Print and Play Game

Here's a link to my bonsai print and play game: click here

Board Game Playtesting

    During my initial play testing of my board game, I discovered some fairly interesting mechanics that emerged from dice rolls and branch positioning. In essence, I think the most interesting part about the core mechanic (branch placement) is rotating branches to either benefit the path that you are taking, or reroute the path that your opponent is taking. With later play testing, I found that this mechanic tended to disappear when the players traveled on the same branch. I started to try finding ways to minimize this action, but with my latest play test, I'm thinking that the game is getting a bit too convoluted. All of the different branches and connections seems to be too overwhelming, and I think I need to find some way to tone it all down and make things more intuitive while retaining and reinforcing the branch-placing mechanic. I also think that I need to rethink the way that branches and tiles are selected, because at the moment the player needs to select tiles out from a big pile, which is too overwhelming. The game board also doesn't tend to look very much like a bonsai tree after placing tiles, so I need to find some way to influence the tile placement so it forms a more naturalistic shape.

The board doesn't form into a natural bonsai shape and there are a lot of extra unused branches that don't contribute to the player's paths

   I think that the next step is to lessen the amount of variables that the player has to deal with, possibly by lowering the amount of branch colors used. I also need to find some way to make the board look more like a bonsai tree so that the game is easier to connect to. Maybe the board could be initially shaped like a more fully grown bonsai tree and the new branches could build off that. I will also find a way to make the tiles easier to use. With these ideas in mind, I will continue to experiment with the design. 

First Draft of Board Game Rules

Here are my initial rule ideas for the bonsai board game:




 Now it's time to start play testing.

Board Game Theme

  I think that I will go with my bonsai game idea. With this decision, I've now began to think about the theme that will unify the board game. Here is my concept statement:

   "Every moment is a new beginning."

 My reason for this concept statement is based on the transitory nature of my game idea. In the game, the bonsai tree will grow randomly, meaning that the player's route to the top of the tree will need to constantly be adjusted. I would like for this interaction to bring the players into a state of flow in which they focus their attention entirely towards the game. Through this flow state, I hope for players to experience something like the Buddhist concept of mindfulness, an alert awareness of the true nature of things in the present moment. In essence, the game is based around Zen Buddhist, ideas and aesthetics.   

Theme Research

  I found this great article by Ian Bogost that lists many examples of video games that have tried something similar to what I want to attempt and in what ways they succeed and fall short (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2585/).

 One game listed is That Game Company's flOw. I haven't played this game, but it seems that the visual and audio sensations that the game creates overstimulate that player, detracting from the intended experience. I think that their later game, Journey, very successfully balances visuals, audio, and gameplay to create a sense of presence in the player, particularly towards the end.

 Solitaire in many ways succeeds in creating a sense of presence through the responsiveness of its interface. Solitaire players do not need to concern themselves with shuffling and cards very easily snap into place when moved. This allows players to devote all of their attention to the task at hand.

 Will Wright compared his game Sim City to gardening. Having played these games before, I can understand the metaphor. In Sim City, the player is essentially in charge of setting up the right conditions for desired buildings to appear. In this way, the player doesn't have direct control over what will appear, allowing for lots of surprises that make the game compelling.

 The game Animal Crossing is fairly successful at pulling its player's attentions into the game world. The compressed depiction of time and variety of mundane, yet engaging activities (pulling weeds, decorating, planting flowers) help to pull the player into the present moment.

 Ian Bogost's game Guru Mediation (http://www.bogost.com/games/guru_meditation.shtml), has players balance perfectly still on the Amiga joyboard. The longer the player balances, the higher the onscreen yogi levitates in the air. This game does a very good job at implementing its Zen theme at every level, from the custom packaging to the core game play mechanic, to its simplified visual design and floating yogi.  

Aside from video games, I would like to pull much influence from tabletop Zen gardens, such as this one: http://www.amazon.com/Toysmith-Miniature-Zen-Garden/dp/B000KKRHU6
 

  This particular Zen garden definitely integrates its theme through the earthy colors and traditionally inspired artwork on its packaging as well as the miniature rocks and rakes that look just like the ones used in big Zen gardens.


