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Final Week: Lone Warrior, Official Unity 2D Game Prototype (Assignment 15)

Lone Warrior: A 2d platformer in which the environment of levels change based on what the player does throughout the game.

Outline/basic rules of the game: The player, who is a lone warrior, has to traverse through 2 levels. They have a weapon with them at all times and decides what actions they will take upon having it. The start of the game tells the player that “to be a warrior, you must kill enemies and save people”. However the dairy next to the instructions give a slight hint to the player that they can do whatever they want since they are a lone warrior. With this advise taken, players will then go through first level and do what they feel is “warrior” like. Players could go traditional and kill all enemies in their way and save people. Or players could avoid everything they see and just try to reach the end of the level. Or players could kill everything they see including the people they are suppose to save. Depending on the players action are as a warrior, it will determine what their next level will look like. The next level is determined through 2 scores, one that represents the number of enemies the player has killed. And two, the number of people the player has “saved”. Based on these two scores, if a player does their usual good deeds for example, they will go on to level 2 as if nothing happened to the environment. But make bad choices and the level will have a darker tone and the game will become harder. In the end, the main selling point of my prototype is to have a 2d platforming game where choices matter and determines the players level and ending. 

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Things in my prototype that needs fixing: 

- Based on my personal and the peoples playtest of the game, the jumping is quite hard to nail. Players fall and lose in a certain part in level 1 very often, Fix the jumping height mechanic

- The attack hitbox is delayed and very weird. There are times when the player attacks and the enemy is killed but the sword animation does a delay reaction. Fix the attack animation and hitbox.

- The instructions in the “control page”. Players read the instructions and believed that they were required to kill enemies and saved people. Indeed my intention was for the players to believe that is how the game is suppose to be played but the long diary hints that you don’t have to follow what it means to be a “warrior” and can do what the player feels since they are a lone warrior. That message was not clear enough to many players and I need to fix it. 

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Things in my prototype I would add, edit, and improve to the game:  

- Based on the amount of feedback, there should be an “interaction” button when saving people. The collision idea made it hard for players to see if they killed or saved the people, so it would be better if there was a button instead.

- Adding on to the last suggestion, there should be an interaction button for enemies as well. Players get the choice of killing or not killing the enemy. 

- Add more personal text to the screen when saving and killing people to make the game feel more personal and interactive. 

- More levels, I ran out time to add a 3rd official bad and good level and only have 3 (level 1, level 2 good, and level 2 bad). 

Here is a sharable link to my game citation page: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CMIRq_G--bXGefPiAh29GPF8Xf1Fiz76ondBYbArzYs/edit?usp=sharing 

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Week 10: Unity Game Prototype, Visuals and Sound (Assignment 15.2)

My first unity prototype idea was to design an RPG where the music and environment would change depending on the characters actions throughout the overworld and cities they visit. However I will be honest, due to my lack of unity knowledge, having very little experience with making 2D games, and the amount of time left to make a game, I decided to go towards a simpler route  and plan on making a 2D “adventure” platforming game instead. Although I changed the genre of my game, I am still going to keep my “core” mechanics and ideas.  

With my idea in mind, i planned to have my game visually start off looking black and white to represent “yin and yang”. Players are thrown into the game world for the first time right away with no instructions and things laid out for them to explore. The yin and yang represents peace and darkness and thats what my first level will represent. Depending on what action the player does, the visual of my game could turn either good or bad. For instance, my platform 2d game will keep score of the three things, 1. the amount of people saved, 2. the amount of people killed, and 3. the amount of enemies killed. If the player goes with their usual instinct and kill enemies and save people, the next level will visually look better and joyful. For instance, after completing the 1st level and entering the 2nd level, players will notice that the levels no longer visually look black and white. Instead the level will look more life like with blue, green and yellow colors. However if the player finds out that they can kill people and end up killing more people than enemies, the next level will visually look darker and more evil (like red/black sky with dar purple tries). 

