Game Design & Production Assignment #6

Part 1
Name: Tic-Tac-Toe
Number of Players: 2
Genre: Paper & Pencil game



Objective:
                    To line up 3 Os, or 3 Xs across the 3 x 3 grid in horizontal, vertical, or diagonal row.



How to Play:
                    One player starts off drawing O or X on any location on the grid, then the next player draws the opposite on any location on the grid that has not been fill yet. Players take turn to draw and the game ends until one of the players get his/ her O/X across the grid. In



Modification:
                    My task is to add some more chance-based mechanic into Tic-Tac-Toe, and my idea is very simple. First of all, there will be a 3 x 3 grid same as the original version, then there are 4 squares of O, 4 squares of X, and 1 dependent square. Players first shuffle and put all the square pieces on the 3 x 3 grid with the backside facing up. It starts off with a player chooses a square and guesses the piece is X or O.

- If the player guesses it right, he/ she gets to decide it to be X or O and takes over that space. 
- If the player does not guess it correctly, he/ she loses the square to the opponent and it will be either X or O according to what the opponent has. 
- If it is the dependent square, it is going to be true either the player says it is O or X.






Part 2
Name: Lucky Star (Night Version)
Number of Players: 2- 6
Genre: Board game



Objective:
                    The first player who lands on the star block wins the game. Players can either solo or team up with a partner, 1 or 2, base on the number of players.



How to Play:
                    Players take turns to roll a 6-sided dices to move. If they land on a block with arrow, it moves to the block where the arrow is pointing at. If they land on black blocks, they get to draw a user card; if they land on a "Time to Party" block, they activate an event that effects all players on the map immediately.



Modification:
                    This board game is made of 60% chance and 40% skill, which players have to be lucky to roll the ideal number to advance in game and draw the perfect card at the right moment; however, players also have to use strategy with the player cards in order to make them effective, especially when players play in a pair or more.

                    I decide to make this game to 100% skill oriented where players should be able to plan out their moves and use cards effectively. 

The changes are:
- players make their move base on the number of cards they have in their hand
- each player starts with 4 cards in their hand
- the user cards are increased from 24 to 48 with half of them provide movement boost. There will be: 
                    - "draw 2 extra cards" x 16
                    - "draw 3 cards and discard 2 cards from hand" x 16
                    - "discard x amount of cards and draw half of that amount of cards back (round down)" x 8
                    - "discard all the cards in hand and draw the same amount of cards as one of your opponent you choose" x 8
- Instead of landing on the 100 block to win, players have to go back after they reach 100 block and reach back to 1 in order win.
- all the used or discarded cards will go back to the card pile and shuffle.

Prototype #2 - The Starry Night Art Game

Name: Bright Night
Number of Players: 4



Map:

Objective:
                    This is a victory conditional and art board game. There are co-operative mode and competitive mode. In co-operative mode, players have to spend and spread all their "brightness" in the same round; and in competitive mode, players have collect all the stars on the map and whoever has the most brightness wins.




How to Play:

                    Players first decide the game mode, co-operative or competitive. In general, each player starts off with 15 brightness pieces and any player can view and know the amount of pieces each other player has anytime during the game. Then, one of the players places 9 stars on the map randomly. The game begins with 4 players starting from each corner, and they take turns to roll a 6-sided dice to move. Players can go any direction they besides diagonal, and they are not allow to land on/ pass by a block where another player is landed on. It counts as one round when all 4 players have made a move.

Co-operative Mode:
                    In this mode, players have to play the game in silent, with no strategy or any form of communication. Then, they have to co-operate to spread(discard) all their brightness within 2 rounds. There are 3 different types of block on the map, which costs different brightness to land on or pass by. Players can take less steps than the number of steps they have to make, for example, if a player gets 4, he/ she can take as many steps he/ she wants up to 4. However, players have to move at least 1 block each round and cannot move backward(the block they land on/ pass by from the last round). When players land on/ pass by a star, they can gain 7 brightness plus the number of their roll and the star is removed from the map. If a player runs out of brightness, he/ she loses immediately and the rest of the players can only win if they can spread the rest of their brightness pieces within 2 rounds.

Dark Block: a block where light could not reach and appears really dark on the map. Players have to light up this block with 3 brightness pieces in order to move on or land on this block.

Normal Block: a block that receives some light and appears normally on the map. Players have to brighten this block up with 2 brightness pieces in order to move on or land on this block.

