Experimental Game Design

Month: April 2015

Iteration #1: Final – Too Many Mikes (title pending)

by | Apr 7, 2015 | ,

My game is a resource management card game, focusing on the social dynamics of a D&D group and their play. The mechanics focus on playing Event Cards (things such as “Critical Hit!” or “Unnecessarily Kill the Quest Giver!”) which alter the players’ Engagement, Joy, and Calmness–expressed as stress tracks–to help them gain victory points. Forming Bonds of friendship or… foeship (?) with other players lets your actions impact them, for good or ill, and help advance the game; and yes, “frienemies” are a thing.

The resource tracker is posted below, as well as guidelines for creating cards. I’ll be making a total of 45 cards, and the game will accommodate 3-5 players. While it may seem cooperative due to the Bonds, the game is still competitive.

The title comes from my old D&D 3.5 group, which inspired this game’s interactions through a very negative experience two years ago. There were 3 Michael’s in the group, so Tiki used to joke that there were, “Too many Mike’s, not enough MC’s!” (from “too many MC’s, not enough mics.”

Tiki’s cool. One of the other Mikes? Not so much.

Enjoy.

Game Idea-Too Many Mikes

Dollars and Dungeons: Final Pitch/Iteration

by | Apr 7, 2015 |

Idea: You are the financial accountant of a mythical kingdom of magic and monsters. The country is slowly rebuilding its economy after a massive civil war, and the new king has, wisely, taken a loan from the Dragon beneath the capital. The dragon is quite open-minded, of course- all it wants in return is peace and, of course, a return on its investments. Your job is to report the kingdom’s financials to the dragon, lest it grow impatient with the King.

Your job:
You receive requests for funds from all sorts of government employees. These requests require…
– the correct insignias
– the proper signatures
– a specific format
If the request has all these elements, you must determine the TYPE of expenditure that is requested. It could be…
– a lump sum
– a loan
– an investment
You must then organize these sums on a balance sheet.

Sounds like fun, right?

Each object will have a timer during which the request is “Relevant.” The player must organize these expenses in Assets (Current and Non-current), and Liabilities/Equity.
These two must balance- in order to do so, the player can also create finance block as well.

I’m currently trying to build this in Unity with a system of movable blocks.

Final Project Draft 1

by | Apr 7, 2015 | , ,

This should serve as a basic design document as well as an indication of where code will be appropriated from.  The experience I am trying to provide is that of deliberating with whether one should put themselves at risk to protect others that don’t seem to care that they’re being attacked.

 

  • the map is a bunch of houses and grass.  possibly some white picket fences.
    • houses
      • just there as set pieces
      • enemies can go through them, player and civilians can’t
  • enemies
    • dark and shadowy
    • they have a big eye
    • they float around
    • possibly have an animation
    • they attack the player as well as civilians
      • they suck little message-looking things out of civilians
      • they damage the player
    • reuse capstone project code from seeking missiles and wandering enemies, possibly from the a.i. companion as well
  • player
    • has a rolled up newspaper to hit enemies with
      • you can use it rapidly
      • “whap” sound effect
      • you don’t kill the enemies they just kinda leave you alone after you whap them enough (around 3 times)
    • you walk slowly
    • balance is such that you can defend yourself easily but it is hard to keep other people safe
    • if you lose all your health you get sent to russia
    • win condition involves dick-picks or something – see last week tonight
    • reuses capstone project code from the player
  • civilians
    • they don’t try to fight or avoid enemies
    • they just kinda walk around
      • possibly talk to each-other in speech bubbles or send little message-looking things to each other which enemies could intercept
    • they don’t die
    • reuse capstone project code from wandering enemies