Sounds and musics in games have to fit depending on the visuals and situation. Since my 1st level is black and white and throws players right into this new game world, I plan to make my overworld music sound foresty and mystical. Here are some songs from other games that I might use that fits into this category for my game visual. 1. Farron Wood (Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess), 2. Owl Forest (Dark Clouds), 3. Into the Thick of It (Secret of Mana), etc. Again depending on the players action, if they proceed with the usual good ending, the overworld music will become more “joyful”. By that I mean there will be birds chirping or sounds of animals going about with the overworld music. However in the bad/evil route, the overworld music will become low pitch, more distorted, and have creepy sound effects. I will only be using 1 “music” in my 2d platforming game, but it will sound different each time since I will be adding sound effects to it and will be playing around with the pitch and tones. 

Small taste of my sound (Audacity) : (To be Posted/Updated Later, Sorry! Still working on my musical pieces. For now, search up the 3 game songs I listed above and listen to it while imagining some sound effects to go with it.)

Here is a link to my google drive with my prototype visual, sound and game idea: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tFsmpQpuRnH5aA2l053MSrkQLeHA0Kz2AikkXmGkgDY/edit?usp=sharing 

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Week 5: Hell in Colorado (Part 5 of 5) (Assignment 10)

Title: Hell in Colorado

A cooperative dungeon crawler that relies on teamwork, strategic use of items, and tactics to reach the end and defeat the final boss. 

In Hell in Colorado, players start with a specific number of health and attack cards. The default start is 4 max health and 4 attack cards in which the power  of the attacks go from 2 - Ace being the highest. The group then begins on top of the board and must make a choice as a group on where they want to move as a team. After choosing a path, players land on a space and must roll a die to determine their teams fate. A number 1-4 means an enemy appears and players must fight it, a number 5 means a merchant appears and trading occurs and a number 6 means refills in health and cards with a free item for a player. When fighting enemies, the team must be careful and aware of their traits and affects since it can harm the group negatively such as paralysis which can prevent players from taking action for a turn. After defeating an enemy, everyone in the team gets an item.loot and proceeds to the next space. This process is rinse and repeated until the team reaches to the very end of the board and defeats the final boss  

Hell in Colorado relies heavily on teamwork with a pinch of luck. Team action and choices are very important such as where to move on the map, what actions to take during battle, and what items to trade together. For instance, players can risk and choose to go the long way with their group to retrieve more items or choose the short way to prevent death but get less loots. Items are essential for driving the team to success especially when a new tier is reached. The higher the tier the harder the enemies become but the better the items become as well! If players don’t work together strategically or don’t have enough items the deeper they are inside the dungeons, then death is almost certain. So go into these dungeons and show those enemies who’s boss by killing them, gathering as much loot as you can, and slaying the final boss that lies deep within Colorado! 

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Week 4: More Prototyping! Making Our Own Game! (Part 3 of 5) (Assignment 10)

Rules our group gave to the strangers: Hell in Colorado (Hyperlink)

Observations/Things our group noticed with the playtest:

- The playtest group to my surprise knew how to set up the game and how the rules worked within 5 minutes of reading our rules. They knew where to go as a group, how the attack/defend phase worked, and how the looting system worked with little to no problem.  

- The playtest test group did not have a hard time grasping the basics of the game besides asking us some questions from time to time about how certain items worked and its affects since the wording for some of our items were confusing. 

- The playtest group said the game was fun overall especially towards the middle when they reached tier 2 and 3. This was because around tier 2 and 3, the enemies became harder and the team strategy part of the game really comes into play around here. The group did say that the game becomes longer and time consuming when they reached tier 3 and fought the boss. However overall the playtest group thought our board game was enjoyable and simple enough to jump straight in!