Light Block: a block that receives light directly from the star in the sky and glows on the map. Players have to spread 1 brightness piece to keep it bright in order to move on or land on this block.

Competitive Mode:
                    In this mode, players have to compete and collect brightness to shine the brightest in the night sky in order to win. When players take their steps, they have to spend their brightness and put it on the block that they want to land on regardless of the block type. Therefore, players will leave a trail of brightness after they have made their moves. When players land on a block that already has a brightness on, they do not have to put another brightness down. When players land on/ pass by a star, they also gain 7 brightness plus the number of their roll and the star is removed from the map. The game ends when all the stars on the map are collected.



Tile:

Star: A Shinny star that shines brightly in the night sky. Star block is placed by a player randomly on the map before game starts and it provides brightness pieces to players who can reach it.

Brightness: A small twinkle light that provides small clarity in the dark night. It is required for players to make a move on the map and the amount is different depends on which game mode players choose.

Concepts & Ideas:

Interpretation on The Starry Night:

                    The Starry Night is one of the well-known painting painted by Van Gogh in 1889 and it is during the period where Van Gogh was sick.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night) The Starry Night provides lots of emotions to its audiences through Van Gogh's use of colours and composition, which provides lots of possible theme for the team and me to make an art game with.

                    We discover 3 major themes in The Starry Night.

Hope vs Depression: 

                    The exaggerated bright sky makes a contrast with the gloomy town. This happens might because Van Gogh was sick when he painted it, which his sickness might had impact on how he viewed things and how to present it. This could explain why the starlight is extremely bright and surreal. Also, these bright stars might be the metaphor of hope(because of the use of yellow and white, and the symbol star) to getting better from his sickness and it seems trying to overcome the depression he might came across by brighten up the gloomy town.

Peace of Mind:

                    The use of colours also reflects a lot of emotion about this painting. The dominant colour scheme is lots cool colours with blue and yellow. Blue itself provides a lot of emotion such as sadness or depression. However, with the use of yellow, it creates a sense of calm and peaceful feel. It is evident as Van Gogh's "use of the word 'quiet' and reference to Tolstoys book indicates that the night sky made him feel calm and brought to mind eternity." (http://www.artble.com/artists/vincent_van_gogh/paintings/starry_night/more_information/analysis) This also shows what Van Gogh might try to express through the painting when he saw the view. Also, according to John Buck's HTP (freehand drawing house, tree, and a person) test he invented in 1948, the light from the side of the town houses represents Van Gogh was seeking for comfort while he painted it.

Faith:

                    Lastly, the use of composition and metaphor might refer to Van Gogh's mindset during that time. In the painting, there are a gigantic tree on the left, pointing to the sky, and a normal size church that also points to the sky. There is no coincidence in painting, and these might be metaphors that represent something beyond. The tree might represent the force of nature, which could be referring to his sickness, something that he cannot predict or control and it is dominating a big part of his life at that point as the tree is presented so huge and surreal; and the church might represent his belief at that moment or anything that could help him stand against the difficulty he might be dealing with.

From The Starry Night to Bright Star:

                    Since we have discovered and understood a lot about the painting, we are ready to design the game and send the message/ feeling to players through the game.

                    Nothing can get the players involved than having them also be part of the game. In this case, they will play as the stars on sky and spread and share the brightness across the town as the meaning of what Van Gogh tried to express in The Starry Night. Therefore, I design the map of the board a bird view version of the town in the painting, to set players into the scene and participate with what Van Gogh has created. Then, we design 2 different modes for gameplay to approach different messages. 

                    For co-operative, we hope to unite the players to win the game by playing in silent, to achieve the purpose of showing how Van Gogh speechlessly expressed his feeling through stars and painting. As players would lose brightness every turn, this negative feedback loop can bring the feeling of frustration or depression that Van Gogh might had, and players need to plan out their moves carefully in order to win.

                    In competitive mode, we hope to present Van Gogh's battle with his sickness or even downfall by having players to compete with each other and be the brightest star of the night in order to win. Therefore, we make it a survival kind of game and have players to race each other to collect stars. This way we hope players get the feeling of how Van Gogh struggled and searched for hope during the time The Starry Night was painted.

Game Design & Production Assignment #5

Name: Liar's Dice
Number of Players: 2, recommend 3- 6+
Genre: Dice game

Objective:
                    Be the last person with dice.

