The last blip of work for this class that I have done before the semester ends is on creating a suitable version of my “Save the Children” game, and a business card because I had previously done modifications on another game instead of creating one.

Save the children game – I have successfully implemented the ideas from the beta test, with the exceptions of more intuitive interactions with the trucks, and additional animations for all actions. As far as those go, I added a school that is drawn on the screen when the player purchases more “education.” I plan to add more similar animations to the game this summer. The more I work on the game, the more things I think of. Such as now I want to include a “goal population” statistic so that the players know what exact population at all times they are trying to achieve, without having to read directions. This will also be implemented in the near future.

Business Card

I decided for the business card that I would create a maze with my name, so that the card has some entertainment value, along with the necessary information on the back.

• have a countdown timer for when the next income is coming.

• Have things on the screen for the players to do while waiting for next income, examples:

  • bring water to a well (increase health)

  • click hostiles (increase safety)

  • buy toys (increase rationale)

• have animations for the different interactions

http://www.worldvision.org/about_us.nsf/child/enews_darfur_200706Open&wvsrc=enews&lpos=rghtnav&lid=darfur200706

I was going to have this interaction be the basis of my game. The player would have some interaction options, and depending on their choices, the child would respond appropriately, weather it be to just carry on a simple conversation, or even flip out and attack the player.

When the time came to create a prototype, the site went down. This made me not want to use this story anymore because of its unreliability, and moved on. I decided to create a game based off of the “Save the Children” program that has been around for 77 years. The idea behind my new game is to have the player maintain a refuge in Darfur.

Here are the specifics I initially came up with when creating the game.

Save the children

• Start out with a small “save the children” child center in Abyei Area, that takes in mostly orphan children, but also families a safe place to grow up and/or live.

• Start out with one hut (10 people). More and more children will come to the refuge as time goes on.

• Money will also come in increments, and the amount received is increased by advertising.

• Player options: (purchasing is done in increments using buttons on the right side of the screen. Every time one is bought, the cost goes up)

  • Advertise – increases money gained each month

    • Start cost: $100, goes up $100 increments.

      • +$1000 income each use

  • education – educate children to increase their desire (rationale) to stay at the camp.

    • Start cost: $1000, goes up in $1000 increments

      • increases rationale by 50

  • Health & Medical – keep the camp healthy

    • Start cost: $1000, goes up in $1000 increments

      • increases health by 50

  • Water & Sanitation – prevent diseases

    • Start cost: $1000, goes up in $1000 increments

      • increases health by 50

  • Food Security – have a large enough supply of food

    • Start cost: $100, goes up in $100 increments

      • increase health by 10

  • Protection – keep Sudanese children safe

    • Start cost: $100, goes up in $1000 increments

      • increases safety by 50

• Three bars to monitor:

  • Safety.

    • Safety related to protection.

  • Health.

    • Related to health & medical, water & sanitation, and food security.

  • Rationale.

    • Related to education.

• player wins by reaching the appropriate amount of people for the chosen difficulty:

  • Easy = 300 people

  • Medium = 500 people

  • Hard = 1000 people

The game will be beta tested today to reach a suitable version for the first release.

• Be able to sell guards back
• Be able to sell shanty back at ½ price
• use dialogue for interactions to give the player more options
  • interactions between military (possible persuasion)
• allow for items (such as food, booze, or guns) to be purchased for bribing military and persuading children
• create two separate paths for a player to choose from a “hard” path and “easy” path.
  • Hard path: many chances for interactions such as sickness, animal/insect encounters, and military. However, if done successfully the player is awarded double the cash.
  • Easypath: much less chance for interactions (problems), but takes longer and is not awarded as much money.
• Have the game revolve more around the children.
  • The child has to be persuaded to come with (can use food, candy etc. to help).
• Base game around a specific incident rather than a grand problem in general.
  • Include specific facts within game
• Battle needs to be implemented differently possibly make it so that guards that are purchased don’t just stay at the safe house, they go with the player to provide defense
  • can also be implemented through text so that the play can possibly avoid conflict

     

I will try to implement all of these changes for Wednesday and hopefully reach a suitable prototype for the digital game after the second testing.