During the beginning part of the playtest when the players started reading the rules and setting up the game, I panicked abit and thought they would ask lots of questions. However I was quite shocked when the players went straight into the game without asking too many questions, worked as a group to find out how the rules worked and managed to play the game just as it was intended to play! I thought our 2 page rules was too much to handle, but I guess I was wrong. Also whenever the playtest group started talking and discussing what actions to take together, I can’t help but smile since it looked like they were into our game and enjoyed it. After the playtest I noticed that our game lacked more items and enemies. Because of this, our group decided to work on adding more items and enemies while also buffing some enemies overall. 

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Week 3: More Prototyping! Making Our Own Game! (Part 2 of 5) (Assignment 10)

Hell in Colorado (2nd draft of our prototype board game) 

In our 2nd draft of Cowboy Diablo (which is now changed to Hell in Colorado), we added more loots, enemies, and “official” rules to our game.  

The objective of the game is still the same and achievable as our 1st draft. Three players battle their way through enemies and gather loots to help carry their team through to the very end to defeat the final boss. We just added more mechanics and official rules to the game in our 2nd draft that made our prototype player interaction structure much better. With the new items and loots added, players can now trade cards outside of battle, heal, and gain additional attack points. This new item mechanic that we implemented made players think and interact with each other during every turn during the playtest of the game. 

The game is much more compelling since more loots and enemy traits were added to our prototype board game. Players interact with each other constantly throughout the whole game and its amazing. This is because they have to decide where they want to go on the map together, how to approach an enemy, and how to attack the enemy as a team with items. After our classmates play tested our prototype, they said it was very fun and enjoyable! The only little problem we had was at the beginning of the game in which our classmates said the game was easy in Tier I (Level 1 of the board). But after reaching Tier II and playing in the middle of the game, it went very smoothly. So I guess the one thing my team will be fixing is the difficulty of the game in the beginning and towards the middle. Otherwise, our board game prototype is looking great and we will not be getting rid of any past features and rules!

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Week 3: More Prototyping! Making Our Own Game! (Part 1 of 5) (Assignment 10)

(Note, we decided to expand our 15 minute prototype (on assignment 9) and make it as our official prototype board game! So the photo in assignment 9 would also be included in assignment 10 part 1. I just decided not to add it since its already shown in assignment 9). 

Title: Cowboys Diablo (Cowboys in Hell)

Description: A dungeon crawler where you and a friend (up to three friends) explore a 3 level dungeon and work your way to defeat the final boss! 

Core Mechanic Visualization: 

World System: Dungeon, Sanctuary 

Player Activities: Trade, Battle, Exploration (Move around the board) 

Rewards/Meters: Loots/Items, Upgrades

In Cowboy Diablo, players communicate and work as a team to go through the dungeon that goes all the way down to the final boss. There are multiple paths in our 15 space board to reach the final boss so players must choose where they want to go. Do players want to go the long way and risk dying but getting more items? Or do they want to go the short way and get to the boss as quick as possible with little items? (Exploration-->Dungeon, Exploration-->Sanctuary) When players land on a space on the board, they must fight an enemy in order to progress further into the map. Battling enemies in each space leads to loots and items which is added to the players inventory throughout the whole game as stats and special use. (Battle-->Loots/Item, Battle--> Upgrades). There are two types of loots and items. One is treated as a permanent stat that improves the players health, card capacity, and attack and defense points. The other type of items are treated as regular items that can only be used once during each battle which adds special benefits to the players. Battling is important in this game because the more the players battle, the more items and loots they receive which helps make the final boss battle easier. Our core mechanic of battle and getting loot motivates players to land on as much spaces as they while exploring because by doing that they are improving their stats and helping their team out. Not only that, but players can also trade their items and loots once they reach a new tier/level on our board or reach a safe zone (Trade-->Sanctuary). Trading is essential if players want to form specific roles and classes to fend off harder enemies and the final boss. (Loots/Items--> Trade, Loots/Items--> Upgrades). If players manage to gather lots of good loots and form good classes as a team they might be able to reach the final boss and beat it to win the game!

