First Lecture in Game Design & Production – Tichu

Name: Tichu

Number of Players: 3 - 10

Length of one Game: 5 minutes +

                    Today, I learned how to play a game called Tichu. It is a Chinese cultural based card that requires 3- 10 players. I played the first time with Andrew, Divakar, James and Vince. The rules took us awhile to understand, but the overall experience was fun.

GamePlay:

                    To me, Tichi is similar to card game "President" and "Dou Di Zhu", where players can play strike, double, single, full house, or bomb, etc, and all other player has to play the same type of cards but higher value in the same turn. In Tichi, the strike can go as long as it can be, and players can do double strike, which is double with neighbour values. We did not discover all types of gameplay, but the one we played, suits did not matter. There are also unique cards such as Dragon, Phoenix, Dog, and Mah-Jong for specific gameplay.

Overall:

                    This game is flexible for players and has variety of gameplays. Player can either solo or team up with another player and there are many methods to get points in some gameplay. However, the design is very similar to the general play card. If I can design this card game differently, I would try to come up with a unique design on the cards like UNO or Blink. A more unique interface while the gameplay can stay the same.