The purpose behind this initial game is to create a paper prototype that can allow for a solid basis for my digital version.

Object: Save kids from being used in the military.

Gameplay:  First you need to establish a safe house; with guards, to protect yourself and the children that you save. You start out with $500. There are three choices of houses:

• shanty – 10 defense – holds 3 guards – $200
• adobe house – 15 defense – holds 5 guards – $500
• concrete bunker – 35 defense – holds 10 guards – $1000.

The player may also choose to purchase guards with their house to increase defense. Guards cost $200 a piece, and add 5 defense.

Next you need to go out and try to find children that are in the military, and try to rescue them. The player has to be careful not to be caught by other members in the military or they will loose. If a child is successfully saved, they are rewarded with $250.

Day 1: The player rolls the dice. If they roll a 4 or higher, they advance to day two. If not, they draw a “Day 1” cards.

Day 2: The player rolls the dice. If they roll a 5 or higher, they advance to save the child. If not, the draw from the “Day 2” cards.

Save Child: The player rolls the dice. If they roll a 6, they save the child and are awarded $250. if not, they draw a “Save Child” card.

Prototyping is important because it allows for planning to save money, time, and resources when creating the real deal, due to fewer errors.

Paper prototyping can be used in digital games to see if the general concept behind the game is easily understandable and enjoyable to the players. if it isn’t, then because its only on paper the game can be easily modified to meet the player’s needs before the final version is made.

To streamline my development process i learned that i should create my initial prototype as fast and as cheap as possible. Then use feedback to help build off the initial idea all the way up to a final prototype.

Rules:

·         3-5 players

·         Start with the stack of scenarios placed in the middle of all the players.

·         Everyone starts with 10 points.

·         The players roll a die to see who starts (lowest person starts)

·         game play is moved in a clockwise direction

·         Whoever’s turn it is draws a card from the deck.

·         The player then has 30 seconds to come up with a valid excuse for the senario

o   If they successfully come up with an excuse, then it is the next player’s turn to come up with an excuse for the same scenario.

o   The players keep going around the group until someone can’t think of an excuse that’s valid.

o   If they fail to come up with an excuse, the loose a point, and it is the next person’s turn.

·         Players are eliminated when they run out of points.

·         Last player remaining wins.

After testing Beat the Dealer, analyzing the players input, and carful consideration, I decided to modify Beat the Dealer to make it operate more how I had initially intended. This is mainly because the dealer more often then not ended up doing better than the player’s did. 

Gameplay Items

Changes:

• Added a specific currency to the game (see setup #2)
• Clarified how a player guesses (second point in the directions)
• Clarified how points are awarded to players
• Dealer no longer gets points for player’s incorrect guessing.
• Dealer now looses points for a player’s correct guessing.
• Clarified what happens when player guesses incorrectly.
• Changed the pieces that were in the box from characters to dominos (to avoid cheating).
• Added further instructions on drawing from the box to avoid cheating.
• Clarified when a player’s turn ends.
• Clarified when the dealer’s turn is over.

Set up:

1. Start with a normal pack of cards, and a box with the different colored pieces.
2. It does not matter how many people play, but each person will need some way to keep track of their points. (monopoly money works fine until the person is in the negative, then they will need to either keep track on their own, or have a different set and/or color of monopoly money that represents negative)
3. Use a die to determine who the initial dealer is; (highest roll wins, if the same number is rolled, repeat process until only one person wins).
4. Dealer shuffles the deck of cards.