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Week 3: More Prototyping! 15 Minute Game! (Assignment 9)

Hello there! My GD1 class is now entering it’s third week. What is in store for the 3rd week of Game Design I? MORE PROTOTYPES. This week, the class will be focusing more on making prototypes for table-top games. For our next prototype task on Monday September 24th, the class had to come up with some type of playable and hopefully fun table-top game within 15 minutes! Here was what my group (Liam, Kyle and I) made for our 15 minute game prototype! 

The picture I posted is the 2nd draft/layout of our 15 minute prototype game! We wanted to make a dungeon crawler game that was quick, simple and fun. The prototype we made is a cooperative game where 4 players (4 is the minimum needed) go through this 10 square space board and fight enemies or gather loot during each space until they reach the final boss. How the game works is quite simple, a player from the team rolls a dice and depending on what number it lands something will happen to the party as they progress. 1-3 means an enemy will show up, 4 means the group can refill their attack cards, 5 means restore health, and 6 was suppose to be nothing. After an event is done, the group moves on to the next square space and this process rinse and repeats until they reach the final boss and try to kill it to win. Our first version with the 10 square space board and our basic rules became messy.and made the game unplayable and long. We designed it so that every 3 square space out of 10 square space, the enemies get more HP. This prolonged the game and made the attacking cards (which was just a regular deck cards) useless. The attacking cards work like this, 2 is the weakest attack card while Ace is the highest. When the players roll an enemy number, they have to place a random card to give that enemy a “level”. So for example, an enemy is level “8″ when a number 8 card is randomly pulled from our shuffled deck. This means players would need a card that is higher than an 8 to do any damage to it! This mechanic was bad because it was a game of chance and the enemies could be very weak or strong at random times. When we made a group played it and played it ourselves they agreed that our core mechanic wasn't bad, but rather messy and long. Here were the changes we made after our first playtest. 

First things first, bigger map which gave players more choices. Our first map was a linear 10 square map that required players to go through all 10 spaces. However for this one, we made it so that players can have the choice to take their time and get “better loots” (aka more attack cards) or take the shortest route to the boss and try to end the game quicker if they want. We also added abit more “complex mechanic” right on the spot which we should have not done since it made the “15 minute prototype” look more like a “1 hour prototype”. The new complex mechanic we added was stuff like “if players had 2 diamond attack cards, they can combine the number and count it as 1 attack point” or “if players had 2 heart attack cards, they can heal:”. These new mechanic we added to make the game more “interactive” only made the game more confusing for others.... I would say it made the player experience more confusing and time consuming then our first draft! The entire system however remained the same, and I would say if we rated the game according to Callois play form rating, our 2nd change would have done little to nothing.

1st Draft (no changes) of Callois play form rating 

Agon (contest):0, Alea (chance): 5, ilinx (vertigo):0, Mimicry(make-believe):0 .       Paidia<-our 15 minute prototype---------------------->Ludus

2nd Draft (chances) of Callois play form rating (SAME)

Agon (contest):0, Alea (chance): 5, ilinx (vertigo):0, Mimicry(make-believe):0 .       Paidia<-our 15 minute prototype---------------------->Ludus

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(*UPDATED*) Week 2: Prototypes! Up The River + FPS Prototypes (Assignment 7)

Title: Roll and Shoot!

Description: Shoot players and be the last one to survive and win.

The most interesting change to our FPS prototype game was making the movement based on dice roll and making it universal. The fact that each player moves at the same time during each turn together based on one dice roll number makes the game more strategic. Players would have to come with a plan or strategy right off the spot. Since our prototypes had weapons and armor scattered around the battle map (hex map), players had to act fast and move there first if they want to obtain it since its universal movement. An original theme we could draft into our game system would be an actual hitpoint system and scoring system. In our prototype, players would only lose 1 life (get 1 hitpoint) regardless of what weapon they were using. For instance, pistol and snipers would do the same damage which is 1 hitpoint in our prototype. If we added a hitpoint system where certain weapons do better damage like snipers hit more than pistols and shotguns then it would fit more with the original FPS theme. Not only that but a score system as well since our prototype dedicated the winner as the last person to survive. 