How to Play:
                    All players roll 6 dices in the cups and each player claims how many numbers from 1 - 6 are face up. For example, it can be four 4s, eight 4s, five 5s, nine 5s, etc. The next player has to claim a higher value than the previous player and so on. Meanwhile, players can call out liar if they find someone is over exaggerating the numbers. At this point, all players have to reveal their dices and see if the statement the last player made is true or not. If it is true, that player is lying, he/ she loses a dice. If it is not true, the numbers do exist, the player who shout out liar loses a dice. This game ends until only one person left with dice.

Modification:
                    In order to make it more interesting and different from the original Liar's Dice, we modify and add some new rules into the game.

                    - If you are 2 dices behind someone who calls you the liar, you can roll an extra dice and it counts into the final result.

                    - Players who have more than 3 dices have control of what is known.

                    - If you have less than 3 dices and there are either double or triple in them, you can roll an extra dice and all the dices will count as a wild dice at your choice.

                    - If the player who calls out a liar and turns out the player is not lying, he/ she has to give up one dice to that player.

Game Design & Production Assignment #4

Name: Elevator Action!

Genre: Card Game

Number of Players: 2-6

Objective: 

                    You are all special agents training to become the next field agent. In this game you are all in a final exam, all in separate buildings, to get from the top floor to the 20th floor. Along the way you will encounter obstacles along the way.

How to Play:

Scoring:

                    A pen and paper is need for this section, write which floor you are currently on after each turn.

Death:

                    If you have no more vest and bullets, and encounter a terrorist, you will die. You spawn back at the top floor, but keep all your cards.

Card:

                    There are 4 sets of cards- Bullets, Vests, Action doors and Elevator cards.The action Door card deck, are to be split into 4 decks, with 2 put on the left and 2 on the right the elevator card deck. Bullets and vests are in a separate pile. Each player starts of with 3 bullets and 1 bullet proof vest.

Vest: is bullet proof vests and are your shield if you choose to use them. These are only used if you have no more bullets and encounter a Terrorist, or anything that directly affect the vests.

Bullet: is ammunition used to fight a terrorist, if you encounter one, you must use a bullet to kill the terrorist, or lose a vest.

Elevator Card: is immediately used, and must be drawn once at the beginning of the turn.

Action Door: must draw at least 1 a turn, this can must be used immediately.

Terrorist: you must shoot the terrorist with your bullet, or you loss a vest. With this if you die from a terrorist, you must spawn all the way back at the top floor.

Back Up Elevator Card: this card may send you or someone of your choice back up 2 floors on the elevator the next turn.

Extra Bullet/Vest: with this card, you can draw 1-2 extra bullets/vests.

Extra Action Doors:  someone else or you is forced to draw 2 action door cards the next turn it is activated--This card may force you or someone of your choice, to open 2 or more action doors the next turn.

Elevator Freeze: this card may force you or someone of your choice to not be able to draw an elevator card.

Flash Game Review: Rivea

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/604296

                   Rivea is a single player bullet-hell game developed by Andrew Guthrie, known as Exbia. This is a flash game he develops and has been published online lately.

                   The objective of the game is very similar to most other bullet hell game but it has a very interesting addition to it, which players have to dodge the bullet and collect a certain amount of gold at the same time. This makes it very interesting and different compare to many other bullet hell games.

                   The interface is similar to many other flash games or game apps on devices, which is pretty straight forward and clearly lists all the available levels with different level of medals to represents how well players play in that level.

                   There are upgrades to help players progress overtime, and it simply requires the gold players get from levels. I am not going to go through the details of each upgrades as you can always explore them yourselves during the game, but the upgrades are all useful and balanced.

                   Players navigate the ship with the mouse and move around on the screen to dodge. To use some of the upgrades, they can simply press a key on the keyboard to activate them.

                   Gameplay is fun. The patterns of bullets are well organized, with great design, and various use of colours.  Some bullet games feature with specials and fast bullets, but in Rivea, bullets would not travel extremely fast so it allows complex patterns of bullet and players can dodge them precisely. This intensively increases the tension and establishes a different play style in the game.  Also, the background changes according to the difficulty of levels.

                   There are bosses (left image above) in the game. Besides dodging the bullets and collecting the gold, players have to collect the energy (right image above) to shoot laser in order to kill the boss. Otherwise, the boss level will keep going and never end.

screenshot in boss level.