 Something that I really like about the miniature Zen garden is how its fun to use as a toy, and I would really like to make the bonsai tree in my board game similarly fun to grow.

  I would like the aesthetics of the board game to be based largely around nature and the simplified design found in Zen Japanese artwork, including woodcut prints, calligraphy, gardens, and woodworking.

This packaging has very soothing and earthy colors

This appealing bell-holder was very simply put together through traditional Japanese joinery

This altar was also designed with storage in mind. The idea of one thing serving multiple functions would fit well with my theme

 

 A central idea behind Zen art theory is the idea of capturing the essence of something, rather than accurately depicting it. I would like to follow this general idea while creating the game.

Color Schemes

I would like the game to utilize a majority of neutral earth tones with a small usage of more saturated colors to draw the eye. I think there would be a majority of warms over cools. Here's a few ideas that I pulled from color scheme designer:

Board Game Ideas

  I've been working on coming up with ideas for the board game project in game design class. I started out by listing some "what ifs" for potential ideas, themes, and mechanics. Here's the list that I came up with.

    1. What if the game involved gardening?
    2. What if the game explored the concept of mindfulness?
    3. What if the game involved rolling a wheel different distances to gain points?
    4. What if the game involved growing a bonsai tree?
    5. What if the game incorporated a traffic circle?
    6. What if the game simulated painting?
    7. What if the game was a competitive puzzle?
    8. What if the game simulated the relationships between different tribal groups?
    9. What if the game was based on industrial era coal mining?
  10. What if the game involved animist ideas?
  11. What if the game simulated stock market trading?
  12. What if the game took place inside a clock and involved time as a core mechanic?
  13. What if the game involved a solar eclipse?
  14. What if the game included horseback riding?
  15. What if the game was based on Taoist philosophy?
  16. What if the game included aircraft?
  17. What if the game involved anthropology with a core mechanic involving observation and data collection?
  18. What if the game made use of magnets?
  19. What if the game involved effects of physics in some way?
  20. What if the flow of the game board was based on that of a waterfall?
  21. What if the game was a puzzle involving resource management?
  22. What if the game utilized sound perception as a core mechanic?
  23. What if the game was a political hacking puzzle where the goal is to rig elections to gain the most votes?
  24. What if the game involved solving a maze?
  25. What if the game involved trade caravans and making money with a cooperative twist?

  This preliminary list helped me to start coming up with some more fleshed out ideas. Here's a couple of ideas that I came up with.

Competitive Bonsai Maze Game 

 In this game, the players would start at the bottom of a bonsai tree. Their goal would be to reach the highest point of the tree before the other players. Every turn, the player rolls a die, and the number on this die would correspond to a section of the tree where a new branch would grow out. Over time, these branches may end up interconnecting, causing possible paths of movement to constantly change. This also means that the highest point on the tree will also constantly change, so players will have to adjust their paths based on the growth of the tree. Players would also get the opportunity to reshape the tree by trimming off sections of the branches.

Game board sketch. Players initially move one blue point per turn. New branches are added at the growth points (marked GP). As players reach the new branches, they move along one branch segment each turn. There could be different variations of branch segments that are randomly chosen, as shown on the left.

Competitive Coal Mining Game

 Each player has a mining shaft that would be visually represented as a straight line with a number of tiles. Players start out with the first tile available for mining. Accessing the next tile down requires more mining equipment that is purchased by one coal token. The highest density of coal is in tiles that are slightly more than halfway to the bottom. There is gradually less coal in tiles above and below the high density tiles. The amount of coal gathered in a turn is represented by a die roll. Regardless of the die roll, the player may only harvest as much coal as there is available in the tiles that he or she has purchased. A die roll of an even number triggers a random event for the player, which involves re rolling, with the new number corresponding to an event.

 Here's some possible random events based on the die number rolled:
    1- Flooding: Lose one tile or pay two coal to immediately regain it
    2- Explosion: Lowest tile is unavailable for next two turns
    3- Worker strike: One tile of the player's choice is unavailable for the next turn
    4- Fire: Bottom three tiles are unavailable until one coal is payed to extinguish
    5- Mine collapse: Bottom two tiles unavailable for one turn
    6- More coal discovered: Add 10 coal to a tile of your choice (this coal must still be harvested through rolling the die)

Sketch of the basic space that each player interacts with. Players use coal to gain access to the next level of tile, where they can harvest more coal. The most coal is located in the tiles a bit more than halfway down. There could be more or less tiles depending on what ends up being the most fun.