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Week 2: Prototypes! Prototyping 101 (Assignment 6)

This week, I read a chapter from the book “Game Design Workshop 3rd Edition” that talked about prototyping 101. Here were some of the key things i took away from the reading

- When prototyping, perfecting how a game looks is not needed, the fundamental mechanics is KEY and very important. 

- Physical Prototypes, using pen, paper, cards, dice, etc to try and make and produce our own games! Physical prototypes is the easiest since it allows you to focus on gameplay rather than technology. many teams usually think about coding and programming as their first focus and this can cause a problem right away. However, physical prototypes gets rid of that thinking process and makes prototyping more fun, engaging and better than technology prototyping.

There are 4 reasons why physical prototyping is the best way to prototype a game. One, it makes iteration not difficult. You can try and try again to find the solution to the problem in your prototype in a very short period of time. Two, you can respond in realtime to players feedback. If an issue popped up, you can change or incorporate your game right then and there! Third, it allows non tech team members to participate and widens the design process. And lastly it does not cost too much resources to start off your prototype. 

Three Prototypes were discussed in the chapter, Battlefield Prototype, Up The River Prototype, and First Person Shooter Prototype all in physical prototypes. I played battlefield before so I understand how the prototype of the game works alongside FPS shooters. The FPS shooter on physical paper is much more unique and cool! You can draw in your own spawn point, have walls, and small solider figures then create your own versions of how to eliminate players through points systems, The chapter suggest doing a card system, but my group and I (where we chose to prototype a first person shooter) decide to do a dice roll system and game of chance rather than point system and cards. The only prototype of of the three that I have not heard of before is Up the River Prototype. However after watching multiple videos of the game and reading the prototype, I can say there are definitely ways players can alter the game so that it becomes more challenging and engaging like adding rivers or obstacles that can damage or get rid of one of your boats or the opponents. 

Lastly, these are the things game designers should focus on and do when prototyping. 1. Always ask a question, 2. Stay Falsifiable, 3. Persuade and Inspire, 4. Work Fast, 5. Work Economically, and 6. decompose problems. Overall this reading was well written and definitely taught me that there are other ways to prototype such as physical prototypes. Plus the tips and guide to prototyping were helpful! Looking forward to other readings from this book.

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Week 2: Prototypes! We Changed Catan? (Assignment 5)

Hello again! I just finished my 2nd week of my game design 1 class and it is only getting better and better each time! Last week I played two board games, Catan and 7 Wonders. This week, my group and I are suppose to choose one of two board games we played and update it with a new goal to make it more interesting, fun or even worse than its original gameplay. Since my group enjoyed Catan more and the mechanic seemed much easier to alter compared to 7 wonders, we decided to replay this board game with our new rules. 

Part A: Settlers of Catan was first released in 1995 and was the first German-style board game to become popular outside of Europe! Add ons for the board game started as soon as 1996, only a year after its released. Since then, this game has won numerous awards for being one of the best board games even around this generation still. This game become popular for its simplicity yet addicting an competitive gameplay. It was also a party game where up to 4 players can play which makes it more fun. Not only that but this game kept getting add ons so its not wonder it is still successful up till this day. Now up to 6 players can play Catan! The expansions are most likely the main reason why the game has evolved over the years. If the game did not have add ons that added more new mechanics like enemies, better trading system, and more development cards, then I think the game would have been less popular. The game itself without the expansion was good, but it lacked multiple mechanics like I said before. However I am glad to see expansions for this game that keeps improving it and making it better and addicting each time. I can’t think of similar table top games that follow the mechanics of gathering resources and making roads and settlements. However l mentioned before how this game closely resembles an online game that is also fun and popular called Civilization by Sid Meier. That game requires resource collecting, trading and territorial expansion to grow and win. 