Directions:

1.  
   • The dealer looks at the top card of the deck, but does so carefully so that only the dealer knows what it is.
   • Starting with the person on the dealer’s left (clockwise), the dealer has them guess what the card is. (example: “eight,” or “king,” the suite does not matter)

Guessing Correctly:

1.  
   • If guessed correctly, the person is awarded the appropriate amount of points:

                                                               i.      The point system works by a 2 being worth 2 points, a 3 worth 3, etc. all the way up to an A being worth 14 points.

1.  
   • The dealer subtracts the same amount from their score.
   • The card is then placed face up on the table so everyone knows it has been done, and it is now the turn of whoever is clockwise of the person that guessed.

Guessing Incorrectly:

·        If the person is wrong on their first try, they get one more guess. But before they guess the dealer says either “higher” or “lower” depending on if their first guess was too high or low.

·        If the person is right on their second guess, they are only awarded half the points of what the card is worth. If the card is not evenly divisible by 2, round up. (Ex. so if the card is a 5 and the guessed it right the second try, they get 3 points, not 2.5). The dealer subtracts the same ammount.

·        If the person is wrong on the second try the player has to draw one domino from the box WITHOUT looking.

o       red = +5

o       blue = -5

o       yellow = -2

o       white = -3

o       black = +1

o       orange = -1

·        The domino is then placed back in the box, and shuffled around so no one knows where any of the dominos are.

·        After two failed attempts by the current player, or one successful attempt, it is now the next persons turn.

·        When 3 consecutive people to incorrectly guess twice, the next person on the left of the current dealer is now the new dealer.

·        Game ends when the cards run out.

·        Player with the most points wins.

This game was also inspired off another, but it is a very modified version of a drinking game. Obviously without the drinking but with more complexity added to the game to hopefully keep it interesting.

Set up:

1. Start with a normal pack of cards, and a box with the different colored pieces.
2. It does not matter how many people play, but each person will need some way to keep track of their points.
3. Use a die to determine who the initial dealer is; (highest roll wins, if the same number is rolled, repeat process until only one person wins).
4. Dealer shuffles the deck of cards.

Directions:

1.  
   • The dealer looks at the top card of the deck, but does so carefully so that only the dealer knows what it is.
   • Starting with the person on the dealer’s left (clockwise), the dealer has them guess what the card is.
   • If guessed correctly, the person is awarded a point, the card is placed face up on the table so everyone knows it has been done, and it is now whoever is clockwise of that persons turn.

                                                               i.      Point system works by a 2 being worth 2 points, a 3 worth 3, etc. all the way up to an A being worth 14 points.

·        If guessed wrong, the dealer gets 3 points.

·        Once the person is wrong their first try, they get one more guess. This time, the dealer says either “higher” or “lower” depending on if their first guess was too high or low.

·        If the person is right on their second guess, they are only awarded half the points of what the card is worth. If the card is not evenly divisible by 2, round up. (Ex. so if the card is a 5 and the guessed it right the second try, they get 3 points, not 2.5).

·        If the person is wrong on the second try, the dealer gets another 3 points. Then the player has to draw one little character from the box without looking.

o       Purple = +5

o       Pink = -5

o       Yellow = -2

o       Green = -3

o       Blue = +1

o       Orange = -1

·        After two failed attempts, or one successful attempt, it is now the next persons turn.

·        When 3 consecutive people to incorrectly guess twice, the next person on the left of the current dealer is now the new dealer.

·        Game ends when the cards run out.

Player with the most points wins.

To start out, one takes a sheet of paper and the players decide on a location on the paper (they can flip a coin or something to that affect).

Next place the paper at a desired distance from the players.

Next each player either uses a checker piece, coin, or some other reasonable object. It is then either rolled on its side or bounced as close as possible to the chosen spot.

Whomever is closest is awarded a point. Game duration can be legenthend by choosing a higher victory score (ex play first to 5, 10, etc).

After testing the game, it seemed entertaining for the players for the duration of the gametime; however, the game itself does not have much of an outside appeal to it, so people are not really drawn to play it.