The goal of the game is to have the highest amount of coal after a determined amount of turns.

  So these are my ideas at the moment. I'll continue to post updates as I keep working working on this project.

Print and Play Game Deconstruction

  After exploring a few print and play games, it's now time to analyze one of them. The game I have chosen to deconstruct is called Paiko (http://paikogame.com/). Paiko is a turn-based strategy game with some similarities to chess and chinese checkers.

Paiko- Initial game setup

Goal and Core Mechanics

  Essentially, the goal of Paiko is to obtain 10 points before your opponent. Players gain points by positioning tiles on the board. This positioning of tiles is the core mechanic. A secondary mechanic is to capture tiles that your opponent places on the board.

Space

   The game board is a discrete two-dimensional space, meaning that tiles are placed on individual points that are marked by grid lines. You can chose to move a placed tile by at most two points in any non-diagonal direction. As a whole, the board is split into four sections, two of these sections are middle ground, and the other two are the players' home ground. Tiles on the middle ground will give the player one point, while tiles in the opponents home ground will earn the player two points. The half grid spaces along the border and the four black spaces in the middle are not open to tile placement.

Objects, Attributes, and States

  Aside from the board space itself, the only objects in this game are the tiles. These tiles have many different attributes. The first of these attributes is the symbol of the tile. This symbol describes the "threat" attribute of the tile. In Paiko, tiles have a certain space on the board that they threaten depending on their symbol and positioning. If a player's tile is within an area of threat from an opposing tile, then there is a chance that the tile can be captured. It's similar to the way that pieces can be captured in chess depending on their movement and proximity.

  Another attribute of the tiles is the spaces that they can provide cover to. If a tile is receiving cover from another piece, it takes an extra threat to capture. Some of the tiles have a few extra attributes. For example, the earth tile can only move one space in a turn, rather than the standard two spaces. The Paiko rule book offers a good illustration of the different attributes of the tiles (http://paikogame.com/documents/instructions-quickguide33d-text-printable.pdf).

 The tiles have various states that they enter as the game progresses. These states include the tiles' positions on the board, their orientations, the section of the board that the tile is located in, whether the tile is threatened or covered by other tiles,  and whether the tile is in the player's hand, the reserve, or if it is discarded.

The tiles from left to right: air, fire, bow, sai, lotus, earth, water, sword

Operative and Resultant Actions  

  There are three essential operative actions that a player can take in Paiko: placing a tile, drawing a tile from the reserve, or capturing a tile. These base actions lead to many resultant actions, such as threatening certain tiles to distract your opponent, placing tiles to offer coverage to pieces that are under threat, and favoring sections of the board for placement depending on if you decide to take an aggressive, defensive, or balanced approach. Players often need to shift their strategies in order to counter the decisions that the opponent is making. 

Rules

  An interesting aspect of the game is the initial asymmetry of it. The player with white tiles goes first, but only gets to pick out seven tiles, while the opponent gets to pick 9 tiles. To balance this, the white tile player gets to pick one more tile after seeing the black tile player's hand. All tiles must be placed on either the player's home grounds or any space that one of his or her tiles is threatening. If a tile is threatened by at least two opposing tiles, then it is captured. These are all operational rules of the game.

  Another point of interest is the written rules of the game, which are presented in three different forms, a quick text guide, a more visual illustrated guide, and a video tutorial. For me personally, I learned the game quickly by looking at both the text and illustrated guide, as they each explained certain aspects of the game better to me than the other. Having two versions of the guide to refer to made it surprisingly straightforward to learn the game.

The visual guide (left) and the text guide (right)

Skills

  The physical skills necessary to play the game entail having the strength to pick up and position the tiles, as well as the ability to place the four separate pieces of the board together. Although the physical requirements of the game are fairly low, it does involve many mental skills. Players must observe each others tile choices and placements and decide how to react. They must also keep track of the score and adjust strategies to ensure that the opponent doesn't end up getting the upper hand. Paiko also involves social skills, such as observing your opponent's reactions to get a sense of what he or she is planning.