Part B: One of the alteration goals that we wanted to do for Settlers of Catan at first was to make it playable in 10 minutes. The game relies on dice roll and chances to get resources. If the two dices is rolled and the total number value is shown, you must hope that one of your settlement is on that number hex or else you won’t get that specific resource. This mechanic made the game more time consuming since we could only focus on one dice roll value. Plus it was a game of chance. Plus getting small values like 2-6 with a two dice roll were usually hard. Because of this, my group decided to make it so that we take in account for two dice values instead of your usual one. For example, in the original it only counts the value of the two dice roll. But in our version, you not only count the value of the two dice roll, but also one of the two dice value that you managed to get in the two dice roll. We made it so that there was a much higher chance of getting at least one resource during each turn and increased the amount of resources per turn for each player. Besides this alteration, we decided to also add an attack mechanic since we thought it was lacking such a mechanic. The thief in the original rules can only take one resource from a player hex it lands on which was not really a big deal. But now to make the game possibly faster we added an attack command on the thief in which he can take a settlement from a player if they have at least 1 of every 5 resources AND has their road connected to their opponents settlement. This add on we made was a way for us to add more points! With these two alterations we were sure that the game would end faster than usual! Well... turns out it didn’t, our alterations still made the game end about 1 hour in. However our modifications made Settlers of Catan much more engaging and strategic than before. on our first original run of the game, we did not care where the thief went. However after our alterations, we found ourselves defending our settlements more and cared where the thief was on the board at all times. Plus with more resources, every player found themselves doing more creative unique stuff. All and all, our modifications of the game made it much more fun and better than the original I would say. It did not change the core mechanic or goal of the game or made the audience rating higher or lower. 

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Week 1: Board Games! (Part 2 + Review)

 Part 2: The other table top game I played was “7 Wonders”, and this game follows many specific rules. I find it hard overall to explain it still even after playing it! But the premises and goal is similar to all table top games out there. The person with the most points win and in order to earn points, players must win wars, collect science gears, collect certain cards, etc. 7 wonder challenges players to make right decisions based on one of the seven wonders they have by collecting the right resources and cards. The game has 3 ages and relies on the players choices of cards throughout these ages. If the player has the correct resources and beneficial cards, they can win wars, excel in science, earn more money which are all points. This game is similar to Catan and can take about an hour to an hour and 30 minutes, but its competition, strategy and chance mechanic and “choose the right cards” dynamic is what makes this game fun and amazing. 

Comparing Catan (day 1 table top game) to 7 Wonders (day 2 table top game)

Catan’s game mechanic is all about putting your properties on the right spot and expanding it to get the most resources. On my “Week 1:Board Games! Part 1″ blog, I discussed Catan’s game rules and how a player can win the game. In a short summary, the player who has the most settlements + roads are able to get more resources which in turns speeds their buying progress and helps them gain more points. In other words, the main dynamic of the game is “territorial acquisition” because in order to win, players need a lot of resources to built buildings and cities which are points. In order to get a specific resource, players are required to roll a dice and based on what number it lands, will obtain that specific resource. 7 Wonders in the other hand is a completely different game but still equally strategic and time consuming as Catan. 7 Wonder has the mechanic of “if you have the right support and resource cards, you will excel and gain more points”. Like I said, the game has three ages and relies on the players choice of cards throughout each ages. If the player has a good amount of resources that benefit their main seven wonder and earns a lot of money, they can win wars, gain more science gears, and gain more points in general. The dynamic of “choose the best card” makes the game more time consuming and strategic than Catan in some levels. 

Ratings for the 2 games through “Play Forms”

Catan: Agon (Competition) - 4, Aleas (Chance) - 5, Mimicry (Mimesis) - 2, Ilinx (Altering play) - 0. 

