Game Design - Week 2

Game Design - Week 2 Workshop

Game of pleasure

The game of pleasure was a simple point to point board game. The game pit each player in a race to the end to see who arrived at the strip club first. Movement through the board was based on the dice number rolled by the player. 

Example layout of board-game

Throughout the game, the player had a chance of landing on special spots - positively of negatively effecting the player. This can be seen in the diagram above (Red dots represent negative positions, while blue are positive)

This game can be analysed further by identifying the such ideas as the core mechanic, basic concept and the goal of the game.

Interactivity
The core mechanic of the game was simply to reach the finish. This was enhanced by the competitive nature of racing. 

Concept

The overlaying theme of the game is so make your way through the dangers or pleasures in a good night out in town. Are you lucky enough to score some drugs or unfortunately mugged - you'll have to play to find out!

Goal

The goal of the game is to arrive at the finish(strip club) before another player.

Challenge
Increased difficulty was created by place negative positions on the board. Landing on these spots would negatively effect the player, i.e move back the number shown on the dice. If you roll a double number, you must pick up the mystery card. These may provide both positive and negative effects on the player.

Unfortunately, the pacing of the game felt boring. With limited activity card it felt slow as several turns go by without anything occurring. Also, combing the positive and negative effect cards into 1 deck also provide better game-play.

Lunar Lander

Lunar lander, a game made in the 70s, is an arcade game where you pay as a 'Lunar Lander'. You only have one rocket that propels you around against the pull of gravity. Although a simple concept, the game is surprisingly addictive. The controls although clunky add the the charm and feel of the game, turning it into something a modern game could never be. 

The core mechanic of the game is the ability to fly by spamming the space bar, and to turn with the arrow keys. With limited fuel and a high chance to crash, these core mechanic becomes much more interesting. 

Landing on blue landing pads will give the player the points specified below them. Moving along further in the level increases the points given by pads. 

The goal of the game is to achieve the highest score possible. This allows for competition to be formed between players for the highest score.

The game is surprisingly difficult. With only 1 life and low lenience on landing speed, the game-play pushes you to be very cautious with how fast you're traveling and to always be aware of the current fuel levels.

Increased difficulty can be added via changing the gravity setting from Moon to either Earth or Jupiter. Increasing the difficulty does however improve the score of starting landing pads.