                   This is one of the best bullet-hell flash game I've played lately. The art is solid and consistent. The patterns of bullet are nicely organized and planned out throughout the levels. The mechanic and game play is great, especially with the use of Slow Shield, Gold Shield, and Gold Bomb, which makes it more fun than other bullet-hell game in another way. I also like some levels that require players to use the shields accordingly in order to achieve gold medal rather than just dodging bullets in the entire game. Overall, the aesthetic is great, the gameplay is awesome, and the system is well balance with high replay value. I have achieved gold medal for all levels and received all achievements, and I enjoy playing this game.

Art: 5/5
- It is not extremely fancy, but it is stylish and well polish. The visual effects are nicely done throughout every levels.

Gameplay: 5/5
- Well design and organized patterns of bullets, with helpful upgrades and various achievements.

Music: 5/5
- background music blends well with the game, and creates intensive atmosphere and focus over times.

Game Mechanic: 5/5
- It is nicely done, balanced, and well designed.


Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

CGA3 - "ChiChee"

Name: Chichee

                    Chichee is a pet simulation game on iPod and Android. It is made by Andrew G., the programmer, Harry L., the artist, and Michael G., the sound/ audio producer during Great Canadian Appathon 3. The objective in the game is to raise Chichee from a baby to a talented baby.

                    The control in Chichee is very simple. Players navigate or interact with Chichee, the pet, by simply tap and drag on the screen. By tapping on Chichee and drag, players can allow Chichee to do different things to learn skills from. At the beginning, Chichee knows nothing and needs player to guide it to become skillful in different areas. 

                    When players tap the box at the bottom right corner of the screen, it shows the status of Chichee and how good it is in different areas. From left to the right, top to bottom, there are:

Health: indicates how healthy Chichee is. When it reaches 0, Chichee will be unconscious.

Hunger: indicates how hungry Chichee is. when it is below a certain point, Chichee needs food to become active again.

Flying: indicates how skillful Chichee is at flying.

Swimming: indicates how skillful Chichee is at swimming.

Running: indicates how fast Chichee can run and other related activities.

Art: indicates how artistic Chichee is and how great the things it can create.

Intelligence: indicates how smart Chichee is and how much more things it can do.

Happiness: indicates how happy Chichee is. Happiness affects Chichee's behaviour and it can be increase by exploring, exercising, receiving things from players, etc.

In this version, Chichee can try the following things:

Chichee can explore, to exercise or discover things hidden in the environment.

Chichee can build and create to become more artistic with sand.

Chichee can learn to swim and play around in the water.

Chichee can learn to fly in spare time or when players fling it around.

                    All actions Chichee does have good result and bad result, which directly affects Chichee's growth and emotion.

Happy: happens when Chichee accomplishes something successfully. It also increases the experience Chichee get.

Panic: happens when Chichee gets into some crucial situations. It also increases Chichee tiredness.

Angry: happens when Chichee is being mistreat by players. Loyalty might decrease if it happens a lot and often.

Frustration: happens when Chichee fails at something. Chichee gets less experience of what it is doing.

Tired: happens when Chichee has done many activities and needs to rest.

                    In order to make Chichee grows faster in various way, we provide more options for players. When they tap the brown box at the corner to open the menu, there are Store, Mini Game, and Setting.

                    In the store, players can purchases toys, tools, and accessories; in mini games, players can win some coins to purchase; and in settings, players can adjust the game and some setting regarding to Chichee.

                    This year, the theme of GCA3 was retro and we only had 2 days to develop a game. We came up with many ideas and eventually we chose this one, a pet simulating game. Reasons were it is easy to make, fun to play with, and suitable for the game we had. There were many great games such as Tamagotchi, Chao Garden, etc, that we had played in childhood and we really wanted to bring them back again. Therefore, we started this project - Chichee. 

                    In this particular game, it is important not to be linear; it has to be able to provide various options/ results, characteristic, and emotional influence in game, so players would invest time into it. The mechanic of the game is very simple. There is only one map to navigate and different event happens accordingly when players tap. There are also store and games that help players to progress, but that is pretty much the same with other games. Therefore, it is important to give lots of personality and actions into Chichee in order to stand out among other pet simulating games. In this version, we include general action and event for Chichee and one mini game, which would be enough for players to grasp a general idea about the game and able to submit it on time for GCA3; like a trial version before the actual, complete, polished game comes out.