Chance

  Chance plays a fairly subtle part in this game. Most aspects of the game are fairly open and controllable. For instance, if the player chooses to draw new tiles for his or her hand, they can choose any three tiles that they want. This seems to put a lot of emphasis on strategy and decision-making, rather than chance. The primary use of chance in the game is at it's start, when players must play rock, paper, scissors, or roll dice to decide who will play the white and black tiles. As I mentioned before about the game's asymmetry, the player will receive different advantages and disadvantages based on whether they get black or white tiles. This ends up affecting the player's decision-making throughout the rest of the game.

  Overall, I enjoyed playing Paiko. The game is a bit difficult to comprehend at first, but it becomes fairly understandable after an initial run through. The potential for different strategies interests me, and the brevity of the game allows for lots of experimentation. I think the game would benefit from having more chance built into it. It seems to me that the game intends to give the player a lot of control over his or her strategy, but I think it would be more engaging if there was some element of chance mixed in with this controlled decision making.

Print and Play Games

  I played a few print and play games for my game design class. The games were called micropul, Shape Up!, and Air Traffic Controller. Here's what I thought of them.

micropul (http://neutralbox.com/micropul/)

  This is a two player game that involves matching tiles together. Players gain points by collecting tiles and claiming groups of black and white dots that are formed as tiles are placed together. If you run out of tiles, then you lose. I enjoyed the logical aspect of the game, and I like how the game makes you carefully consider the spatial relationships of the tiles and how you can make the most of them. The main problem I had in the game was that someone would end up running out of tiles within the first few minutes, causing the game to end. There isn't too much satisfaction in winning just because your opponent ran out of tiles and vice-versa. Maybe this is something that gets better with more practice. A possible way to address this could be to give players a small starting supply of tiles so they don't run the risk of losing too early. This would at least be a good modification for beginners.


Shape Up! (http://www.goodlittlegames.co.uk/games/06-shape-up.html)

  This is a card game where players line up cards based on the displayed shape, color, and solidity or hollowness. At the start, players get a "victory card" with these aspects that he or she must try to line up on the board. It took me a while to understand the rules, as doing so involves breaking the mind's natural tendency to categorize things. Once you wrap your head around it, the game is interesting in the way it gets you to think about the shapes in the cards and line them up in unique ways to gain points. I feel like the concept of this game is difficult to convey in writing, and for that reason, I think the instructions should have made use of more pictures and graphics to more clearly get the idea across.


Air Traffic Controller (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29084/air-traffic-controller)

  In this game, you get to take on the exciting role of an Air Traffic Controller. The game comes with different scenarios with arrival and departure times for planes, as well as the terminals that they must go to and from. On each turn, the player can order a single plane to stop, continue, turn, or backup. Aircraft will collide if the player is not careful, in which case, he or she loses. My biggest issue with the game is how difficult it is to keep track of the plane movement, scenario actions, turn numbers, and points. Even though this is supposed to be a solitaire game, I think it would be better if there was another player who could be in charge of the scenario and points recording. The yellow text on the board is also very hard to read. I like the idea of the game though. I think it would be fun with a bigger map and more planes, as well as additional hazards on the tarmac. Of course, this would all make the game even more complicated, meaning there would definitely need to be some sort of score-keeper. In a way, though, the complexity of the game did help me sympathize with real air traffic controllers and the difficult job they have. Next time I am stuck waiting on a plane, I'll think back to my memories of playing Air Traffic Controller and realize that they are probably doing a better job than I could ever do.

B. F. Skinner

  In game design class, we have been looking at the effects of rewards on gameplay. We were asked to do some research on the psychologist B. F. Skinner. Skinner is notable for his innovation of a new philosophy of science called radical behaviorism. This theory is based in the idea of operant conditioning, where one's behaviors can be modified by their consequences. Central to all of this is Skinner's principle of reinforcement. In psychology, reinforcement is the strengthening of a behavior due to its association with a stimulus, as opposed to punishment, which weakens a behavior. Skinner's principle of reinforcement says that if the consequences are good, then one's actions will be reinforced, while if the consequences are bad, one's actions will be punished.