Paidia<--------------------------Catan->Ludus. Catan is a game made purely for strategizing, deciding what to built, where to go and what to trade. I guess the only “child play” part of this game is that you can build the hexagon land to however you want. Otherwise it is a pure strategy game. 

7 Wonders: Agon (Competition) - 5, Aleas (Chance) - 5, Mimicry (Mimesis) - 2 0 Llinx (altering play) - 0. 

Paidia<--------------------------7 Wonders->Ludus. Similar to Catan, this table top game is purely strategizing. I don’t think there is one “Paidia” related thing about this board game. It has a strict rule set to follow and play along. 

If I had to choose which game to play first out of the 2, I would start of with Catan since its abit easier to get straight into the game and doesn’t require too much strategy moves besides trading. Otherwise both table top games are fun and great and are high recommended!

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Week 1: Board Games! (Part 1)

Week 1 Blog (Assignment #3) - September 10th - 17th

Part 1: Introduction - I grew up in a timeline where technology was growing rapidly in our everyday society. Because of this, I was introduced to games through companies such as Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, Sony, etc. This meant I played video games growing up. To my surprise, I did not play my first “board game” until I reached my high school years. I got introduced to your typical board game such as Monopoly as my first board game. I thought Monopoly was quite fun. The mechanic of the game keeps me thinking about my next action and every turn. “Should I buy this property or not...” or “should I trade my properties for this other property”. However the game was really long which ruined my perspective about board games. I started to assume that all board games took about 4 - 8 hours and found myself avoiding them as much as possible when i was invited to play. In video games, I can save anytime when i’m tired or bored and start there again the next day. However board games can’t do that so I found myself not playing much board games... However that all . changed once I reached my Junior year of college.

2. When it comes to the most fun game i’ve ever played, the only games I can think of are video games sadly because I grew up playing them. The most fun games I usually play are platformer such as Mario, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, Sly, Sonic, etc. These types of games are fun because it has simples mechanics but gets harder and harder as it progresses. Platformers start off simple and ease the players into the game mechanics then tests their skills and provide challenges to keep the player active and engaged at all times. Not only that, but most platformers have collectables! This makes the game much more fun because it makes the players play around with the games mechanic much more. Collectables tend to me in high, secret and risky places which challenges players to get them by testing their skills which is fun! Plus collectables are overall fun to since they are shiny mystery items that unlocks extra stuff for players to further enjoy the games. Because of these reasons, I think platformers are the most fun games I’ve ever played. 

3. The first table top game I’ve played at Game Design I was Catan. Catan from the outside looks like the online video game Civilization. It has that similar hexagon game look with resources, buildings, and development cards. This must Sid Meier’s Civilization the board game! To my disappointment, I can confirm that although Catan looks like the video game Civilization, it plays much more differently. However that doesn’t mean the fun meter for this table top is worse than civilization the video game. In fact, I think Catan is equally as fun as Civilization! In this game, the winning objective is quite similar to Civilization. The person that controls the most territory (usually there is a set amount) wins, and this board game is no Different. In Catan, the player with 10 points wins, and in order to get points, buildings and cities need to be built. What is needed to build these things? Resources. In order to get resources, players must settle on specific places on the board and expand their settlement with roads and buildings. The further the players settlement is the more chances there is for getting specific resources. This game can go up to an hour to an hour and 30 minutes, but its still really fun and addicting because of its mechanic which makes players think about their every move. Plus its a game of chance! One of my classmates that played this board game with me mentioned what makes this game come up short, and I agree. He said that Catan is missing an element that many strategy game has, and that is an attack mechanic. Catan is a strategy game that mainly relies the trading mechanic. The only way to obtain a resource that you do not have is to trade with people, and even that is not guaranteed all the time. The person can deny your trade and you can end up being screwed. For a strategy game, Catan doesn’t have an attack mechanic that forces the other player to give up their resource which made the task of winning longer and less intense. If there was one thing to add to Catan to make it better, it would definitely be the attacking mechanic. Otherwise it is a great table top game and very recommended for people to play!