                    Chichee is definitely one of the best games I have made so far, and I enjoy making every animation, designing events, skills, mini games, and items. I am looking forward to develop Chichee to the fullest but before that, this is it for now. Stay tuned!

Screenshots:

cut-scene.

mini-game.

gameplay.

Game Design & Production Assignment #3

Name: Be the Master Chef
Number of Players: 2-6



Map:

Objective:

                    "Be the Master Chef" is a collection board game. Players have to dominate 3 cultures out of 6 to win by collecting ingredients and recipes throughout the game.

How to Play:

                     All players roll a 6-sided dice to move and they may trade their ingredients or recipe with another player for once each turn. During the game, all players have to reveal what ingredients and recipe they have to all other players. When players have successfully collect all require ingredients for a recipe in their hands, they can exchange them for a main dish in the super market block, the red block. When players have successfully collect all the main dishes' recipes of one culture, they can return all their recipes and main dishes and exchange them for a culture card immediately. In order to collect ingredients and recipes, players have to land on special block.

Green: Players who land on green block can draw number of cards from the ingredient card pile based on the number stated on the block.

Blue: Players who land on blue block can draw a recipe card from the recipe card pile. If a player already has the recipe in hand or has dominate the culture of the recipe, he/ she has to return the card to the pile, shuffle, and draw another card.

Red: Players who land on red block allow to enter the supermarket. They can choose to draw 2 ingredient cards or 1 recipe card. They can get main dish cards if they have all corresponding ingredients and recipes.

Card:

                     There are several types of card in the game.

Ingredient Card: It is the basic card that can be collect easily.

Recipe/ Secondary Dish: It is the card that requires some specific ingredient cards. It has the list of ingredients players need to get it. Players have to collect this in order to get the master dish of a culture.

Primary Dish: It is the card that requires some specific secondary dish and ingredient cards. It has the list of ingredients or secondary dish players need to get it. Players have to collect this in order to dominate a culture.

Master Dish: It is the card that requires some specific primary dish. When players can exchange for a master dish card, it means they have dominated the culture, and when a player has collect the 3rd master dish cards,  he/ she wins the game.



List of Content:

Basic Ingredient:
- Lettuce
- Cheese
- Tomato
- Oil
- Salt
- Water
- Flour
- Potato
- Milk
- Corn
- Rice
- Seaweed
- Fish
- Cucumber
- Shrimp
- Egg
- Sugar
- Onion
- Miso
- Black Pepper
- Pepperoni
- Salad Dressing
- Red Beans
- Bamboo Leaves
- Bok Choy
- Peas
- Butter
- Indian Seasoning
- Baking Powder
- Rum
- Cherry
- Whipped Cream


Primary & Secondary Dish from each Culture:
North American Dishes:
Primary Dishes:
- Burger
- Poutine
- Taco

Secondary Dishes:
- Cooked Meat
- Bread/ Bun
- Fries
- Gravy
- Taco Shell



Japanese Dishes:
Primary Dishes:
- Sushi
- Tempura Shrimp
- Ramen

Secondary Dishes:
- Tempura
- Miso Soup
- Cooked Noodles



Italian Dishes:
Primary Dishes:
- Pasta
- Pizza
- Caesar Salad

Secondary Dishes:
- Pasta Sauce
- Pizza Sauce
- Crust



Chinese Dishes:
Primary Dishes:
- Moon Cake
- Fried Rice
- Sticky Rice

Secondary Dishes:
- Moon Cake dough
- Moon Cake Filling
- Cooked Rice



Indian Dishes:
Primary Dishes:
- Samosa
- Curry Chicken Rice
- Butter Chicken Dish

Secondary Dishes:
- Pastry
- Filling
- Roti
- Seasoned Curry Chicken
- Seasoned Butter Chicken



West European Dishes:
Primary Dishes:
- Fish Chips
- Baba Au Rum
- Cake

Secondary Dishes:
- Fried Fish
- Chips
- Cake Base
- Rum Sauce
- Frosting



Core Idea:
                    This time we have to come up a collection board and we got the idea down pretty quick. The only we need to come up is the theme of the game, which is what the players have to collect. We think of using Alien, but we are looking for some theme that has variety of option for players to choose. At the end, we come up with this idea, which is "Be the Master Chef". It is pretty self-explanatory as the objective of the game is to be superior than other players by collecting different ingredients and dishes from different cultures. This way, players have lots and lots of things to collect depends on what they like or which is easier to collect. So it would be fun to play.