindly steal 1 card from any other player’s hand. *If the player steals a Death card, they will be considered to have drawn a Death card and must deduct the points immediately.
- Conceal: Allows players to hide a death card within their hand without losing 50% HP. If this card is stolen (via Guess card), the player will be considered to have drawn a Death card.
- Skip: Upon playing, the next player still draws at the start of their turn but cannot play any cards.
- Reverse: Upon playing, it reverses the player turn order (clockwise/anticlockwise).
- Say No: Upon playing, it denies the effect of any power card played by another player (Attack, Draw 3, See the Future, Guess, Skip, Reverse).
That concludes our gameplay instruction video for "CUPID." We hope you now have a clear understanding of the rules and mechanics of the game. Enjoy the game, and may cupid's arrow be in your favor!
Playtest Experience
First Playtest- The gameplay experience was not fun due to multiple bugs, including card ability issues, counting death cards, and accidental card triggers.
- Players easily died due to a lack of healing cards, resulting in fast game endings.
Second Playtest (Add Cupid - Heal Card) Add rules to the Power Card)
- The game lacked interaction as the process of adding and deducting HP became repetitive, turning it into an endurance match after introducing healing cards.
- Players struggled with understanding power cards, which required familiarity with card abilities before starting the game.
Third Playtest (Clear description on card, no backtracking after passing over tile 4 and tile 8)
- The game ended faster and increased focus on the board
- The gameplay became more interactive during player attacks.
- The overall strategic depth was not as expected initially but became more interesting with rule refinements.
Feedback
Post-Game Experience
- The score indicate that while players were generally satisfied with the game, the sense of journey and adventure would benefit more higher satisfaction rating.
Game Core Experience
- The overall core experience was generally positive as the game mechanic and structure triggered players' attention. However, the game could benefit more motives immersion so to create the relevance of gameplay to the internalised expectation for playful experiences (i.e: perpetuate narratives, lore in the game or exercise more role play when playing).
- The overall score for social presence was very good. Our game enabled the players to have a sense of healthy motivation to compete and enforced their confidence when playing the game.
- While your players's playful experiences awareness were generally positive, our game could benefit from playstyle that challenges your players usual intellect and subjective emotions. (i.e: more dramatic cause and effect in the game rules, dynamic adventure options)
Here are our Final Outcome of our Game Design "Cupid"
View of our Game Design "CUPID"- Cards, Love Counters & Board
Video of Whole view of our Game Design "CUPID"
View of our Game Design "CUPID"- Cards, Love Counters & Board
View of our Game Design "CUPID"- Magnetic Keeper for Counters
View of our Game Design "CUPID"- Cards Design
View of our Game Design "CUPID"- Overall View
View of our Game Design "CUPID"- Overall View & Rule Board
REFLECTIONS
Experience, Observation & Findings
My semester was absolutely awesome! I had the chance to learn about game history, create my own game, and so much more. It was all new to me, and I loved every bit of it. Miss Anis were super knowledgeable and passionate about guiding us and also is a very friendly lecturer that I'm able to study in a laugh and fun environment, which made learning so much more fun. Miss Anis really knew how to bring the subject to life and get us excited about it.
My semester was absolutely awesome! I had the chance to learn about game history, create my own game, and so much more. It was all new to me, and I loved every bit of it. Miss Anis were super knowledgeable and passionate about guiding us and also is a very friendly lecturer that I'm able to study in a laugh and fun environment, which made learning so much more fun. Miss Anis really knew how to bring the subject to life and get us excited about it.
But you know what made it even better? My teammates in the course. I'm genuinely thrilled to say that I had an amazing teammate for our assignment. We had a blast working together, and everyone really stepped up and gave their best as a team. I consider myself lucky to have such awesome teammates even we meet challenges but we help each other out. I learned so much from each member of the team, and the experience was incredibly rewarding. I'm absolutely in love with the game design we created for the cards and board, and the game mechanics we developed together. It's been a truly satisfying and enjoyable journey!
Overall, this course was a game-changer for me. I've grown so much, both personally and professionally. I feel proud of myself and grateful for the experience. It was fruitful, and I absolutely fell in love with the subject. It's been an incredible journey, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.
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