  Skinner tested his ideas in his "Skinner Box," more scientifically known as the operant conditioning chamber. This apparatus allows researchers to expose animal test subjects to stimuli like lights and sound signals. The chamber delivers a reward to the animal, such as food, after it successfully performs a behavior. These devices allow for experimentation in behavior and conditioning through reward and punishment mechanisms.

  I suppose the idea of the Skinner Box can be applied to game design and testing. Reinforcement and punishment can work very well in giving the game an interesting balance. For example, the game Dishonored makes good use of this idea by offering the player different sets of rewards and punishments depending on if they want to approach the game violently or nonviolently. A game is a lot like a Skinner Box. Players are conditioned by the rules and mechanics of the game, which they must follow in order to receive a reward. This means that there is a lot of potential for experimentation in the conditioning that a game allows, and by experimenting, maybe developers can find new ways to influence player motivations.

Thoughts on Steve Hickner's Lecture

   I think Steve Hickner's lecture last week was a great introduction for me to some of the ideas behind storyboarding. He gave a list of storyboarding dos and don'ts, such as don't underboard, don't field too tightly, don't cutoff the characters in an awkward place (such as a joint), don't push the character or action too far out of the "golden egg" (this is an oval shape within the frame that characters should stay in to attract the viewer's attention), don't be afraid to move the camera, don't keep every shot at eye level, don't move everything (it's hard to create a single focal point when everything is moving) do watch eye trace, do separate planes tonally, do watch perspective. I haven't done much storyboarding or video editing before, so it was great to learn about these general guidelines.

   It was also great to see Steve Hickner's reworked versions of the CA senior storyboards. The storyboard revisions helped me to see how some of the story boarding theory presented can be put into practice. Something that I really liked was Hickner's attempts to give every shot a purpose within the context of the entire story. In one of the storyboards, he eliminated a setting to be replaced with a single recurring location. This serves the dual purpose of saving time by having to create one less scene, as well as making all of the events in the story more strongly connected.

  So overall I thought that this lecture was very informative. It was a great first look for me into the process of storyboarding and how to convey narrative to an audience. The next step for me is to start putting these ideas into practice in my own work to build a better understanding through experimentation.

3D Game Environment Concept

     Here is the concept drawing I did for my environment idea in 3D class. The idea was a soviet mining town on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The story was that all of the people left their homes to travel to a strange tower structure that appeared out of the island's heavy fog. 

Some Drawings From Last Semester

Here are a few drawings that I made last semester

I think one of the most vital things that I learned about in drawing II was the process of thumb nailing ideas and creating color and value roughs before approaching the final composition. This process makes a lot of sense to me personally and helps me stay more focused then if I was approaching a piece from a more freeform approach. I think drawing II was a great opportunity for me to work at improving my abilities with perspective, composition, color, and idea generation, and I'm determined to continue developing my skills in those areas.

Game Trailer Analysis

Here is a series of game trailers that I personally enjoy: Dishonored - The Tales from Dunwall









     The interesting thing to me about these trailers is how they serve the purpose of exclusively showcasing the story and mood of the game without offering any information about the game play. Many would argue that the purpose of a game trailer is to show at least in someway how the game will be played. However, I personally think that these trailers are strengthened by the choice of not including any game play. In doing this, the creators of this trailer could more effectively create an animation that represents what the game is intended to feel like. The choice in making the visual style of these shorts so different from that in the actual game also allowed the creators to add their own unique interpretations as to what it feels like to experience the world of Dishonored.
    I think that the essential purpose of a game trailer should be to communicate to its audience the compelling experience that a game can offer. This experience can be communicated by showcasing the game play and story. I don't think that both of these elements must be shown in a trailer so long as it succeeds at enticing its viewers with evidence of an engaging experience. In limiting the scope of the information presented I think these trailers very effectively achieve their intended purpose of conveying to the viewers that the world of Dishonored has a very rich history and troubling conflicts that the player will explore through his or her own experience of the game. 

Grunt Sculpture

Here is my grunt character that I made in 3d design class.

Thorne Room

Here is my thorne room project. It sure took a while to make, but it was pretty fun overall.

Chess Set

Here's some pictures of the chess set that I made in 3d design class.

From left to right: King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn

Stuff From First Semester at Ringling